And the Big News Is… Free Cases? WTF? [Opinion]

By Leander Kahney (12:36 pm, Jul 16 2010)

Steve Jobs’ press conference this morning tried to address two problems: reception and perception.

He failed on both counts.

Reception: At the beginning of the conference, Jobs said there is no problem with the iPhone that isn’t shared by all smartphones. Wrap your hand around any smartphone and the signal drops. Look, we’re all equally bad, he said.

This just doesn’t wash. It may be true for some smartphones, but not all. The iPhone 3G and 3GS, for example, don’t see the same signal degradation.

Then he made a better argument: It’s not a problem in day-to-day use. “Most of our customers are not experiencing this problem,” he said. “In actual use, they never encounter it.”

This is true. I have an iPhone 4, and I can make the signal drop precipitously if I put my finger across the antenna gap. In everyday use, it works fine. I surf the net, send emails and yak it up. It occasionally drops calls, but that’s cell phones. Am I going to return it? No way. It’s the best iPhone I’ve owned. I love it.

But the problem still remains. Most iPhone 4 users can put their fingers across the antenna gap and watch the signal degrade.

Perception: Which brings us to the problem of perception. Rightly or wrongly, the antenna problem is firmly associated with the iPhone 4. It’s entrenched. Did Jobs allay consumer’s fears about a hardware flaw, or offer a good solution to the prblem? No, he did not.

“We’ve been trying to understand this so when we solve it, we really solve it, not slap a Band-Aid on it,” he said.

His solution — offering customers a free Bumper case — is a Band-Aid solution par excellence. If a Bumper isn’t a Band-Aid, I don’t know what is.

And there’s the rub: Jobs is right about the issue being a non-issue; but he still had to offer a better, more satisfying solution than a free case.

The only real solution to this problem is a new hardware design. It’s clear that Apple is already working this. Jobs hinted that the antenna is already being redesigned: “We will continue to work on more advanced antenna designs that don’t have this problem or put this problem in an out of the way place,” he said.

But Apple is in the middle of a huge international roll-out. There are millions of iPhone 4s already in the channel for overseas consumers. He can’t possibly risk wrecking that.

He’s prudent to try and find a low-cost solution to the problem, but nothing has really been resolved.

The problem remains: the iPhone 4”s reception drops when you put your fingers across the antenna. There is still the strong perception of an antenna problem with the hardware.

The only resolution is a new hardware design and a soft recall. Jobs also hinted this may be a possibility. ““You know when you love your customers as much as we do, nothing is off the table,” he said.

Jobs should have said that Apple is working on a new design. It won’t be available until September; and when it is, we will replace all current iPhone 4s with the new handset. In the meantime, here’s a free case to tide you over.

71 comments »

About the author

Leander Kahney is the editor and publisher of Cult of Mac, and author of three books about technology culture: Inside Steve’s Brain, the New York Times bestseller about Steve Jobs; Cult of Mac; and Cult of iPod. Leander has written for Wired, MacWeek, Scientific American, and The Guardian in London. Follow Leander on Twitter @lkahney and Facebook.

(sorry, you need Javascript to see this e-mail address)| Read more posts by Leander Kahney.

