This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
Digital
Apple respond to iPhone issues: have a free case and shut the fuck up with your whinging
By CMU Editorial | Published on Monday 19 July 2010
Apple boss Steve Jobs, the most important person in the British media according to the new Media 100 published by The Guardian today, took to the stage on Friday to apologise for antenna problems suffered by some users of the IT firm’s latest iPhone.
The impromptu press conference was a typically Apple way of dealing with a load of bad press regarding the fact holding the company’s latest smartphone in a certain way has a negative impact on phone signal. Jobs was wheeled out to halt calls by some for a complete recall of the iPhone 4, and to counter what some PR experts saw as the start of a backlash towards the now (overly, some might say) dominate Apple brand.
Glossing over his previous claim that those complaining about the so called “death grip” were just holding their phone wrong, and his company’s subsequent insistence the apparent fall in phone signal was a software issue addressed by an operating system upgrade, Jobs basically admitted that the way his new phones are made means that, when held in a certain way, phone signal strength can be affected.
However, via a video showed at the start of the press call, Jobs insisted this was a fault common to most smart phones, which is why his company hadn’t considered it a big enough deal to stop the release of the device to market. He added that his company had had a tiny amount of complaints about this fault, and that the whole thing had been blown out of all proportion by the media.
It seems that, for technical reasons, putting the iPhone into a case stops the “death grip” problem, and to that end everyone who has bought one of the devices will now be given a free case (and anyone who has already bought one on their own back will be reimbursed). Anyone not happy with Jobs’ apology, or satisfied by the “but all phones do this” video, or placated by the free case, can get a full refund for their phone. So that’s alright then.
Whether his speech will placate the iPhone owners and consumer rights groups who have kicked up a fuss about the “death grip” isn’t clear, but Jobs once again impressed PR experts and, perhaps more importantly, the Financial Times says that city types – who had remained confident regarding Apple despite the mounting crisis – seem to have been fully reassured. Certainly the company’s share price hasn’t been too badly hit.
This despite the bosses of Apple’s rivals taking to the media circuit on the weekend to deny their products share the weaknesses of the iPhone 4. The bosses of Blackberry owners RIM told reporters: “Apple’s attempt to draw RIM into Apple’s self-made debacle is unacceptable. Apple’s claims about RIM products appear to be deliberate attempts to distort the public’s understanding of an antenna design issue and to deflect attention from Apple’s difficult situation”. Nokia meanwhile said in a statement “we prioritise antenna performance over physical design if they are ever in conflict”.
But as is so often the case – and this must be really irritating for Apple’s competitors – no one really noticed the rebuttal’s of Jobs’ claims of industry wide antenna issues. Of course, choosing to do their big press call on a Friday helped to reduce the impact of competitor responses, though the fact media types remain in awe of Jobs was another factor. It must be the jumpers.
