As many of you will know, I recently sold my old White Nokia flagship device, the Nokia N97, reasons being, I simply got too tired of nursing its problems with low memory, RAM, and alike. It’s a shame, I loved its form-factor, but that was it.

I’m not going to go into more details about my N97 experiences here, but what I will be doing, is sharing with you all, my personal experiences regarding following the iPhone 4 coverage, the buzz it created, Steve Jobs Announcement, the Marketing, Pre-Orders, and my observations of the whole buzz around the iPhone 4, from launch to when people around the world started getting their hands on this latest iPhone 4 from Apple. I will be comparing this to my personal experiences with Nokia device announcements, in this case, the N97 Mini, X3, and X6 at Nokia World 2009, Stuttgart, Germany where I was in attendance.

My observations on the whole iPhone 4 buzz started off of course by watching Steve Jobs Announcing the iPhone 4 at WWDC 2010, and I have to say, the marketing for this device, and the buzz it created was simply, amazing. I have no previous experience with the Apple iPhone, but do own a MacBook Pro, which was a recent investment from Apple, and the whole experience of this has been very rewarding.

The iPhone announcement received a loud welcoming round of applause, and a standing ovation.

This compared to the Nokia devices that were announced in Germany last year were worlds apart.

For example, when the N97 Mini was announced, not one person in the audience, not, one, clapped, or cheered, it was silent, and deeply disturbing to me back then, even before I experienced Apple’s marketing.

After Steve Jobs announced the iPhone, I set about, and started researching around the web for the best resources to follow peoples expectations around the iPhone 4, and registered to many websites, and forums from MacRumors, EverythingiCafe, to TiPb.com, after all, I too will be getting an iPhone 4 next month in White, so may as well learn something along the way. The very first thing I noticed by joining these forums, was pretty much the same when I joined the various MacBook Pro forums, people very very welcoming, and more than willing to help, advise, and take time in specifically guiding you though aspects of your queries.

Back to the various iPhone 4 forums, I closely watched as more, and more people were sharing their thoughts on the WWDC 2010 announcement, and what they thought of the iPhone 4. I noticed most of these people were previous owners of an iPhone, and were familiar with the whole iOS side of things, but what I did find interesting, was the sheer amount of interest in the iPhone 4 from people like myself, never owning one before, and the iPhone 4 being their very first iPhone experience.

The numbers of new members on these various forums was increasing at an amazing rate, and I was taking notes, trying to keep track of the most active new members, and even asked them a few questions regarding their upcoming purchases of the iPhone 4. Many of these people were switching from various devices from touch only, to keyed devices. Many were switching from Nokia, to the iPhone. I must remind you, although I’m getting an iPhone 4, I am not jumping ship, nor leaving Nokia, I simply want to broaden my experience in the mobile world, and even plan on getting an Android device later in the year for the same reasons.

Ok, back to the whole iPhone buzz. People were pre-ordering the iPhone 4 in black, and the first things things I noticed on the many forums, was people reporting problems in actually pre-ordering due to the Servers getting overloaded. People were ranting, and raving, angry, and upset, but there was still a positive vibe around, and although at times, this did turn a little sour, especially when some forum members boasted about pre-ordering more than one iPhone 4 for themselves, to sell on eBay. I will get back to my observations on eBay, and the iPhone 4 listings later.

Whilst the Apple servers started to ease, and more, and more people were placing their orders, I came across one guy who set up camp outside the Apple Store in Dallas.Justin Wagoner pitched his tent outside his local Apple Store one week before the iPhone 4 went on sale. He even set up his own website to cover his experience there, and solely did it for fun, but he received a lot of negative abuse during his week long camp out. Justin also received a lot of support too, with MacRumors even sending a guy to him with some Apple Store Vouchers.

I exchanged messages with Justin Wagoner via MacRumors, asking him why he’s not on twitter, and he responded that he had never used it. Anyway, after that message, he did sign up, so many more people could follow him during his camp out, which was a busy time for him, with various newspapers, and tv stations wanting to interview him on his first in line camp out.

Within the various iPhone forums, things started to settle down, with pretty much everyone contempt on ordering their new iPhone, and then it proceeded with a flurry of high expectations, and friendly chatter across the many forums, everyone was pretty excited to get their new iphone. People were already posting for recommendations on cases for their upcoming iPhones, and I have to admit, I even bought one, the Belkin Grip Clear Vue is the one I got for myself.

Following the various forums daily, I started noticing that people were starting to get their tracking/shipping information, which at first thought it was a windup, or joke, but no, low, and behold, Apple had started shipping the new Iphone to pre-orderers ahead of schedule, or did they? There was some discussion within the many forms that it was in actual fact, FedEx that delivered many iphones early, failing to uphold an agreement with Apple to hold off delivering the new iPhones until launch day. How much truth is in this I don’t know, but it was still an interesting observation.

Of course, people now getting their new iPhones two full days ahead of the release date, I started seeing a steady flow of iPhone 4 unboxing videos popping up on Youtube. Confirming that the iPhone 4 has indeed arrived early. Although very keen to watch the various Youtube videos, unboxing the new iPhone, I couldn’t help but think about Justin Wagoner, who still has two more nights camping before he gets his new iPhone. He wasn’t too bothered by it, and told me, he was first in line last year too for the iPhone, and its just all good fun, and an adventure.