Posted in Apple, iPhone, Opinions |

Zaq
Bottom line: Every Apple news site is turning against Steve Jobs to gain more media attention. They did it before today and now that he came out and put them in their places they’re just more upset. This article is very amateur, Steve Jobs handled this the best way possible and I am SO glad they played the iPhone 4 song, this is just all not that big of a deal and I think its time we talk about how incredible the iPhone 4 actually is.
Figurative
Apple did everything right today. Still, some crapehangers aren’t happy.
It’s an interesting cultural phenomenon how certain people like to exaggerate and hype issues just to make some minor point or to get attention (i.e. Chucky Schumer).
Apple explained the problem.
Apple showed that it was a miniscule number of people affected.
Apple gave all owner a free case.
Apple offered anyone not satisfied to give them their money back with no restocking fees.
What else could they have done.
The whiners will keep on whining about evil big companies like Apple and demand something more.
Figurative
Leander wrote…
Jobs should have said that Apple is working on a new design. It wonâ€™t be available until September; and when it is, we will replace all current iPhone 4s with the new handset. In the meantime, hereâ€™s a free case to tide you over.
Really? You think that?
Well, I’ll tell you something. If Jobs would have done that, then I as an Apple shareholder could have sued him for delibrately damaging the company.
No CEO in their right mind would EVER say such an idiotic comment. Why would they knowingly kill off sales and damage a great product’s reputation by saying something that stupid?!
Let me repeat…
The vast majority of iPhone 4 customers LOVE their product and are having ZERO problems.
Anyone who wants one – can get a FREE case.
If they’re still not happy they can get their MONEY BACK.
This nonsense from wacky journalists is getting real annoying.
Mariano
I agree with Leander:
This “Jobs should have said that Apple is working on a new design. It wonâ€™t be available until September; and when it is, we will replace all current iPhone 4s with the new handset. In the meantime, hereâ€™s a free case to tide you over.” is the most idiotic proposed solution I read thus far…it even seems like a joke.
Cheers
Mariano
Jake
The hilarious thing about this site is seeing all of these apologetic comments.
People!
The phone is flawed. Apple made a mistake. It IS a real issue. It IS NOT as common among other smartphones as your “benevolent” overlord makes out. Every Apple press conference is full of spin. Stop apologising for your beloved company and acknowledge their flaws and shortcomings. Overcompensation is all I can see in these comments.
Just because Leander is capable of looking at Apple objectively (I would bloody hope so given he’s been at this for some bloody time) doesn’t mean you have to ride in on a shining aluminium-unibody steed to defend the honour of your currently failing (in the PR sense, not the fiscal sense) electronics company.
I swear, most of the hits on this site must come from drones like the ones I see in this comment thread, rushing to defend their beloved overlords from the tyranny of *GASP* criticism, and who’s zealousness makes them incapable of seeing the forest for the trees.
Cognitive Dissonance. Look it up.
CPDubbleU (twitter)
I’m so tired of COM’s random shitty blog posts. My time is too valuable to continue being lured to the site with blatantly incorrect headlines designed just to produce hits and generate ad revenue. There is no news here that I can’t get from other sources and opinion pieces like this one are ridiculous and hypocritical. I am deleting this feed from my newsreader right now.
http://menendezpoo.com Jm
Man, I hope you learned something about all the comments on this entry….
LOL
Sameet
Kahney. You’re a crazy, warm time hero’s fool.
Joseph
“Rightly or wrongly, the antenna problem is firmly associated with the iPhone 4. Itâ€™s entrenched. Did Jobs allay consumerâ€™s fears about a hardware flaw, or offer a good solution to the prblem? No, he did not.”
“Steve Jobsâ€™ press conference this morning tried to address two problems: reception and perception. He failed on both counts.”
Leander:
Honestly, what a self-serving fucking post. You (and this blog) have contributed to the perception problem – even though only a tiny percentage of users actually have the problem. Is the antenna problem is firmly associated with the phone? Or is it just associated in your mind, with no basis in fact, as you’ve essentially admitted in previous posts? You were even pushing the ridiculous “inevitable recall” nonsense. The continuing high sales and low return numbers iPhone 4 show that actual users and customers DO NOT have any problem. And the less than 1% that claim to have a problem, can get a refund. WTF is the problem?
Are you are listening to your ‘users’, meaning your readers? Reading the comments above, most of them are telling you that this story is much ado about nothing. If you’re going to continue to report on it, how about giving your readers something more than baseless and self-serving hype and spin.
Joseph
Leander:
2 questions in the interest of transparency. Are you using an iPhone 4? Are you experiencing antenna problems?
charli
actually Jobs is right. it is mainly perception. Too many people who don’t understand cell phones believe that the bars = reception when they don’t. So if the bars go down, they perceive that they have a reception issue. Even if they can make and receive calls just fine.
