As the clock ticks toward 6 PM people around the country are lining up at their local Apple and AT&T stores to pick up the hotly anticipated iPhone.  It’s a pretty amazing phenomenon that people in this day and age would line-up for a product that they haven’t even seen in person, or touched.  That aside, personally, I think that there are two story lines to this launch that are important for today’s media landscape: the changed social experience and the increased opportunities for Podcasting.

First, of course the American social experience has changed; while it is mind boggling how throngs of people are lining up across the country, perhaps what is more interesting is how these experiences are being shared through both the blogsphere (various reports via The Un-official Apple Weblog) and social networking tools like Twitter (Steve Rubel of Micro Persuasion shares his experiences waiting in line via Twitter).  This is quite the interesting shift in how we share experiences.  No longer is there a need to wait until tomorrow to read the paper about an event – instead today regardless of where we are with traditional barriers gone we are each a roving reporter to the world.  Now, we can virtually experience and share almost any event; either via text updates in the blogosphere, pictures via sites like Flickr, or share videos on YouTube. 

With that in mind, perhaps more importantly with today’s launch of the iPhone, I think we are about to see the next seismic shift in our communications paradigm, which will help the evolving Podcasting platform.  Tivo helped transition us from the VCR, tools like RSS have allowed us to create dynamic web pages that update news customized to our interests, and the original iPod enabled us to carry with us our audio and video entertainment. Naturally, we’ve had cell phones and portable media players for the better part of the last decade, and some other recent “smartphones” have previously offered similar capabilities, but it will be the level of ease that will lead to the iPhone to dramatically change the playing field unlike any of its competitors.  However, with the launch of the iPhone we will enter into the next evolution of our modern media landscape where we will easily be able to capture and share content, have access to traditional audio and video media, as well as provide a direct distribution vehicle that will put audio and video Podcasts squarely in the palms of our hands.

From a marketing and communications perspective, similar to my recent post on The Significance of the iPod this is a momentous paradigm shift.  It will not only continue to change how Americans consume their media,  like its cousin the iPod, but it will also create opportunities for unique niche content that speaks directly to specific audiences, and ultimately force communications professionals to rethink how they share their stories.

More on the Web:
MSN - Apple iPhone A Game Changer For Wireless Industry
Adotas - The iPhone & Advertising

At first I thought my cable went out – no really – I mean it wouldn’t be the first time that my Time Warner Cable failed at an incredibly important moment (it went out right before the first pitch of Opening Night baseball earlier this year) but to go out right as Tony Soprano bid his farewell, come on! Well, I guess like many of you once I realized that my cable was working quite fine – I just scratched my head and wondered what had just happened.

In a quest to find out what that cut to black was really all about – I did what just about every other twenty-first century American must have done – I went to HBO.com. Well, it looks like HBO was the one who really took the hit (did Tony too?) as their website crashed and couldn’t even handle the amount of traffic visiting the virtual home for The Sopranos.

Now, granted, the network and the show’s creator David Chase, were in a precarious position; if they killed off all of the show’s characters that may have been very cliché, and of course that would have prevented any possibility of a movie or a series of moves in the future. But by taking the artistic, or as some online have called it “the thinking man’s approach,” HBO kept the suspense level high, the gates of opportunity open, and left many of us wondering just exactly "What Happened?”

Well, while I’m still figuring out what exactly happened to Tony, in terms of business I think that this finale was pivotal for HBO. In essence, HBO and its programming took one step forward, and two steps backward with the end of The Sopranos. While they served up an intriguing ending to one of the talked about series since Seinfeld, they also left many people disappointed after eight years, and in a sense unfulfilled. At the same time, the network announced or previewed the launch of several new series, which will now debut on the network in the coming weeks and months.

The question now is whether that disappointment will translate into significantly fewer HBO subscribers and what’s the future look like for HBO? Well, there’s no secret that I’ve written previously about HBO’s intelligent strategy, in which this show played an instrumental role, so now with The Soprano’s off the air, will audiences who have invested both time and money since the show debuted in 1999 feel compelled to stay, or will they also go dark?

The Bottom Line:
Look for HBO to experience a short-term drop in subscribers, and some negative backlash for the artistic demise of America’s favorite mob family. However, with new programs set to begin airing, and the coveted 9PM on Sunday time-slot up for grabs, I expect HBO’s genius to continue to live on under a different brand name in the not too distant future.

What do you think - Is Tony dead? Will we see The Sopranos on the silver screen? Share with us your thoughts on The Sopranos by e-mailing us at tips AT mediabackpage DOT com.