A bit less than two years ago - September 2005 - I sat with excitement in San Francisco at an Apple event to launch the Moto ROKR, the world's first mobile handset to include the iTunes software, enabling music lovers to transfer up to 100 of their favorite songs from iTunes to their mobile phone.  The hype leading up to the announcement was incredible.  At the time I was leading the Motorola account on the agency side at H&K and for about a year the team was inundated with media inquiries around the world.  Unfortunately, when the product was finally unveiled, the calls stopped - the design of the phone wasn't "Apple cool" and the "up to 100 songs" capacity disappointed everyone equally.  And to make matters a bit worse, Apple unveiled the iPod Nano at the same event as the Moto Rokr - which also highlighted how uncool the Moto Rokr design was.

Shortly after the announcement, when the media reviews continued to be negative and the sales were very, very slow, word spread that Apple was working on its own version of a mobile iPod.  Strategically distancing itself from Motorola with a few sublte comments built in to speeches and interviews, Apple regained its creator-of-all-things-cool and started quietly referencing its hopes for what a true integrated mobile and iPod experience would look like.  Fast forward to today and the reality in the form of the Apple iPhone is about to hit shelves, causing a tremendous amount of buzz and what will no doubt be an avalanche of sales equal if not greater to the craziness that happened when Motorola launched the RAZR in 2004.  

Time will only tell how much the iPhone will change the mobile landscape.  The disruptive nature of Apple to enter an industry and shake it up can only be a good thing for consumers - other manufacturers have already upped their game in the music space to counter Apple, and the wireless carriers are getting better at how to package up plans to ensure the mobile experience is amazing but doesn't bankrupt anyone who gets crazy with all the things that mobiles can now do.

The iPhone launch provides many great examples of how to build and sustain buzz for a product debut - the story that has been told by Apple has been one of multiple years in the making.  The company understands the power of storytelling as well as the need to tell the story across many years - versus some companies who tell a story in one quarter and than jump to another the next quarter.  Keep watching the iPhone story - next up sooner than you may think will be the next evolution of the iPhone bringing faster data speeds and even more multimedia functions.  The story is not even close to being over.