the buzz log

Our ears are still ringing from the prerelease hype for the Apple iPhone. Wall Street's senses must have been muddled, too. Even before the revolutionary phone was on shelves, analysts put a shine on their crystal balls, divining that Apple would sell anywhere from hundreds of thousands to a cool million of the products in its first few days on the streets. Yet after iPhone carrier AT&T announced a "disappointing" 146,000 activations in its first weekend, Wall Street wanted to hang up the phone on Apple.

Now that the hype and hot air have come down to earth, we see that sales were in line with what Apple predicted, and notably outperformed initial sales of Apple's other success, the iPod. The buzz on Apple's phone came in crystal clear as well. In its first 30 days on the street, the "iphone" query maintained a strong position in the top 100 searches, and even ticked up a precocious 8%.

Of course, there were a few other relevant searches in the iPhone's first month, including "iphone problems" (+4,652%), "unlock iphone" (+6,208%), and "iphone sucks" (+470%). All of which dials in on the fact that a product and a company's value are defined well beyond Wall street's jibber-jabber.