When it comes to drastic, some people are there when it comes to getting the newest Apple iPhone. consider Rob Shoesmith, a man from the United Kingdom. he is waiting for the iPhone 5 to arrive and has dedicated a month of his life to the task.
Rob Shoesmith is tweeting and blogging his way to success in what what he calls “the iPhone 5 Experiment”. he says he is impassioned about marketing and public relations. When it comes to public relations, he is going to have plenty, since a public place, a sidewalk, will be his home for a month. he is having a good measure of success, since he already has had a lead story on the Tech Crunch site. one of the ways he did it was to make a commitment on his blog that he would not spend money on anything he takes with him on his month long wait. he asked for people to donate what he uses and he will be giving reviews on the products.
It may be a brilliant move on the part of Shoesmith, but time will tell. His city of choice, London, is currently under a severe outbreak of rioting. nevertheless, he is tweeting away, seemingly unperturbed by the burning of buses and buildings in his city. His bravery ( or apathy ) has turned out to be rather lucrative. Companies are sending him stuff daily. he even gets the use of a free vehicle during his “camping” experience. Some of the items he gets range from shampoo, to solar powered iPhone chargers, to large boxes of candy, to “garden gnomes”.
The lack of a bathroom and shower have Shoesmith feeling “grim”, he says. the tent plus camping in the woods would be a bit more agreeable with the basic needs of the body, but this man has a point to make. he actually works at marketing for a company called “Medl Mobile”. His sudden urge to camp out in front of an Apple store to wait for the iPhone 5 is therefore suspect. His company makes iPhone apps, and as Paul Harvey would say; “now you know the rest of the story.”. the Medl Company describes themseves as incubators, developers, accumulators and marketers of mobile technology. many people believe Shoesmith is not so much out to be the first person to buy an iPhone 5, but instead a true marketer looking to make a “splash”.
If the iPhone 5 happens to not be released in the next month, Rob Shoesmith will be the recipient of hundreds of dollars of free stuff to take back to his flat. Either way, he ends up being the winner.