Apple Repair? Not for its Image
After long priding itself on being ahead of the pack, Apple took an odd stance at its press conference today.
It lumped itself in with everyone else.
Claiming that the iPhone 4 antenna issue is an industry wide problem and not an Apple repair issue, company CEO Steve Jobs said that “no one has solved this problem.”
This came after denying that there even was a problem.
Anyone who expected an Apple repair plan for the iPhone was no doubt disappointed. There was no Apple repair plan revealed, and Jobs spent most of the press conference avoiding the issue of repair.
A recall was also ruled out. Instead, the Apple repair solution to “Antennagate” was to give a free case to every user.
Yet again though, Apple’s response was lacking – the company cannot make enough bumper cases, so the offer was extended to include a limited number of third-party cases.
Jobs saw no problem with the lack of an Apple repair plan or the company’s inability to provide cases on their own.
That was also a recurring them of the press conference – the idea that Apple was not to blame. Antennagate, Jobs claimed, was the fault of the media for blowing things out of proportion, going as far as to label the entire issue as an attack against Apple.
“Maybe it’s human nature,” he said. “When you’re doing well, people want to tear you down.”
While dismissing questions about whether an Apple repair plan would ever come about, Jobs lashed out at the media. “What would you prefer?” he asked. “That we were a Korean company?” He claimed repeatedly that the entire issue was created, by media types who “…want to get eyeballs on their sites.”
Jobs supported his stance that no Apple repair plan was necessary by pointing to the fact that only .55% of all customers had complained about their iPhone.
What Jobs didn’t seem to consider was that Apple’s response to that .55% might have had something to do with that.
The company’s original response was that if a customer noticed a signal loss when holding the phone a certain way, they just shouldn’t hold it that way. There was, they claimed no need for an Apple repair plan, as there was no hardware problem.
That sort of response might be expected from a typical tech company, but not from Apple, the company that has long held itself above the others and, in fact, made that a central point of their marketing and image.
That original response was followed by weeks of near silence, and the ‘it’s a software problem’ excuse. Certainly those responses didn’t urge people to come forward with issues.
Apple had an opportunity today to restore its image. People love perfection, but often love someone or something that’s fallible even more. Admitting responsibility and good naturedly trying to fix it? That would have been the solution.
Instead, Steve Jobs went on the offensive. He claimed the iPhone must be doing well because it sold three million units last week.
The question after today is: how many will sell this week?
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Filed under: apple, computer repair