iPhone buzz remains above the 20,000 mark as critics ramp up stories

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We're seeing roughly 200 more stories on the iPhone today than yesterday on Google News, with the iPhone Buzz Index hitting 21,755 this morning. The top news story is that analysts are predicting that Apple is working on a smaller, cheaper version of the iPhone they've dubbed "iPhone nano." I'll save my reaction to the details of that prediction for a following post, but along the same lines, I'm going to predict that the sun might rise tomorrow as well.

I'm also noticing a lot of reporters trying to find a ways to criticize the iPhone phenomenon. For example, I'm constantly amazed at how many stories there are that continue to complain about the cost of a two-year AT&T contract with unlimited data, despite the fact that this is a common bundling practice for new handsets and that you'd pay similar amounts for Treo or Blackberry service. And the complaints about AT&T's EDGE network keep coming, with PC World claiming it's an albatross without any examination of what applications they are running that demand high bandwidth access and how those perform on the iPhone. And finally, the rundown wouldn't be complete without articles breathlessly describing an iPhone-killer, in this case, a Linux-based phone. The irony of all this is, of course, that the more articles that reporters write using the word iPhone -- both good and ill -- the more they promote the iPhone brand and product awareness. And judging from reactions I've seen from people actually trying and using an iPhone, once someone tries an iPhone instead of reading an article about it and compares it with their current cell phone experience, they're sold regardless of what they have read.

Technorati Tags: Apple, at&t, iPhone, iPhone Buzz Index, iPhone nano