It’s annoying to some that Apple hasn’t published more complete specifications of the iPhone. However, this is just part of the marketing strategy, and whether we like it or not, it works.

For example, one of the things we don’t know for sure about the iPhone is whether Websites, not using Flash, that deliver audio can be heard in the headphone jack (or digitally via the 30-pin connector.) It may work, but there could be a wrinkle. The fact that the YouTube viewer is a separate application may suggest that there are unclarified issues with just how Apple will handle Safari on iPhone compared to a desktop experience. I’m not even sure about that.

Apple did this with the Apple TV. No one knew what the HDMI output protocol was before it shipped. After it shipped, ComputerWorld wrote a rather extensive technical review and revealed that the HDMI protocol is 1.2 on the current Apple TV.

What’s going on here? Apple has a choice. They can reveal detailed specifications before the product ships and let professional naysayers and pundits fabricate technical arguments as to why the iPhone will be a failure or unsuitable for this and that. Or Apple can withhold certain information, build the typical mania and media buzz, and then let blessed journalists and happy users spill the beans in a more controlled fashion. By the time the detailed specifications are known and the iPhone is disassembled (as the Apple TV was), the fervor will be in place, and Apple will have accomplished all that it needs to.

It’s an unusual marketing technique, but one that Apple has perfected over the years. The additional benefit is that if someone, in a feverish moment, buys an iPhone before they’ve understood the complete panoply of features, Apple is off the hook. The customer didn’t wait and do his/her homework. On the other hand, the enormous press that Apple gets from the mystique of the device is a gigantic offset.

Once upon a time, the president of Revlon said something like "We don’t sell lipstick. We sell hope." In that sense, the "Jesus" phone is not a purely technical device. The iPhone is all about hope amongst a population severely taxed, mistreated, and abused by mobile phone carriers.

That’s okay, so long as the iPhone user experience is head and shoulders above the rest and operates as intended. Lipstick performs as intended, and so will the iPhone.