Mark Bridge writes:
In July last year I wrote about the ‘geek porn’ of unboxing being taken to a new level with celebrity unboxing (which sounds rather like a challenge from a reality TV show).
Sony Ericsson had persuaded Maria Sharapova to give her first impressions of the X10 Mini Pro. The end result was entertaining, if not insightful.
And now Samsung have added a new facet to the trend with ‘extreme unboxing’. They’re promoting the UK launch of the Samsung Galaxy II S by throwing Dan Sung from Pocket-lint out of an aircraft clutching their smartphone, by putting TechDigest’s Gerald Lynch on a rollercoaster and by sitting Chris Davies from Slashgear.com in a rally car. There’s also a speedboat trip, a stunt plane and some abseiling.
Oh yes, it’s entertaining. However, all this doesn’t really have much to do with the phone. Sure, the Galaxy II S is ‘fast’ - but not in the sense of plummeting to earth or the 0-60 speed of a Subaru. And that doesn’t do the phone any favours if you think about it.
After all, if the best way to promote a product is through a variety of sensational videos that don’t really reflect the phone’s specifications and features, your audience could easily assume the product itself isn’t very interesting.
By all means show me a rugged phone on a mountain or a waterproof phone in an aquarium.
But when you have a versatile smartphone, please show me the versatility of the phone. Otherwise I might get the impression you don’t have much to talk about.
Okay, so I’m a little jealous of Chris in the Subaru. And I really shouldn’t grumble because there was much more ‘tech talk’ at the official launch of the phone in Barcelona. If you’d like to hear my interview with Jim Powell of Samsung at Mobile World Congress, click here or find us on iTunes.
|