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ctjack

macrumors 68000
Mar 8, 2020
1,544
1,563

Well here it is fellas.
Bottom grills are assymetrical: last time i saw that on iphone xs. What is that? Budget soapbox from apple in xs body?
 

mectojic

macrumors 65816
Dec 27, 2020
1,330
2,521
Sydney, Australia
Bottom grills are assymetrical: last time i saw that on iphone xs. What is that? Budget soapbox from apple in xs body?
But the iPhone 14 speakers are asymmetrical.
Screen Shot 2023-09-08 at 11.17.37 am.png
 

mectojic

macrumors 65816
Dec 27, 2020
1,330
2,521
Sydney, Australia
Well, this "R" phone startup has accomplished nothing with their ads except confusing a few of us about whether it was Apple. No media is reporting about this startup. That Instagram post has 13 likes.
This is looking to be a failed campaign. There's no hype.
 
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wickedrm

macrumors 6502
Sep 17, 2021
261
264
Well, this "R" phone startup has accomplished nothing with their ads except confusing a few of us about whether it was Apple. No media is reporting about this startup. That Instagram post has 13 likes.
This is looking to be a failed campaign. There's no hype.
It’s not even the startups own Instagram page lol. It’s the designers. Definitely weird.
 

ctjack

macrumors 68000
Mar 8, 2020
1,544
1,563
Well, this "R" phone startup has accomplished nothing with their ads except confusing a few of us about whether it was Apple. No media is reporting about this startup. That Instagram post has 13 likes.
This is looking to be a failed campaign. There's no hype.
Well if it is a new brand then they must have had high hopes to be shooting at apple’s date. This was to fail from beginning - needed to do on sep 11 then.
 

NT1440

macrumors Pentium
May 18, 2008
15,091
22,157
It was a wild chase guys, I really enjoyed the ride. Thanks to everyone who contributed evidence.
Honestly, I still look forward to hearing about this "Rphone" launch on Sept 12... even if it's a flop.
Oh man, I missed a lot.

I agree though, it will be fun to see exactly what this is and *how* it’s supposedly sustainable. I’ll be keeping an eye out.
 

Unregistered 4U

macrumors G4
Jul 22, 2002
10,598
8,603
Well if it is a new brand then they must have had high hopes to be shooting at apple’s date. This was to fail from beginning - needed to do on sep 11 then.
Their viral plan depended almost completely on folks familiar with Apple, but, at the same time, not quite SO familiar with Apple’s usual marketing strategy. And in that, they did snag a few folks. Unfortunately for them, there were enough folks familiar with “Apple-like” campaigns in the past that helped most of the others to see through it.

I mean, that’s assuming it was even a plan. Could be they just didn’t have anyone proficient in marketing on staff and figured that one could do FAR worse than copying the “look and feel” of a giant.
 

ctjack

macrumors 68000
Mar 8, 2020
1,544
1,563
Their viral plan depended almost completely on folks familiar with Apple, but, at the same time, not quite SO familiar with Apple’s usual marketing strategy. And in that, they did snag a few folks. Unfortunately for them, there were enough folks familiar with “Apple-like” campaigns in the past that helped most of the others to see through it.

I mean, that’s assuming it was even a plan. Could be they just didn’t have anyone proficient in marketing on staff and figured that one could do FAR worse than copying the “look and feel” of a giant.
This all still seems surreal. Like literally on all the web, it is only this thread + 1 reddit post + 1 instagram of audio dj with a video. Literally no one speaks about it - sounds like a great tip for beginners how to burn through 200K marketing budget.
 

noobinator

macrumors 604
Jun 19, 2009
7,334
6,997
Los Angeles, CA
Guess I was wrong about it being students, well sort of, maybe?

Thinking logically (is that allowed?), I couldn't figure out what Apple would gain by not attaching their brand to it in these ads. The hype would be insane if we heard nothing about this up until a few days before the reveal and then billboards with a new product that they somehow managed to keep a secret so long. They don't need any sort of mystery.
 

mectojic

macrumors 65816
Dec 27, 2020
1,330
2,521
Sydney, Australia
Guess I was wrong about it being students, well sort of, maybe?

Thinking logically (is that allowed?), I couldn't figure out what Apple would gain by not attaching their brand to it in these ads. The hype would be insane if we heard nothing about this up until a few days before the reveal and then billboards with a new product that they somehow managed to keep a secret so long. They don't need any sort of mystery.
Fair enough.
Makes more sense for a new brand to do this marketing style. Their brand isn't known anyway, so why put it on the billboard?
Or, their brand might simply be "R", and the product is the R Phone.
 

TechnoMonk

macrumors 68030
Oct 15, 2022
2,590
4,083
Guess I was wrong about it being students, well sort of, maybe?

