Now that the headline has got your attention, here’s the point. The iPhone has been declared a dud in India, at least as of now. So one would imagine that mainline dailies would not give undue attention to something that is not creating a buzz in the market. But not a day passes by without mainline dailies and tech sites writing something about the iPhone – usually provocative stuff. What’s the deal? As usual, trust the Times of India group to lead this ‘sensational-news-about-iPhone’ pack. After all, they pioneered the concept of bikini babes even in the Sports page! And a quick look at the Indiatimes homepage too makes it amply clear as to what is used as a ‘pull factor’.
News about the iPhone seems to be a sure-fire way to get attention. Witness today’s Economic Times’ front page.
The article trashes the security aspect of the iPhone, alluding to ‘recent reports by online forums and top gizmo sites on the web’. Typical of TOI. It goes on to get quotes from two tech guys in India and then refers to the big names on the web. “Gizmodo, a too (sic) Gizmo review site and a (sic) MacRumors.com claim that it takes only three taps to gain access to the locked iPhones”. What follows is not a quote from any of these sites but from Trend Micro.
By the way, I searched for ‘iPhone phishing’ on Gizmodo and couldn’t find any relevant articles. I am sure there are security issues with the iPhone (as mentioned in the article, growing popularity of a platform is an invitation for hackers) but I get a feeling that such news hits the front pages regularly to ensure readership & comments in the online editions. Take any of the tech forums in India and a post with the word ‘iPhone’ in it will have tens of comments. Or maybe there are camps – the N96 camp and the iPhone camp? I guess with so much of interest in the iPhone (and misconceptions I may add), we can expect more of the same in the months to come. And add Google Android to the list of attention grabbers.
