(Column) - First off, I would like to apologize in covering this topic a bit later than I had originally intended, but I was enjoying the media criticism against Apple too much to actually sit down and write a column. The criticism I’m hinting on is the lack of exciting product announcements from Apple a few weeks ago, when it held a comparatively minute press conference to announce "…fun, new products from Apple."

There’s no doubt that Apple has an exceptional marketing department. After all, not a whole lot of companies can manage to grab the headlines when it announces an upgrade in storage from 1GB to 2GB with its MP3 player; Apple just knows how to create buzz, and thus attract the media. You know what, Microsoft could really learn something from Apple, but hey, its Origami Project was an example of a bump in marketing strategies, all thanks to Apple (don’t tell me Microsoft came up with this plan all on its own).

According to industry reports, Apple only sent out 100 or so invitations to publishers and journalists, but as is the case with anything Apple, the announcements were bound to grab the headlines. The invitations only included an image of a calendar with Feb. 28th as the announcement date. Granted that this doesn’t prove much, but the location of the launch (Apple Headquarters in Cupertino, California) does suggest something. Moreover, I hardly doubt a company would label its major product update as "…fun, new products." Of course, it could be misinterpreted, which is exactly what happened in this case, but a speck of common sense could’ve prevented the media from a lot of reader embarrassment.

As soon as the invitations made their rounds, the media (and bloggers) went haywire with speculations and expectations baselessly. Once the day came and Apple released a few average products that no one anticipated, the media criticized Apple for not living up to its expectations. I might’ve missed the memo, but Apple never hyped this press conference. It was the journalists who decided to do a story on the upcoming launch, and seemingly gathered the news from a mere phrase and a corresponding image. When they finally realized that Apple had made them look childish, they went after Apple for no apparent reason.

Related Articles:
- Microsoft XPOD: Apple and Sony's Worst Nightmare?
- Mac OS X Critical Flaw Discovered
- Personal Technology: Too Much is Too Much
- Apple Fixes Serious OS X Flaws
- Apple: Mac OS X Doomed?

- Subscribe to CoolTechZone.com's RSS Feed

Apple’s job is to attract as much attention as it possibly can with its launches (though it was not the case this time), and it’s the media’s job to appropriately decipher the story and correctly portray the details, which it failed to do miserably. Instead of taking the responsibility for unnecessarily hyping the nonexistent story, a few journalists attacked Apple for the disappointment. The lack of immense invitations and the venue in Apple’s headquarters should’ve been enough hints to realize that Apple wasn’t going to announce anything earth-shattering, but that went above the media’s understanding.

As much as it pains me to blame the media (due to obvious reasons), the fact of the matter is that Apple was the innocent party in this uncalled for fiasco. Maybe if the media doesn’t try to makeup stories without supporting facts, it wouldn’t be so disappointed, but I doubt this would be a lesson well learned.