Thinking logically (is that allowed?), I couldn't figure out what Apple would gain by not attaching their brand to it in these ads. The hype would be insane if we heard nothing about this up until a few days before the reveal and then billboards with a new product that they somehow managed to keep a secret so long. They don't need any sort of mystery.
I won’t be surprised they had no money to hire good marketing team. Sounds like bunch of interns from college burnt the 200 K marketing budget.
 

Unregistered 4U

macrumors G4
Jul 22, 2002
10,598
8,603
This all still seems surreal. Like literally on all the web, it is only this thread + 1 reddit post + 1 instagram of audio dj with a video. Literally no one speaks about it - sounds like a great tip for beginners how to burn through 200K marketing budget.
And, the documents found in a coffee shop. And who knows, if the Reddit mods weren’t on top of their game, it MIGHT have gotten signal boosted further than it did. The mods here did something similar by pulling everything into one thread and those that were aware of how Apple usually does things meant that anyone coming to this one thread would have some pause before communicating it to their close circle.

Especially, in the face of some fairly steady berating by some that had bought into it, in this case, the system worked against this rather inelegant attempt (and again, that’s assuming it was an attempt to go viral from the Apple angle, alone). It’s an interesting concept and it still has some opportunity to get some non-Apple related buzz as the Fairphone has shown that it’s a concept folks are at least somewhat interested in.
 
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wickedrm

macrumors 6502
Sep 17, 2021
261
264
Does anyone actually care about the sustainability aspect? I couldn’t care less about a sustainable iPhoneR. I was hoping it was real for the novelty and uniqueness of this situation (huge shift in marketing strategy) if it was actually Apple.
 

ctjack

macrumors 68000
Mar 8, 2020
1,544
1,563
Does anyone actually care about the sustainability aspect? I couldn’t care less about a sustainable iPhoneR. I was hoping it was real for the novelty and uniqueness of this situation (huge shift in marketing strategy) if it was actually Apple.
We all should care. Screwing over the planet is not going to be let go unpunished.

You can replace the fancy word "sustainability" with "ethics/culture", "hygiene". So the question would be: does anyone actually care about "ethics/culture", "hygiene"?

Trust me, I've been to places where dropping your garbage anywhere on the street was ok - people just abused it and the garbage would be everywhere leading to mass health problems or just disgust walking outside. The same logic goes with sustainability. Like can you imagine that someone spits right in front of your flip flops? Well it is pretty much ok thing in some countries.
 

wickedrm

macrumors 6502
Sep 17, 2021
261
264
We all should care. Screwing over the planet is not going to be let go unpunished.

You can replace the fancy word "sustainability" with "ethics/culture", "hygiene". So the question would be: does anyone actually care about "ethics/culture", "hygiene"?

Trust me, I've been to places where dropping your garbage anywhere on the street was ok - people just abused it and the garbage would be everywhere leading to mass health problems or just disgust walking outside. The same logic goes with sustainability. Like can you imagine that someone spits right in front of your flip flops? Well it is pretty much ok thing in some countries.
A new iPhoneR would surely have many corners cut vs a Pro iPhone. I’m not interested in using an inferior device to feel good about myself for not “destroying the planet.” That’s silly.
 

ctjack

macrumors 68000
Mar 8, 2020
1,544
1,563
A new iPhoneR would surely have many corners cut vs a Pro iPhone. I’m not interested in using an inferior device to feel good about myself for not “destroying the planet.” That’s silly.
Nah, it is not about that phone but the sustainability in general. If the makers are going in that direction then big props to them for trying something new - I will buy an iphone which is recycled enough for my taste.
 

wickedrm

macrumors 6502
Sep 17, 2021
261
264
Nah, it is not about that phone but the sustainability in general. If the makers are going in that direction then big props to them for trying something new - I will buy an iphone which is recycled enough for my taste.
If they make every phone as a whole more eco friendly, sure no problem. I’m on board with that. Who wouldn’t be? But to sacrifice to a lesser phone, yeah no.
 

ctjack

macrumors 68000
Mar 8, 2020
1,544
1,563
If they make every phone as a whole more eco friendly, sure no problem. I’m on board with that. Who wouldn’t be? But to sacrifice to a lesser phone, yeah no.
Yeah, bad selling point in going green - my neighbors with deleted cats and no car inspections would not highly rate it.
Unless it becomes modular or something else. Or could be alikes like Elon just found a loophole to create a company that goes "green" with the tax exemptions of exploiting some tax loopholes.
 

mectojic

macrumors 65816
Dec 27, 2020
1,330
2,521
Sydney, Australia
Macrumors isn’t afraid to promote and run articles on non-Apple products. It just seems they aren’t super keen on multiple threads doing rumours about non-Apple products.

The line was a little blurrier here, since it was a pre-release teaser ad.
 

klasma

macrumors 604
Jun 8, 2017
7,430
20,713
“Will people know the pyramid goes upwards?” 🤣

Well, if this is a new iPhone model, at least that would be something interesting from Apple.
 
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