Amazon.com Already Advertising For The iPhone 5 Online [UPDATED]
Posted by Michael Nace on Friday Apr 8, 2011 Under iPhone 5 Rumor
A screen shot for Google's search results for "iPhone 5. Why is Amazon.com advertising for the iPhone 5 in April?
Whether you believe one source or another, the iPhone 5 announcement is still most likely anywhere from 3 to 6 months away. And yet, we are beginning to see some top retailers focusing their online advertising efforts on the “iPhone 5″ keyword. Does this indicate that an iPhone 5 release could come sooner than even the most impatient rumors suggest?
As it currently stands, the tech world remains transfixed on the issue of when the iPhone 5 will make its way onto the scene. Week after week, tech sites like the iPhone 5 News Blog report and comment on breaking news stories from sources close to Apple, as well as people close to the scene in Korea and Japan who purport to have insider information on the component manufacturing for the next iPhone. One thing, however, is certain: no one is predicting an imminent release of the iPhone 5.
And yet, Amazon.com seems to already be advertising for the iPhone 5.
A simple search of the “iPhone 5″ keyword on Google reveals an eyebrow-raising ad, as seen in the screen shot to the left. Unlike AT&T, who has obviously bought an ad placement for the iPhone 5 but has not written their ad content to include the “iPhone 5″ keyword, the Amazon.com ad is clearly advertising for the iPhone 5.
What does this ad on Google possibly reveal about the release date of the iPhone 5? Could it be that Amazon, the top e-commerce website in the world today, knows something about the iPhone 5 release that has eluded even the most plugged-in Apple news breakers?
Probably not.
As I’m sure you can imagine, the “iPhone 5″ keyword is becoming an increasingly popular search term on Google, Bing, Yahoo, and other top search engines. This time last year, “iPhone 5″ received fewer than 1,000 searches per month worldwide. Currently, however, the “iPhone 5″ keyword is yielding 1.8 million searches a month worldwide, with 450,000 of them coming from the United States, according to Google’s own AdWords keyword tool. And when you consider that “iPhone 4″ currently yields a search of almost 25 million world searches a month, with 5 million coming from the U.S., it’s no wonder that Amazon would want to capitalize on the marketing potential of the keyword.
However, one has to wonder if the added traffic from putting up the first iPhone 5 keyword ad will stoke consumer anger, since there is currently no iPhone 5 on sale there. To be sure, large e-commerce websites are notorious for launching sprawling ad campaigns that encompass large swathes of keyword phrases — even if they don’t carry the item you’re searching for.
There is always the outside chance that Amazon is aware of an impeding surprise iPhone 5 announcement and are simply laying the groundwork for their own online advertising campaign. But the greater likelihood is that they are simply trying to funnel in more referral traffic. One thing is for sure, however: when large corporations like AT&T and Amazon begin to target the “iPhone 5″ keyword, it proves nothing less that iPhone 5 buzz has reached a fever pitch . . .
. . . and we still might be anywhere from 3 to 6 months from the iPhone 5 actually being released.
What do you think? Does it irk you when an online retailer puts up a “bait and switch” ad that doesn’t deliver when you click on it? Let us know!
The phanton iPhone 5 ad by Amazon has been changed to read "iPhone 4."
UPDATE — April 11, 2011
While no official word from Amazon has come over the phantom iPhone 5 ad, today it seems that the ad has changed from “iPhone 5″ to “iPhone 4.” While there is no way to know exactly who implemented this change, it would be safe to assume that the widespread coverage of the iPhone 5 Amazon ad (which broke here on the iPhone 5 News Blog first) precipitated the change in the ad’s content.
By Michael Nace
Michael Nace is the Publisher of the iPhone 5 News Blog and iPhone 6 News Blog. He has published articles about the iPhone since 2010.
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April 8th, 2011 at 7:14 am
Irk me? Advertising something for sale they don’t stock? What do you think?
April 8th, 2011 at 9:57 am
Amazon is not selling iphone 5. I suspect, their advt application picks up keywords from the search and and then proclaims that they have what ever you are looking for. For example, you searched for Iphone 5. Amazon sell accessories for iphone and search for ‘iphone’ returned something that had #5 in it. So the dumb widget (as programmed) reported that they have iphone 5. I like the advt widget, this is cool and smart advt idea.
April 8th, 2011 at 10:04 am
I agree, MadDog. I also think that’s a problem for Amazon. When people click on a link, they have the expectation that they are going to “get what they clicked for.” It would seem obvious to us that the iPhone 5 is not out yet, but you’d be surprised at how many people really have no idea. I often get e-mails and questions like, “Is the iPhone 5 out now?! Where can I get it?!” I just don’t think that it’s worth the extra traffic from a bogus keyword if people end up getting burned.
April 8th, 2011 at 12:07 pm
I just got off the phone with AT&T the iPhone 5 will be coming out in June 2011
Cheers!
