The secret behind iPhone mania - iLaunch

Well, so after all the hype Apple is estimated to have sold around 500,000 iPhones over the weekend. I only discovered today that this success was largely due to Apple's iLaunch product, announced in the Onion in March - somehow I missed this previously! There is of course plenty of other spoof coverage out there to choose from, like this:Overall I would say that the reviews were very positive, albeit with various caveats about missing functionality and features - there's a good roundup at Time. I would agree with Hiawatha Bray in the Boston Globe who says "For it's not just cool; this phone is important, in the same way that Apple's first Macintosh computer was important. The Mac showed us a better way to interact with computers, and forced the entire industry to follow its lead."