A PR Person’s Take on Apple’s iPhone X PR Strategy
Apple raised some eyebrows this week with its media strategy for iPhone X reviews.
Apple Inc. departed from its traditional preview strategy for what it bills as its most important new iPhone in years, prioritizing early access to the iPhone X for YouTube personalities and celebrities over most technology columnists who traditionally review its new products.
One of the more talked about iPhone X features from last month’s keynote within the Apple community was the notch at the top of the device. Admittedly, journalists in Apple’s hands-on area at the event only had a few minutes with the phone, but several of the louder voices on Apple weren’t of fans the notch’s design.
THE NOTCH: It offends me. It’s ungainly and unnatural. Clearly, the ideal of an “all-screen” design — to use Apple’s own words — has no notch at all. This is not that. But what I dislike more than the notch isn’t the notch itself but that Apple is fully embracing the notch in software. I really wish their software design rendered the “ears” with black backgrounds while using apps. I’d be fine with embracing the notch on the home screen and lock screen.
It’s the front-facing equivalent of the camera bump.
It offends me because it’s not just imperfect but glaringly, deliberately imperfect. But — again, exactly as with the bump — I understand why it’s there. I don’t like it but it wouldn’t keep me from buying the phone.
When using an iPhone X (again, based on a severely limited amount of time) the notch seems less noticeable than when looking at promotional photos of it. But that’s in portrait orientation. In landscape, the notch looks like a joke. I think Jony Ive either lost a bet or lost his mind. It looks silly, and to pretend otherwise is nonsense. I’m OK with this because I never use my phone in landscape other than when using the camera, watching videos, looking at photos, or playing games — and iOS 11 hides the notch with black bars by default in those use cases. But this looks just awful — and that screenshot was taken from Apple’s own video advising developers on how to handle the notch in their UIs.
But just like the camera bumps we’ve been living with since the iPhone 6, it’ll be fine. Notch be damned, I know already that I would rather own an iPhone X than an iPhone 8 or 8 Plus.
Apple’s design choice looks ugly thanks to the permanent notch at the top, but its decision to embrace it should also encourage developers to do the same and offer more unique ways to handle the display.
The iPhone X is likely the best smartphone made to date, and probably the best phone of the year considering the technological advancements it has compared to the competitions. The A11 Bionic chipset and the Face ID camera are beyond anything Samsung or Google can pull off this year. These aren’t the only top features available from the iPhone X that deserve praise, but you’ll be hard-pressed to really notice them as long as you’re focused on that ugly notch.
The new iPhone X, which Apple revealed on Tuesday, is the most futuristic, most expensive phone Apple has ever built.
But have you seen that notch at the top of the phone? Yuck.
Although the Home button has been eliminated to make room for an edge-to-edge 5.8in display and its ultra-slim bezel, the notch cut out of the top of screen to house the front camera is a somewhat contentious move.
These are cherrypicked quotes just about the notch from pieces that were otherwise positive on the X. However, these opinions matter and shape how the general press views new Apple products. The general press then shapes how the public views new Apple products.
Would the average person really think the notch was a poor design feature if it wasn’t pointed out to him or her? To find out, I looked at a few Google Search Trends for the week of the keynote.
First, I looked at searches for “iPhone X notch”:
You can see a spike in search the day after the keynote when initial reviews were being posted.
To put what that volume of search in perspective, I compared how many people searched for “iPhone X notch” and “iPhone X”:
Now, let’s also add just “iPhone”:
Based on just the volume of searches, it’s safe to say the average person doesn’t care about the iPhone notch. In fact, the average person doesn’t even care about the “X” branding when they search for more information about the iPhone.
Why then seed review units well in advance to tech people who are going to review the device differently than say a more consumer outlet?
Don’t get me wrong, I’d much rather read an in-depth review from Gruber than hear what a YouTuber thinks about animojis. But, the general public is more interested in the animojis than they are in the fact that the iPhone X has more processing power than my 2015 MacBook I’m typing on right now.
While it’s a dangerous longterm strategy to delay the technical reviewers, the iPhone X should be looked at as a brand new device — not just another iPhone.
The first reviews will set public opinion, and Apple wants to make sure the overall opinion is positive. Gruber could write 10,000 words on how incredible the iPhone X is, but the negative parts will be what others flag (case in point, my post).
From an outside PR perspective, this is about getting a non-tech consumer narrative out first, then letting the other guys chime in. Apple knows the diehards need days (if not weeks) to give full reviews.
By then, the early impressions will already be set and a lot of people will have ordered the phone — notch be damned.