April 8th, 2011 at 12:26 pm
If a product gets searched often enough at Amazon, they create a landing page for it, even if it doesn’t exist yet.
http://www.amazon.com/T-Extra-Terrestrial-Blu-ray-Henry-Thomas/dp/B003UESJLK/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1302279915&sr=8-3
The google search is probably a variation of this concept.
April 8th, 2011 at 1:11 pm
Exactly John. Also someone said that it is pointless for people to get there expectations burned when clicking on the link. That ad probably will make millions of dollars for google, and a ton of traffic for amazon. Thus, they don’t care what peep think, it’s all about smart economical decisions. It’s all about the money.
April 9th, 2011 at 12:02 am
Bait & Switch? Is this even a relevant term anymore? The entire internet is bait and switch.
April 9th, 2011 at 6:57 am
I am looking forward to when the iphone 5 finally does come out. I’m just hoping it’s sooner than later!
April 9th, 2011 at 11:35 am
[...] when it will be out. And clicking on the ad just shows users a bunch of iPhone 4s and accessories.The iPhone 5 News Blog is wondering if Amazon knows something we don’t. Or maybe the company is just shamelessly [...]
April 9th, 2011 at 11:59 am
[...] The iPhone 5 News Blog is wondering if Amazon knows something we don’t. Or maybe the company is just shamelessly cashing in the hype, using the “iPhone 5″ keyword as bait. [...]
April 10th, 2011 at 1:01 am
You people are retarded. The referrer for these google adsense links is a user named googhydr. this person is making money off the internet by you clicking his ad and then buying stuff on amazon he makes 10 %
April 10th, 2011 at 8:51 am
We know that it isn’t Amazon proper who places those ads. But Amazon allows its name and URL to be used in the ad — Amazon.com. Whether Amazon themselves or some affiliate marketer sticks up an ad like that, it is still extremely irresponsible of Amazon to allow that ad to be put up. To me, it is just another form of spam. Amazon should be careful, because if affiliate marketers continue to brand them as a company that false-advertises for products they don’t have, it will have a negative effect. Sure, if they falsely claimed to sell supercolliders, I don’t think it would be a big deal — not many people are in the market for a supercollider (I am, though). But the iPhone 5 is kind of a big deal to people — they, or their affiliates, should not be advertising for it.
April 10th, 2011 at 8:11 pm
There should be a “Like” button and a “Dislike” buttons on this site, like youtube, but instead of liking videos it would be articles/ what people have to comment on the articles.
April 10th, 2011 at 9:49 pm
Thanks for your suggestion, Ryan. I’m always looking for new plugins to enhance the community experience here, so I’ll take a peek into the WordPress plugin directory and see if there’s anything like that. In the meantime, feel free to just leave a comment and let us know how you feel.
April 11th, 2011 at 2:29 am
[...] Thanks Via [...]
April 11th, 2011 at 12:32 pm
[...] iPhone (dubbed “iPhone 5″) via Google’s sponsored ads. The iPhone 5 News Blog reports that the ad showed up on Google’s search results pages sometime over the weekend, the obvious [...]
April 11th, 2011 at 7:14 pm
[...] marketing strategy to buy ad links from Google for the search term “iPhone 5.” As noticed by The iPhone 5 News Blog, Amazon has already started advertising the iPhone 5 on Google — the obvious problem being that [...]
April 11th, 2011 at 11:50 pm
[...] to fool people, and google bots that they have iPhone 5 units. And oh, this news originated from a blog with the domain “iPhone5newsblog.com”, doesn’t that sounds a bit [...]
April 12th, 2011 at 11:05 am
Michael Nace, you are awesome. I come here every other day to see any more news. Can’t wait to know what the final product is. I too think there should be a like button.
April 12th, 2011 at 11:09 am
Thanks, Undfeatable. And thanks for coming back to the site and checking out the news and opinions daily. Following iPhone 5 news is fun, since the iPhone is such a “buzzworthy” topic. You never know what the next ray is going to bring in terms of new news or rumors!
April 12th, 2011 at 2:37 pm
[...] marketing strategy to buy ad links from Google for the search term “iPhone 5.” As noticed by The iPhone 5 News Blog, Amazon has already started advertising the iPhone 5 on Google — the obvious problem being that [...]
April 16th, 2011 at 7:05 am
[...] on Iphone 5. Shop eBay today!” Much like the story about the Amazon.com ad for the iPhone 5 that we broke last week, this current ad leads to a related search landing page on eBay for the “iPhone 5″ [...]
May 9th, 2011 at 4:55 am
[...] marketing strategy to buy ad links from Google for the search term “iPhone 5.” As noticed by The iPhone 5 News Blog, Amazon has already started advertising the iPhone 5 on Google — the obvious problem being that [...]
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