Proud to be British

In the UK, the launch of the Apple iPhone has been a complete flop, according to The Register:

Journalists and PR minders outnumbered buyers on Friday night as interest in Apple's iPhone miserably failed to live up to the pre-launch hype in the UK.

The iPhone went on sale at stores operated by retail titan Carphone Warehouse, exclusive operator O2, and Apple's own retail chain. The days preceding the launch had been filled with pages of coverage from posh papers and broadsheets alike. O2 announced it was employing 1,400 extra staff to cope with the short-term demand. Even Carphone's PR staff were dispatched to far corners of the land, to provide expert advice to the masses clamouring for iPhones.

But now it looks as if a tight-knit group of media and PR people got caught in a feedback loop. The "event" they imagined simply failed to take place.

It's at moments like this that I feel vaguely proud to be British. Pictures of deserted phone shops affirm my belief that, whatever our national failings may be, we can still tell the difference between overhyped nonsense and genuine value.  In some small way, this may end up being an important event in the history of gadget-selling.  It proves that public appetite for the latest, shiniest, most slickly-promoted piece of hardware is limited, and the limit isn't nearly as far away as some people would like to believe.

So, perhaps now we can mark the beginning of a new age of technology, where engineering excellence and value-for-money matter more than slick marketing campaigns and hype feedback loops.  I, for one, will not be buying an iPhone; if I spend any money on a new gadget, it will probably be an eee PC, purely on its technical merits, and not because I've been seduced by manipulative marketing...