Self-promotion can be a little bit awkward. All day the talented anchors on CNBC are able to cut through the dribble, get to the financial heart of an issue, and still sound good doing it. However the news of the day today on CNBC was all about CNBC. The CNBC iPhone App was released today to some great fanfare by, duh-da-dant-da, CNBC! While this is great news for folks on the go who need their business news when they need it (and who happen to have iPhones) there are a couple of problems with this in its introduction, its presentation, and its overall application.
Intro: Mark Haynes was the first mention I heard of this new CNBC iPhone App on Squawk on the Street. Granted I’m on the left coast and I don’t get up until just before the stock markets open but this was one of those occasions where I much rather would have heard Erin Burnett introduce something like this. She was on the program and she may have gotten first crack at it, but I didn’t hear that. I thought that Mr. Haynes (and later Larry Kudlow and Bill Griffith) sounded scripted and not altogether hip to what they were talking about. Which is fine! I don’t really care about iPhone App’s; I watch CNBC to hear about business; not applications for my mobile phone.
Presentation: Larry Kudlow takes the cake here. His style is very bombastic, old style, carnival-promoter and when he got to talking about the virtues of the iPhone App, I got a chuckle. Kudlow began waving his arms and speaking about how the CNBC App is already the most downloaded business App on the iPhone. “More than 10,000 downloads in the first day!” which is great! Good for CNBC (although you’ve got to wonder how many of those 10K were people who work for CNBC and their spillover influences.) Regardless, it was particularly silly when Kudlow began extolling the amazing value downloaders would be getting; “Free, gratis, nada, zip, zilch!”…Aren’t most iPhone Apps free?
Application: I’m sorry but if we’re streaming internet on our desktops, laptops, offices, schools, Blackberry’s and iPhones already, then really, what the heck do we need a CNBC iPhone App for anyway? I’ve always been a little confused about this; doesn’t the browser window on an iPhone have a favorites? Can’t you just go to the website of your favorite person, place, or thing and get the full story from the website? I mean, I guess if this is going to be a condensed version of what you would find on CNBC.com and you’re going to be able to access it more quickly, then I can see something of the value. But if you’re dealing with business and you’re doing your due diligence, wouldn’t you want the whole story in the first place? Rather than having to get the teaser and then continue your research elsewhere?
The success of the CNBC iPhone App remains to be seen. Undoubtedly this application will take off into the stratosphere. But at the same time, there is a subtle majority who just watches CNBC for business news and doesn’t have an iPhone at all!
