Steve Jobs and The iPhone Legacy on Yahoo! Search Trends in Malaysia

MALAYSIA, 12 October, 2011 – The legacy that Steve Jobs left behind in the technology world cannot be replaced. It almost marks the end of a digital era! Yahoo! Search Trends took a sneak peak at the sentiments of Malaysians to reveal what online consumers in Malaysia and all over Southeast Asia looked for, around the man and his gadget.

The excitement and the buzz over the iPhone 4S launch came across as a mixed baggage of sorts, with searches on Yahoo! showcasing Malaysians searched for not only the iPhone 4 but also around the launch rumours on iPhone 5. Queries on iPhone price, functionalities observed a spike of almost 12, 000% and were hot favourites.

Soon after the much awaited launch announcement, the demise of Steve Jobs created a ripple of searches around his news. Within a day, Yahoo! searches for ‘Steve Jobs’ name spiked 10,000% and also there was an increase in his ‘biography’ related searches, probably because of the interest for his contributions towards innovation and technology. Searches on the ‘cause of death’ and ‘family photo’ showcased a deep concern in the searches on Yahoo! Malaysia.

Yahoo! co-founder Jerry Yang also expressed sadness over Steve Jobs' passing, saying "I will miss him dearly, as will the world." Yang mentioned that Jobs was his hero when he was growing up.

Earlier in June 2011, data from Yahoo! Searches had revealed that iPhone 5, followed by iPhone 4 were amongst the top mobile searches. Three months later, Yahoo! searches observed the same trend and spikes due to the much anticipated launch of iPhone 4S and the demise of Steve Jobs.

In the Philippines, beyond the searches on the price, users looked for further information on the iPhone 5 release, even though only an iPhone 4S version was announced. Philipinos were curious about the sale date, the difference between iPhone 4 and iPhone 4s, the voice recognition feature and also about CEO Tim Cook.

Vietnam observed the maximum increase (nearly 100,000% points) on searches for the keyword ‘Steve Jobs’. In Singapore, interestingly, in social networks, many Apple fans changed their profile photos to a photo of Jobs as a tribute. This could be one of the reasons why Yahoo! searches witnessed a spike on Steve Jobs photos. Similar trends was observed in Vietnam as well as in Singapore where searches for the ‘Stanford speech’ in 2005, specifically around the message ‘stay hungry, stay foolish’ witnessed a major spike of around 4,000%.

Amongst things that caught the interest of the Indonesians was the current price of iPhone 4S (globally & also in Indonesia), iPhone news and the specs of newest apple iPhone 4S. Interestingly, Yahoo! searches revealed that users were eager to know if the launch of iPhone 4S impacted the price of the iPhone 3G to drop and also they were keen on the news around the confirmation of iPhone 5 release which witnessed over 2,000% spike.

In all countries, the searches for iPhone 4 which witnessed a spike on Oct 5th, gave away to searches on Steve Jobs death soon after. Many were curious to find out about Jobs' private life - his family, family photos, the young Steve Jobs and even his religion.