When you have a 20 minute interview that you know will likely result in a 5 second snippet, make sure you know in advance what that one snippet is going to be. The topic of the interview with the Chron was how effective was Apple's marketing run-up to the iPhone release. I gave it some thought and jotted down some notes before the call, so you can see where I got into sound bite mode:

1. Having been a Mac user since 1985, I've been part of the 5% of computer users treated to the evolution of interface design a couple years before the rest of the world. When the iPod and iTunes came out with Windows support, that meant that people didn't need to be part of that 5% to benefit from Apple design.

Now I have a Macbook Pro, which is obviously a computer, and I run Skype on it, which makes it a phone, and I run iTunes on it, which makes it a music player, etc. If Apple were to say: we've made a little Mac as big as an iPod, and we've included lots of cool stuff like a web browser, movie player, music player - and even a phone - so buy our little Mac today! -- they wouldn't be be convincing that many non-Mac people to get one.

But iPhone more than a phone, and more than a next gen iPod, but non-Mac iPod buyers and phone buyers will buy an iPhone, one that is starting to look more like a little Mac. And it runs Safari, and guess what, so does Windows now, too. And the other 95% are getting treated to something they aren't used to.

2. The iPhone ads are quite effective. I haven't seen a real iPhone, but I've seen the ads and the web site. The ads tell a 30 second story, and explain what iPhone is. It's clear that it's a phone, but it's clear that it's more, and not just an iPod with a phone.

It struck me as I saw this that Apple was effectively showing us the future. You know how concepts of how the future will be have some sort of indeterminate future... Someday, we'll all be using phones like this? But when Apple started running the ads, they ended with "Available June 29". This meant that it was still the future - it's not available today, it will be in the future. But now, thanks to Apple, it had a date certain - and that future was this month. This was the phone of the future, but you could start camping out today.

3. The other effect the ads had on me was an interesting one. After I started seeing the iPhone ads, then when I saw ads for any other phone - any other phone looked like it could have belonged to Alexander Graham Bell. Though they may have 21st century features and styling, they were really extensions of last century telephones. Apple laid down a big gap between their phone and the phones of last century - that comes through not just with Apple's ads, but in ads for other phones.

Now I've been taking a 50,000 foot view here, but there will be a lot going on between 10,000 feet and the ground: the battery, 3rd party apps, my two year contract with Verizon, anything version 1.0, the monthly costs. The initial costs. But what else am I going to spend $500 on? o.O