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July 17, 2010

The Apple iPhone 4 negative PR saga is in full force now! Any iPhone 4 user that wished for some kind of compensation or some encouraging words from Apple certainly didn't get any of that from Steve Jobs' botched video presentation yesterday. In fact, Jobs tried every trick in the book to do the exact opposite.

While most users already knew the odds were heavily against a recall of any sort, the constant pressure and accelerating negative press Apple has received in the last week over its iPhone 4 mounting antenna issues made it at least seem like a recall could be the most drastic outcome.

But we all know that this won't happen. Not any time soon anyway.

Instead, Jobs went barely one step above the bare minimum. Beginning one week from today, every iPhone 4 customer, including those that already bought the device, will be given one of Apple's “bumper cases” for free. WOW! Thank YOU big spender-Jobs!

Jobs' policy will stay in place through the end of September, at which he said there might be a better solution or, more likely, the fervor over “Antenna Gate” as he referred to it, will have died down... (Really?)

A lot could be hanging on that statement in light of reports that Apple knew about the problem well before launch. But again, just to be sure, Jobs called those reports a “crock.” Wow.

There is at least one key piece of evidence countering that claim though. Why, after three previous iPhone launches, did Apple decide to manufacture bumper cases (thin bands that only cover the exterior antenna, thereby avoiding contact with the user) for this iPhone?

Until the iPhone 4, Apple left cases and essentially every other add-on product for its iPhones to third-party manufacturers. So why the sudden change? Worse: is it possible that Apple had the 'bumpers' manufactured even prior to the iPhone 4 launch, just in case. Just in case? Well yes-- just in case the product backfires in their faces like it did over the last week!

Jobs typically kicks off most of his presentations with a smattering of positive news, but certainly not yesterday.

In a last-minute press conference that was scheduled to address the mounting criticism over Apple's antenna issues, Jobs said Apple wasn't even aware of the problems until after the device was launched. That's not what we read and heard...

There are numerous reports on the Web that Apple knew about the problem as early as May of 2009. One of its engineers even warned Jobs about it in a closed meeting.

After reports started coming in about the iPhone's “death grip” issues immediately after launch, Apple took it upon itself to gather as much data as possible and come up with a 'fix' that will last longer than a “band aid,” Jobs said! Really? WOW! Impressive... (!)

The company decided not to address the issue head on until today, because “we didn't know enough,” he added. Does this sound like BP after the sinking of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf?

Apple determined that a full refund within 30 days and free bumpers cases is “everything we can do,” Jobs said.

Jobs added “We're not perfect. We know that. You know that. And phones aren't perfect either. But we want to make all of our users happy. Now if you don't know that about Apple, then you obviously don't know Apple."

“It's not like Apple's had its head in the sand on this guys. It's been 22 days,” he continued. "And in that time, we sold well over 3 million iPhone 4s."

“It turns out, it's certainly not unique to the iPhone 4,” Jobs said before showing video clips of smart phones from BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion, HTC and Samsung reacting similarly when gripped by a user in the same way.

“This is life in the smartphone world. Phones aren't perfect. Every phone has its weak spots,” he said. “All smartphones do that. We haven't found a way around the law of physics yet.”

Law of physics, huh?

Later, during a Q&A session, Jobs said “no one has solved this problem yet. Would I love Apple to be the first? Yes.”

Throughout his 87 minutes on stage, Jobs continued to steer his comments toward “hard data.” As of today, 0.55 percent of all iPhone 4 users have called Apple's customer service to report problems related to the antenna or poor reception and the return rates for the iPhone 4 are less than 2 percent, he said.

According to Jobs, Apple has built 17 anechoic chambers and has invested $100 million so far in antenna testing facilities with a staff of 18 scientists and engineers focused exclusively on R&D in that field.

Over the past few weeks, Apple has also dispatched some of those engineers to users' homes with testing equipment to learn more about the reception problems they've been experiencing. And, according to Jobs, results from those tests didn't warrant any major concern.

“Overall, we're pretty happy with the antenna design of the iPhone 4. We're not feeling right now that we have a giant problem that we need to fix,” Jobs said.

According to some wireless industry observers, and according to some public relations experts, yesterday's botched up presentation of Steve Jobs actually did more harm than good to Apple's image and reputation.

It might take years for Apple to repair the damage done to its brand after all this 'Antenna Gate' is over.

In the mean time, what are iPhone 4 users supposed to do with their devices? Wait for another 'head in the sand' speech from Jobs?

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Source: Apple.