You may have noticed iMore doing a ton of Pokemon Go coverage lately. I may have noticed you noticing. Here's the deal: We've been covering Pokemon Go since there was a Pokemon Go to cover, but after it launched it quickly became apparent it was going to be big. Really big. The biggest iPhone-related product in a long time big. We started getting flooded with questions and comments and so, in typical iMore fashion, we leapt into action.
My colleague, Serenity Caldwell, deserves more than the lion's share of credit. She started playing and then, almost immediately, started writing. When we saw the reaction, it was an easy decision to treat it the way we treat all major launches — by covering it as best we can.
So, just like you saw the iMore home page lit up with Apple Watch on its launch, and iPhone 6s, and iPad Pro, and Apple TV, and iPhone SE, this time you saw it lit up with Pokemon Go.
And I'm guessing you'll be seeing it almost everyone for a while. Current internet trends are showing Pokemon Go well past Android, passed iPhone, and right up there with porn in terms of online interest. (As you can safely assume, porn has a ton of online interest.)
What it all means
Why Pokemon Go is hitting so hard so fast will likely be the subject of a ton of opinion over the next long while. With Flappy Bird, the last great casual gaming phenomena, it was rage-of-mouth marketing. Pokemon is popular, augmented reality (AR) is cool, there's scarcity in availability, there's ego gratification in getting the best pocket monsters, there's the thrill of being part of something, especially when it gets you out and about where you can meet more people who are part of it too, and the list goes on.
I can't say I understand it, but I respect it. Elitists may think Pokemon Go isn't as important to cover as iOS 10 or iPhone 7 or Tesla or whatever else would otherwise be dominating tech homepages everywhere, but it absolutely is. There's no one smarter than our readers and our community, and when they — when you — tell us there's something worth caring about, we listen. And then we bust ourselves making sure you get the absolute best coverage of it possible. And that includes Pokemon Go.
Some might roll their eyes so hard. Others might think it reason to burn the internet down. Still others might find ways to use it for harm. But I'm an optimist. If it brings a smile to a face, if it encourages us get out and about, if it helps us make a connection with our fellow human beings, if it lets us rediscover the sheer joy of being children and having adventures again, then more of it, please.
I'm also paranoid, though, so I find myself wondering, who exactly owns all this data that's being recorded by Pokemon Go? The Pokémon Company, who owns the franchise? Nintendo, who co-owns the Pokémon Company? Niantec, who developed the game and it's location-based predecessor, Ingress? Niantec's former owner, Google? And whomever owns it, what does it mean for our privacy and security?
Pokémon Go isn't just a game, after all. It's a social network, and one that's already speculated to be surpassing Twitter in active users on Android. Let that sink in for a moment.
I don't know how much longer Pokemon Go will be hot for or how much more we'll need to cover — I'll let you tell us both of those things — but we'll be keeping it in our sights. Along with iOS 10, macOS 10, tvOS 10, and watchOS 3, along with iPhone 7, Apple Watch 2, and whatever else comes next, we'll continue to bring you more of everything you care up. Sometimes in short bursts, sometimes in longer mixes.
Catching up
I've always been more of a Digimon person than Pokemon, and I've got a ton of new stuff from Apple to write about, but I'm glad you gave me the time to learn about "catching 'em all". The worst thing in the world is not getting when you don't get it. It's death for a writer — but only if you stop being a reader. That's what makes all of you so critically important.
So, I may even sneak out and train a few Pokemon of my own this week. That'll totally help me get my iOS 10 review done on time, right?
