MWSF - Apple Ups The Ante, Invokes The Power Of Mac Rumor Sites In MWSF Hype

by , 9:00 AM EST, January 2nd, 2002

Apple's home page is stoking the fires of hype on a daily basis. On December 31 Apple began pushing the hype envelope by billing the upcoming MACWORLD San Francisco as being really big. Apple's words were, "This One Is Big. Even By Our Standards."

Yesterday, Apple's countdown banner page carried this slogan: "Count the days. Count the minutes. Count on being blown away."

Today, Apple's site says this: "Beyond The Rumor Sites. Way Beyond."

Apparently, Apple is changing the slogan daily, stepping up the hype to astronomical levels. It bares watching Apple's main site page for the next few days to see what new slogan they come up with, and how high they intend to push the hype. Alternately, you can look here, as we will have the latest info for you.

The Mac Observer Spin:

Just how much of a frenzy is Apple trying to whip up? This is like throwing big buckets of chum in a little swimming pool full of very large sharks. As has been suggested by us before, any potential for negative Machead backlash when the company doesn't announce 5 GHz G6s on Monday can pretty much be laid square at the feet of Apple, and not those in the community who are eating this up like a great big slice of Apple Pie Á La Mode™. That said, we love it. It's about time that Apple acknowledges the real world in its marketing and uses that real world to its own advantage as opposed to hoping it can wish things likes Mac rumor sites out of existence.

As we said before, we'll know next Monday.

What's interesting about today's slogan is the actual lack of rumors on the rumor sites. MacOSRumors hasn't updated its site since Dec. 20, AppleInsider's site hasn't changed since Dec. 19, and ThinkSecret has only posted a note about the keynote being shown in Apple Stores. Rumors and rampant speculation are flying on the forums, however, but that's to be expected as we get closer to the keynote day. By now, we could have expected some supposedly leaked information about supposedly new iMacs (beyond the stories about the Taiwanese manufacturer's order from Apple), or supposedly new iBooks (we heard a rumor that Circuit City is putting both iMacs and iBooks on 'end-of-life' pricing, which could mean anything), or some other new Apple hardware, but strangely, the rumor sites have been rather quiet. It could be that Apple's famous legal department has managed a preemptive strike against normal channels of leaked information, and these sites simply have nothing to write about, or they could be just relaxing during the holidays. Perhaps they'll pick up the pace as we get closer the MWSF.

Even more interesting about today's little missive is that it directly acknowledges the power that Mac rumor sites have on the industry. We might even say that this little tidbit lends a bit of credence to the rumor sites even though it ostensibly slights them. Until today, Apple's public comment on rumor sites has been limited to and handled through the company's aggressive legal team. We find this extremely interesting, but your mileage may vary.

No matter what, this is really shaping up to be a very interesting MW, very interesting indeed.

Apple Computer