So I get done my post on municipal WiFi, and I start thinking more about the breaking news that Apple may enter the spectrum auction for 700 Mhz, and I think: Here is PR mastery at work! Last week’s disastrous handling of the iPhone price cut (and the firestorm from all those passionate Apple fans) was something a firm like Apple had to respond to (well beyond the $100 store credit).
What better move than to leak work of Apple’s potential participation in the upcoming 700 Mhz auction? Think of all of the Day 2 stories:
“WiMax iPhone on the horizon?”
“Apple and Google in talks on joint spectrum bid”
“Apple and the open development model: Carrier 2.0?”
Next steps:
- Look like you are ramping up efforts around DC (the FCC, et al)
- Leave business cards on the floor at Google’s HQ, and pose for cameraphone photos in Mountainview (ducking into the car)
- Issue the standard non-committal responses to the press (but keep slipping in how you sold 1 million iPhones a month earlier than forecast, and how consumers have spoken that they want a next gen experience).
This is a wonderful story that can have legs for the rest of the week – run with it, baby! All it will do is make you look like an innovator and a disrupter – brand attributes anyone would kill for. Do I really think Apple wants to be a legitimate contender? No way, but it’s stuff like this that makes our industry such a blast!
