When I bought my generation-one iPod I used to work in Downtown San Francisco as a network consultant. I have an apartment very close to BART which is San Francisco's underground train system. It's kind of similar to New York underground trains, but the BART is much more posh.
Anyway, I take this train everywhere. I can get to pretty much any downtown location faster than you get your car out of a parking lot in the city. As such I tend to listen to the iPod a lot, and I tend to be around a lot of people in public all the time. I see what they wear, what they use as an MP3 player or cell-phone, etc.
When I first bought the iPod Gen-one I remember the first time I saw someone else with the white head-phones that are now synonymous with the iPod. At first I saw one other person on the train or in public. Then maybe 3 or 4. Now I see them all the time. What sticks out are those that don't have an iPod.
With BlackBerry it has been the email signatures. Always the various sent by BlackBerry signatures at the bottom of the email. And now just as before, I am starting to see a few Sent by my iPhone signatures in the email. It's a crude barometer of iPhone adoption, but more and more I am seeing these in email. And very telling is that a few of the people that used to send me mail and had the BlackBerry signatures are now sending mail with the iPhone signatures. It reminds me of the headphones I used to see on the train and in public. I don't know if it will grow and those phone headphones grew, but it has at least started to grow. I now have 6 friends and colleagues with the iPhone, and 3 more who are BlackBerry users who are considering it. And I had nothing to do with any of them except that I am now asked questions as to my experience with the device because of that little signature in the email.
Viral marketing 101.
Best,
Alex Alexzander
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