{"id":120,"date":"2010-07-17T01:25:00","date_gmt":"2010-07-17T01:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.appleoutsider.com\/?p=120"},"modified":"2020-08-07T03:27:23","modified_gmt":"2020-08-07T03:27:23","slug":"townhall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.appleoutsider.com\/2010\/07\/17\/townhall\/","title":{"rendered":"Thoughts on the iPhone 4 Press Conference"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Friday\u2019s\u00a0press conference<\/a>\u00a0on the Apple campus in Cupertino was unprecedented in a number of ways. Apple is used to calling the shots, and talking on its own terms and timing. The iPhone 4 antenna situation has been a complete reversal: external pressure has forced Apple to talk sooner, in more detail, and on more occasions than it had probably ever expected or wished to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For at least a week, \u201cAntennagate\u201d has transcended the existence or prevalence of an actual technical defect. When my father calls me asking what\u2019s wrong with the new iPhone, or Consumer Reports\u00a0refuses to recommend<\/a>\u00a0an otherwise excellent product, or an incumbent up for reelection\u00a0piles on<\/a>,\u00a0Apple has a serious problem. Right or wrong, public perception of this new flagship product has been damaged. It no longer matters if the defects are real.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Enter the press conference, intending to meet all the chatter head on. Did the information Apple provided convince observers that there\u2019s nothing wrong with iPhone 4? Only sales figures will tell. We will of course never know what sales would have been without this conference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leading up to the event, most of the media concluded that cases or bumpers would resolve the \u201cdeath grip\u201d issue and that Apple should give them away for free. Apple did that, additionally offering refunds to those who have already bought Bumpers (regardless of why<\/em> they bought one), and even third party cases to account for Bumper shortages. Everyone\u2019s eggs were in this basket, so if this does not materially settle the issue, I\u2019m not sure what will.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That said, I found that the presentation\u2019s tone overshadowed its content.\u00a0The event opened awkwardly with the\u00a0iPhone Antenna Song<\/a>, which includes lyrics like \u201cthe media loves a failure,\u201d \u201cthe facts won\u2019t ever matter,\u201d and\u00a0\u201cthis whole damn thing is stupid.\u201d Members of \u201cthe media\u201d who flew across the country on barely any notice to sit in that room and hear Apple out; who were about to be trusted with relaying a message critical to Apple\u2019s reputation; were greeted with sarcastic hostility. Customers who have seen their dropped calls double and triple\u2014statistical minority or not, they exist\u2014were mocked. This is not how you begin a reconciliatory conversation. Perhaps Apple thought the song was a lighthearted way to clear the air before getting on with it. I think they\u2019d have done better by just getting on with it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s also worth noting that, as far as I can tell, this is the first time Gizmodo\u2019s name has been uttered in an Apple presentation or statement since April\u2019s prototype leak. To do so now, and single them out when plenty of other outlets have been piling on, was bizarre to me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It didn\u2019t stop there. The free Bumper concession was delivered with what I can only describe as contempt.\u00a0Farhad Manjoo\u2019s headline at Slate<\/a>\u00a0embodies the moment perfectly, but you really have to just watch the video.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA lot of people have told us, \u2018The bumper solves the signal-strength problem\u2026 Why don\u2019t you just give everybody a case?\u2019 Okay. Great. Let\u2019s give everybody a case.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The Q&A offered additional insight. This comment from Steve Jobs, reiterated by\u00a0John Siracusa at Ars Technica<\/a>\u00a0after appearing in most of the liveblogs, was eye-opening:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apple\u2019s been around for 34 years. Haven\u2019t we earned the credibility and trust from some of the press to give us a little bit of the benefit of the doubt, of our motivations, the fact that we\u2019re confident and will solve these problems?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

This is a remarkable depiction of Apple\u2019s strained relationship with the press. From start to finish, Friday\u2019s PR offensive assumed that the answer to this question is \u201cyes.\u201d\u00a0It is, of course, \u201cno.\u201d Whether you are the CEO of the second largest corporation in the U.S. or\u00a0a general in the U.S. military<\/a>, it should be no surprise when the press reports what it sees and hears. If a media outlet reports garbage, then all things being equal, its reputation should pay a price. If it has information that it believes to be both material and credible to a relevant topic, it is not obligated to sugarcoat that information, but to\u00a0report<\/em>\u00a0it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Antennagate is news exactly because<\/em> Apple has hit so many home runs\u2014and, by the way, received countless glowing headlines to match. Apple should be nervous when this sort of thing isn\u2019t<\/em> news: it would mean nobody cares anymore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

John Martellaro at\u00a0The Mac Observer<\/a>\u00a0concludes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The net result of this is that Apple has learned a lot about being a consumer electronics giant. Their public relations people can\u2019t stonewall. The company can\u2019t both claim that their product is superior to all others, a perfect object that\u2019s droolworthy, and then later admit that it has the same reception problems as all other smartphones.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s lonely at the top. Perhaps Apple is taking it on the chin more than usual. Such is the price of success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I remain very happy with my iPhone 4. I still believe it\u2019s the best iPhone ever, by far. I believe the Bumper offering is an appropriate gesture, and I believe Apple will still sell a ton of phones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I also believe humility is an essential part of customer service. If Friday\u2019s message was for consumers, a concise open letter like the ones we\u2019ve seen on\u00a0Flash<\/a>,\u00a0DRM<\/a>,\u00a0the\u00a0iPhone price drop<\/a>\u00a0(speaking of overblown), and\u00a0the MobileMe rollout<\/a>, with links to the new\u00a0antenna<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0testing<\/a>\u00a0sites,\u00a0would have been just fine. Instead, it was a drawn out, mixed bag that pointed fingers while neither accepting nor denying fault. It was uncharacteristic of a company that communicates as well as Apple.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Friday\u2019s\u00a0press conference\u00a0on the Apple campus in Cupertino was unprecedented in a number of ways. Apple is used to calling the shots, and talking on its own terms and timing. The iPhone 4 antenna situation has been a complete reversal: external pressure has forced Apple to talk sooner, in more detail, and on more occasions than […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.appleoutsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.appleoutsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.appleoutsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.appleoutsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.appleoutsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.appleoutsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.appleoutsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.appleoutsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.appleoutsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}