Instead of its usual method of sending a few products to tech reviewers and mostly letting the device speak for itself, Apple is taking a decidedly different approach with the iPhone X, sending the new phone out to a wide swath of publications and angering some of the dedicated tech bloggers. John Gruber over at Daring Fireball seemed particularly bent out of shape, ripping reviews from publications and YouTube celebrities that he didn’t find up to the usual standards.
Recode remarked on Apple letting YouTubers jump the line as well, saying “For many of us, they won’t replace the utility of more sophisticated reviews, which are supposed to tell us whether the iPhone X is worth our $1,000. They’re not great videos, frankly.”
Apple is clearly courting a new market outside of the usual circle of tech junkies and early adopters, but it’s also leveraging its usual suspects in new ways.
While the company usually doesn’t have to work too hard to promote its new devices, today Apple released a roundup of the top favorable quotes from sites like CNET, The Verge and TechCrunch. While Apple has dabbled in expanding its promotional strategy before—like when it blitzed the fashion industry trying to sell the Apple Watch as a fashion statement as well as a device—this kind of all-out promotion is very new for the company, so we’ll have to wait and see how it pays off when retail sales begin Friday.