Watching the various Youtube iPhone 4 unboxing videos was great, as many of these were previous iPhone owners, and it was interesting to see, and hear their initial impressions of this latest newly designed iPhone. People were wowed, and amazed by the design, and the sheer build quality of their new iphones, and this was before anyone had actually switched them on!

As the first day when on as more, and more people started to get their iPhone, more, and more were reporting on the various forums, their iPhones had shipped too, Christmas had indeed come early for many more people too. I started noticing some more new videos appearing on Youtube, and this time, showing the activation process of an iPhone, something I knew nothing about, but it is a very simple process of connecting the iPhone up to iTunes, and bang, its done.

In every video I watched where new owners were showing off iOS4, they were just blown away with the new Retina display, and constantly said that you really need to see one in the fleas to appreciate it. This lead me to hound down some high quality HD videos of the iPhone 4, which I did manage to find a few initially, I have to say, it blew me away also, and I’ve not handled an iPhone 4 yet!

Back to what I mentioned earlier, and eBay. I noticed that people were bidding on iPhone 4 handsets listed on eBay, even though they were clearly stated as Pre-orders, and that only black was available, and that they would not ship until the actual release date, crazy. Some bids were completely OTT too, with many selling for unto £1000GBP, absolutely shocking, and then made me realize why many people were ordering more than just iPhone 4 direct from Apple, to sell on eBay!

Over the next days, the flood of posts, and new members to the various iPhone forums began, and I started finding myself struggling to keep up with the sheer amounts of forum posts, and new threads, however, I picked up on early reports of what we now know as the “DeathGrip”, more, and more people, mainly on AT&T were reporting that holding their iPhone 4 a certain way was effecting their 3G signal. Not everyone experienced this, with a 50/50 split in people reporting this issue.

More days went past, and more and more people were reporting this signal issue, and some even suggested that fitting an iPhone 4 Bumper actually fixes the issue. This has latter become common knowledge now, but back when I first started reading about this whole issue, and the Bumpers it did actually make sense. As we know, the iPhone 4 steel frame is actually three antennas, and the problem lies where these antennas are separated.

Even though there was a steep increase in negative press starting to appear about this signal issue, the whole positive buzz was still there, and then thats when I spotted the first thread within one of these forums, titled “iPhone Smashed”. A site called iFixit carried out an iPhone 4 drop test, and after three drops, the glass shattered. Shortly after this video went live, I started to see some real world incidents of iPhone 4 accidental drops, and the owners were not too pleased.

As the iPhone 4 has a glass back, as well as the front, there is no toast/butter chance here. Which ever way its dropped, unless it lands on the leading edge, its going to smash. There were people reporting that their glass smashed after very minor drops, some even onto carpets. As more, and more people around the world started reporting their nightmares coming true, and dropping their band new iPhone 4′s, be it slipping from one’s hand, to falling out of a pocket, or falling off someones lap, even those with bumpers fitted were reporting the glass still shatters when dropped.

Several iPhone 4 owners with either a Belkin Grip Clear Vue case, or the Griffin Elevator case have reported that their iPhone 4 glass remained intact during an accidental drop, so from my research earlier about cases paid dividends. (I hope).

So now your probably thinking, given what I have observed, read, and analyzed from people who have already got their iPhone 4, will I still be getting one for myself?, even given its known issues with the deathtrap, and fragile glass?

Hell yes. You want to know why?

Checkout my second part to this story when I get my White iPhone 4 in hand next month, where I will be covering every aspect of its arrival, from an unboxing video, so you will hear exactly what I think of the iPhone 4 as I actually get to handle one for the very first time, and after handling Nokia devices only for the last decade or more, it should be interesting to say the least.

I will also of course, cover my experiences activating my iPhone 4 via iTunes, exploring iOS4 for the first time, the User Experience, User Interface, and even a couple of applications, one called FaceTime. I have already arranged with a couple of my friends on twitter if they would like to participate in a FaceTime chat with me for this cause, to share with you, my fellow readers, so look out for that too.

I think you may find this all quite interesting coming from a Nokia enthusiast like myself. I will also be sharing with you my thoughts on where Nokia are going wrong, and what they need to do NOW, to change their marketing strategy for any new high end Nokia device announcements, because come on, lets face it, displaying a digital countdown timer in Nokia House, counting down to a date you can PRE-ORDER a new Nokia device is clearly not the way to do things.!

Make sure you follow me on twitter during the run up to my iPhone 4 delivery. You can follow me @Mickyfin, and @NokiaDNA

Related posts:

1. Micky Aldridge Shares His Pastimes as a Different kind of Enthusiast
2. iPhone Prototype Gizmodo Storm – Nokia N8 Prototype Ripple – My Thoughts
3. Nokia N97 Sold, My Feelings on Nokia, & My Upcoming New Device
4. Nokia Bashing – Justified, or Just Down Right Ignorance?

Tags: EDITORIAL, Platform / OS

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 11th, 2010 at 12:02 and is filed under Apple, EDITORIAL, NOKIA, not at nokia, Platform / OS. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.