This could be interesting. We (the writing staff) are under strict instructions from Rafe to not mention leaked products or services. It's long been the All About Symbian policy to discuss the official news and not comment on the rumours – after all, beyond reproducing the same spy-cam picture, rumoured specs and “it's shiny”, there's not much you can add in terms of accurate commentary. But the current wave of leaks should be seen as a good thing, in my opinion. Read on for why...
Read on in the full article.
I think when it comes down to it, technology writers and bloggers overestimate how much their words actually matter.
If you look at any area of mainstream technology, what people buy bears very little relation to what enthusiasts write about. The best-selling phones are usually dirt-cheap with very little special about them except the price.
And what enthusiasts write about bears very little relation to what people buy. I've never seen any tech blogs devoted to low-end devices, yet it's low-end devices that make up the vast majority of sales in the phone world.
The Blackberry is a typical example, it's been hyped to high heaven by the tech media for about 4 or 5 years now, but what are its actual sales figures? It will never be a product that most people use, yet it receives massive media coverage because it's very popular with people who work in the media.
If, say, someone brought out a phone that helped third world farmers, how much coverage do you think it would get in the tech media? I'd bet absolutely none, because the only thing they know about farming is what kind of coffee bean they'll choose at Starbucks.
When Nintendo scored a huge hit in the gaming world with simple mainstream titles running on cheap, underpowered hardware, you could almost feel the disgust that some game journalists had for them. They felt that the Wii somehow wasn't "real" gaming, and many journalists concentrated instead entirely on the PS3 and Xbox 360, despite the Wii outselling both of them put together.
The topics that tech writers choose to cover says more about them than it does about the tech world as a whole.
Excellent post Tzer2! You're absolutely right that a lot of tech media / blogs etc. have an inflated view of how important they are.
However, I think there's a risk that the noise in the blogosphere can reach a sort of critical mass and spill over into the mainstream. I can't recall how many times I've seen poorly researched tech news on TV or newspapers that the average punters do read (e.g. Metro - a popular free newspaper in London). What worries me is that it sometimes reads as if the journalist has just done some superficial googling as "research" and is then writing about what they find in the blogs and forums that throws up. Unfortunately, this will be then be read by non-techy people.
Another risk I think is that developers will read blogs / forums etc. and quite possibly be influenced by the oppinions there. In the smartphone world I think 3rd party apps are becoming more important than ever (thanks to the likes of the iPhone app store non-techies are increasingly aware that they can install stuff on their phones). So if there's a lot of positive hype for a particular OS or phone manufacturer I think new developers are more likely to take an interest in it and conversely negative hype may deter them.
Look at what's happening with Android. I think it's a promising and interesting OS but there's only one (fairly naff IMHO) device available so far and the current UI doesn't strike me as groundbreaking or innovative (it feels a bit like a Gnome desktop squished into QVGA - i.e. it's not bad but it's certainly not anything special either). As a developer I would wait and see how it develops before jumping into it. Yet, developers and (perhaps more worryingly) handset manufacturers seem to be falling over themselves to use Android. Why? IMHO online hype has a lot to do with it.
So, in summary I'd say: Yes, tech bloggers may not have much direct influence on end consumers but indirectly they do have at least some influence. Therefore it can't hurt for tech companies to be on their "good side". 😊
Some good points there, Ewan. I'm also reminded of when the iPhone came out and while the rest of us were bemused, infuriated, even disgusted by the hype, Steve pointed out that an increased awareness of mobile devices could only be a good thing for all of us (can't remember exactly how he put it but something like that).
Great article & well said(much nicer than i would put it).
I now live in the silicon valley and have always preached and view things as stated in this article. It disgustes me how the bay area treats & considers nokia. I can personaly say CNET is one of them.
They are so lost in thier own world, or maybe they cant accept they are no longer the world leader in technology or perhaps they are the last to join the mobile race? Unfortunatily true, the bay buzz is whats gets the spin on the world for their track record of core tech. That what america heres and follows. Nokia must set relations here for business and community, as nokia and symbian. Get good with the community and defend for thier selfs. I hear so many cheap shots takin at them that just goes unspoken for. Its America and it requires a different game. To succesed they must commercialize symbian, im aware its not in thier intention in the past, but it requires its own image in america.
-Snowy from Da Bay.