and I’m back…oh my, apple
Thanks for giving me some time off to deal with my health issues which I can proudly claim are in remission. And now I’m back…and have stuff I can’t wait to blog about.
First up, is Apple. Its iPhone 4 launch…what a PR disaster. oh my, what can we say that hasn’t already been said? Well, if you follow the tech space, you’re aware that the latest iPhone is having some antennae issues which disconnect your phone calls if you hold it a specific way. People are pissed, but not pissed enough to give up their iPhone. I could care less about this. What I care about is how they handled it from a PR perspective. Press asked for comments about the anntenae issue and what did Apple respond with? Steve Jobs just blew it off saying, ‘don’t hold it that way.’ I mean, clearly his PR team didn’t weigh in on that response. It reeks of arrogance. It was just excuse after excuse - and one of my favorite Jobs quotes is that this has been “blown out of proportion.” Really? That’s what you want to tell your customer? ‘You’re pissed and I think you’re being ridiculous?’ There could be a brilliant “Really?!?! with Seth and Amy” on SNL about this. Then he says the bars on iPhones overstate the strengh of service AT&T is actually delivering and that this was a software flaw. I have a hard time believing that no one knew this was happening. It feels like a straight up lie.
What? What does that have to do with the antennae??? Well, folks..it’s a classic case of using a bad PR situation to get out some equally crappy news so it all gets wrapped up into 1-2 news cycles instead of creating a second news cycle at another time. It’s a smart PR move to throw it in there. Offering free cases that minimize calls dropping from the antennae issue is also a smart PR move.
The decision to overstate the service however? Bad PR move. The kind of trust Apple has worked its entire lifetime to build and most companies would love to have. It’s the kind of trust that can’t be bought. And they just crapped all over it. I hope they learn from this and don’t do it again. They may get away with it once, but their bravado and arrogance will push customers away if it continues.
What’s most concerning to me is that Apple customers seem to be oblivious or care less that they were lied to. I would be furious. All I can say is Apple customers… keep your eyes open. You deserve to be treated better even if you believe the iPhone is the best smartphone on the market.
