The Power of Blog: iPhone loses $4 billion market cap

I had previously blogged on the rising power of chinese bloggers and their influence that they command in China. Do not underestimate it even a giant company like Apple had to succumb to $4 billion of reduction in its market cap over a news that reported that Apple iPhone and its Mac OS X Leopard will be delayed. This news was subsequently corrected by Engadget but the initial news was sufficient to ripple the stock price of Apple. After the correction of the post, Apple's stock recovered some of its losses.

None could ever imagined that a 96-word post from a powerful blog can easily stir even the financial markets. Here are the words from Engadget:

"This one doesn't bode well for Mac fans and the iPhone-hopeful: we have it on authority that as of today, the iPhone launch is being pushed back from June to... October (!), and Leopard is again seeing a delay, this time being pushed all the way back to January. Of 2008. The latest WWDC Leopard beta will still be handed out, but it looks like Apple-quality takes time, and we're sure Jobs would remind everyone that it's not always about "writing a check", but just how much time are these two products really going to take?"

The lesson is simple, the business world will never ever underestimate the power of blogs again. Always be sensitive and conscious with what you blog and most importantly substantiate your facts. Great power comes with great responsibility.