iPhone buzz hits new high on weekend stories

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As of July 29, the one-month anniversary of the iPhone launch on June 29, the number of stories about the iPhone peaked at 26,848 in 24 hours. This was driven not only by the ordinary iPhone buzz, but also by the strong earnings Apple reported on Wednesday. Today, however, that buzz has died down to a more modest 16,488, although that's still about 5,000 stories higher than the day of the launch. As a point of comparison, Harry Potter stories in the last 24 hours have fallen to 19,500 as well.

Now that we're a month into iPhone sales, I'm going to discontinue reporting the iPhone Buzz Index daily, although I will likely continue to track it until it subsides below the initial launch level. Similarly, now that iPhones are available at every Apple Store and online within 24 hours of order, I'm discontinuing the iPhone availability map updates as well. Both are a bit labor intensive and have been edging out other types of marketing and Apple reporting for a while. For the next couple of days, I'll be devoting myself to getting the July Analyzing Apple report published and available for download.

One of the more thoughtful news stories I read over the weekend, though, was one posted by Business 2.0, titled The iPhone's secret sauce? Software.. It argues that all the animation integrated on the iPhone actually serves a purpose greater than simple eye candy. It actually makes the device feel more responsive and improves the user experience. I had been meaning to write a posting myself on that aspect of the iPhone experience, so it was nice to see the view confirmed elsewhere. It does leave open an interesting question though: if smart use of animations makes a phone a better experience, how will Core Animation support in Leopard change the Macintosh user experience?

Technorati Tags: Animation, Apple, Apple Store, at&t, Harry Potter, iPhone, iPhone availability, iPhone Buzz Index, iPhone Maps, Security