The Let's Rock Event And The Hype Letdown: Has Apple Lost 'It'?

Apple's Let's Rock event in San Francisco went off without a hitch this morning and we at SlashGear loyally covered every little information tidbit as soon as Steve Jobs uttered the words and showed the images in his massive slideshow. But now that the dust has settled and I've had some time to reflect, I'm a little disappointed. Sure, Apple did everything they said they would do and the iPod nano looks awesome, but that was it. There felt like there was something missing.

And that missing something, I think, was the extra product. That one thing Apple has somehow been able to keep under wraps only to spring it on an unsuspecting crowd and media on the day of the event. But not this time. This time, we got exactly what we expected, and that's somehow anti-climactic.

I don't think this was entirely Apple's fault. After all, the Fall keynote is typically pretty small and the "Let's Rock" title did tell us it was to be focused on music. You could feel the intended focus on tunes even more as Jobs quickly brushed over the iPhone's firmware update. He didn't want to muddy the theme so he stayed right on target. Yet the announcement wasn't as exciting as I'd hoped.

I think Apple has spoiled us in the past with monstrous announcements that seemingly came out of left field. We're always looking for that "and one more thing." That tends to deflate the sails a bit.

But even more than our eager hopes maxing out expectations to the point where we're disappointed when all is said and done, what caused the letdown was the free distribution of knowledge. Yes, our very blogosphere culture we've come to love so much has put the price of leaked information at an all time high. "So much for suspense. Tell us what will be released next week! We need to know now, now, now!"

And it's with that eagerness we find out all the details before the details are officially released. Somehow that eagerness remains once it's show time, but once all is revealed, and all the leaked info is confirmed as correct, we're let down. So long as people reveal the product information before the big reveal, we might as well say goodbye to the beloved epic product release. That is, unless Apple has something a-brewin' in their research labs. I can almost hear the sound of Steve Jobs laughing, now.