So this was the year of the iPhone. The first consumer device with a new type of user interface, dubbed “Multi-touch” by Apple. Soon the keyboard on the desk with the computer screen at a 90 degree angle and poor ergonomics will go away and we’ll all be interacting with computer screens IN our desk. Quick, someone buy stock in Windex…finger smudges are now a fact of life. But that scenario will take a while to fully play out…
However I think an even more important invention slipped by almost unnoticed. I call it “Multi-Touch Marketing.” Instead of using multiple fingers to drive a computer device, multi-touch marketing uses multiple points of influence to drive you to make a purchase decision.
Consider my own case. I had no intention of purchasing an iPhone at launch. Yes, I heard, read, even felt the hype…but I’m a sophisticated user, unmoved by such things. All of Apple’s carefully crafted messages, its traditional billboard and TV marketing, even the hype of free publicity the iPhone got did little to sway me. But it made an impression. It made me feel like I may be missing out on something. In short, all these various sources of input touched me over and over. But it took three very different “touches” to get me to purchase my iPhone.
It started with this innocuous press release, brilliantly executed by Apple a few weeks before the iPhone launch. Touch 1: the iPhone was “upgraded” with “optical-quality glass for superior scratch resistance and clarity” Touch 2: PCWorld grabbed a new iPhone and “tested” it by intentionally trying to scratch the screen. It survived. Touch 3: A real user tried real hard to scratch their screen and documented the results on YouTube. They failed.
All three of these inputs touched me in a way none of the publicity before it did. You see, I’m a nut when it comes to keeping my technology products looking new. I still haven’t taken the plastic wrap off my Gen4 video iPod. So it was only when I read, heard, and watched the iPhone resist screen-scratching that I knew it was for me. I purchased my iPhone the next day. And, like a good early adopter, I spent the last 3 months showcasing and demoing my iPhone for others all over the world. I was seduced by and then became part of Apple’s marketing machine without thinking about it.
Multi-touch marketing: multiple sources of input that – taken together – can influence anyone.
P.S. You can scratch the iPhone if you try hard enough…or destroy it all together as fans of “Will it Blend” already know.
We may see a touch screen surprise at the MacWorld Expo.
Note how that the iMac now has a gloss screen. Now I don’t know what material they are using to cover the monitor, but when I touched one at the Apple Store it seemed quite rugged, at least for finger grade damage. O’Grady over at ZDNET says that new displays are imminent, http://blogs.zdnet.com/Apple/?p=1107
Then yesterday there was chatter that a MicroSoft engineer said that the next OS after Vista will have touch screen. Suppose they have knowledge of Apple’s touch screen intentions. The statement may, or may not, be MicroSoft’s way of deflecting hype about Apple’s announcement er it come. I understand that MicroSoft already has touchscreen technology out there, but it doesn’t seem to have done well.
You all have a good evening