Some people just hate Apple no matter what they do, and like a
certain
conservative blogger, they will go to great lengths to prove their
point. I think it is time to come clean about five myths related to
Apple's iPhone 4 press conference.
Steve Jobs Invented the Term 'Death Grip'
I've seen this mentioned by
Seth Weintraub on the Fortune website and by
JR Raphael on pcworld.com, people claiming that Steve Jobs used the
term "Death Grip" to throw people off the real problem - that it's only
a single spot on the iPhone 4 that's to blame for the antenna
issue.
I guess they either don't remember what was happening a few weeks
ago or that they don't know how do a Google search. I do, and I found
this article from June 28 (just four days after the iPhone 4 was
released),
Nokia Mocks Apple iPhone 4 Reception Issues. It talks about the
"Death Grip", a term Nokia says was coined by iPhone 4 owners.
As great as Steve Jobs is with finding the right of words and
redirecting attention, he didn't invent the term "Death Grip".
Apple Should Have Left Nokia, RIM, and Others Alone
I have a basic rule about fights: If you don't want to get involved,
stay out.
Did Nokia, RIM, and others stay out? No, they loved seeing Apple get
dragged over the coals.
Nokia's official blog posted
How Do You Hold Your Nokia? on June 28, bragging about all the
different ways you can hold its smartphones without loosing any signal
bars. Nokia knew damn well that your hand could interfere with the
signal; they should have kept their mouth shut if they didn't want to
have Apple challenge
them.
And it wasn't just Nokia taking pot shots at Apple.
Apple Knowingly Sold Defective Phones
This is the claim being made in a
class action lawsuit against Apple. Jobs addressed this directly by
saying that nobody is perfect, phones aren't perfect, and neither is
Apple. Apple made a mistake by viewing this issue as less important
than it has become.
Apple has a reputation of selling products that are
intuitive (a.k.a. idiot proof), but the iPhone 4 antenna design
missed the mark. Apple's engineers knew that the external antenna was
better most of the time and that 80% of buyers were going to put a case
around the phone. They trusted this to greatly offset the issue. They
failed because it wasn't idiot proof - any idiot could put his hands in
the wrong place and see the bars drop.
Apple did screw up, but I believe it had no clue it was selling a
bad product. Apple, with its multimillion dollar test facility, missed
the seriousness of the problem. They may have discounted it as just one
of those things that happen with mobile phones.
I doubt that the engineers studied the problem, or else Apple would
have been ready with answers earlier. I believe that Apple in good
faith tried to make the best phone it could, but it missed the
importance that this issue would have.
Steve Jobs was honest when he said Apple, the iPhone 4, and cell
phones in general weren't perfect. Apple might have been better off
delivering poor antenna reception rather than create an opportunity to
have idiots screwing up the iPhone 4's signal at will. But instead of
sticking with an existing design, Apple tried to improve reception -
and let a weak spot through in the process.
Consumer Reports Forced Apple to Have the Press Conference
Consumer Reports is a great organization. I've been a subscriber
many times. They have pushed important issues of safety to get products
recalled. But seriously, folks, Apple is facing a couple class actions
suits over this issue. Complaints have been rolling in since June, and
the news has been all over the Web.
Do you believe that Apple could ignore all of that pressure, but
Consumer Reports was too much?
Apple was doing tons of work to present the best answers to the
issue. Sure, Apple could have offered free cases weeks ago, but it
threw out the software update first, which fixed the
inaccurate signal bar issue. Apple didn't have enough bumpers at
the time and had to stall until it worked out deals to offer other
cases.
Whatever. Apple took the time to solve as much of the issue as it
could all at once instead of more wasted efforts like the software
update.
Apple Never Said It Was Sorry
When someone breaks something of mine and all they offer is "I'm
sorry", sometimes that isn't good enough. I teach my kids that you have
to try to make up for things, especially when it is important.
Maybe Steve Jobs didn't gush with apologies, but he did offer free
cases or a full refund to any iPhone 4 owner who wants it. To me that
is at least as important as a lot of wordy apologies.