And it has become entrenched that the solution to this ‘major issue’ is a case. So rather than try to convince folks otherwise, they are just going to give folks what they are yelling for. Why not, it won’t cost them that much. And the good half of the folks will have their problem solved.
Meanwhile the haters will simply return their phones and be done with it. And the haters that haven’t gotten theirs yet will take their names off the lists and allow a few other folks to get a phone a little sooner perhaps
steven
Jake,
Your delusional and need a pill.
steffenjobs
KAHNEY: ‘Jobs should have said that Apple is working on a new design. It wonâ€™t be available until September; and when it is, we will replace all current iPhone 4s with the new handset. In the meantime, hereâ€™s a free case to tide you over.’
BINGO!! This is EXACTLY how Jobs Inc. could have put this issue to rest. But as you mention, they’re in the midst of a massive global rollout and $$$ prevented them from doing so. It’s unfortunate as Apple could have actually enhanced their reputation through all this, but instead we just got more hubris and cynicism from Stevo. Very disappointing and this will ultimately just lead to more bad PR.
Scott
0,55% have called about issues….people, get over it. This has been blown out of proportion by the press. Time to move on.
Garland2
Steve Jobs did a great job at addressing this over-hyped non-issue with facts yesterday and I hope we all get on with it now.
iPhone 4 is a fab phone and an extraordinary gadget with many haters who obviously don’t care enough about other phones to report similar problems they have. And why isn’t anyone still blaming the networks over this antenna thing is beyond me; the fact is right there: the reported problem can only be experienced in low signal areas, so let’s put this to the networks (are you listenimg O2?) to sort themselves out!!!
Joseph
“BINGO!! This is EXACTLY how Jobs Inc. could have put this issue to rest.”
As if it would have put the issue to rest. First, it’s impractical. You don’t put your product pipelines on hold for 2 months to fix a problem that hardly any customers are complaining about. And how does Leander now the phone can be resigned in 2 months? Honestly, what nonsense. It’s only because he’s a blogger and not an engineer that he can recommend such a simplistic solution so cavalierly.
And even if they could do a redesign in 2 months, all it would do is drag out the story for those 2 months, and then likely another month after that. Imagine the endless stories speculating what the redesign will be like, will Apple succeed or will they fail? This blog and other blogs would spend 2 months building up the drama. Then, after the release, if it wasn’t absolutely perfect, they’d go into another round of stories bashing Apple for not having made the perfect phone, even though it blows away competitors.
The media are like spoiled children. Give them what they want and they’ll just whine and cry louder. So instead of listening to the blog noise, the best thing Apple can do is to ignore it. Ignore these trash stories and after a couple weeks the bloggers will get bored and move onto something else conveniently forgetting all the nonsense they were spouting.
Meanwhile, the iPhone 4 will continue to be break sales records and receive the highest consumer satisfaction ratings. But hey, sales and consumer satisfaction levels mean nothing, right?
Sean Peters
@jake: slow clap. I continue to be amazed at the depth of absolutely rabid fanboyism displayed here and elsewhere. Whenever anything negative is said about Apple, about all you hear are variations on the themes of “lalala I CAN’T HEAR YOU!!!1!”, “You must be literally insane to think that”, and “you shouldn’t be allowed to say such things”.
Maybe (I know it’s a lot to ask) we could be realistic about this thing. The iPhone 4 is a really great device with a moderately serious flaw: its antenna performance is unacceptably bad for some users. Many of those users like the other aspects of the phone well enough not to return it, or have mitigated the problem with cases/bumpers. I tend to think that a general recall is probably excessive given that a free case pretty much corrects the problem, but advocating such a recall is not exactly a beyond-the-pale position to take.
People ought to acknowledge that Apple in general and Steve in particular have been acting like douches with respect to this thing – pretending it’s not a problem, casting blame on the users for “holding it wrong”, wanking at the press conference about how the press has been mean to them, etc. This is my biggest annoyance with the Apple world – Steve thinks that he’s literally incapable of doing anything wrong, and the no-kidding “Cult of Mac” (and iPhone) only enables this tendency of his.
Rick
No estoy de acuerdo con lo que escribiÃ³ SiliconTlaco. Mi iPhone 4 tiene el mismo problema que otros ya han descrito ampliamente y que es obviamente algo real e importante para usuarios como yo. La soluciÃ³n no queda en bandas de goma – que sÃ sirven nomÃ¡s como vendas temporÃ¡neas. La respuesta ha de ser un reemplazo de un producto que es defectuoso por cualquier modo que mejor sirva los intereses de los usuarios.
jonathan
I guess all the gadget blogs are getting what they want.. which is view hits on their website. I guess we are the suckers for getting into this too much rather than enjoying the phone itself. For now bye cult of mac, u just lost a reader.
Kaye
I just had it up to here with all the whining about the iPhone 4′s antenna issue. If you do not like it, get a refund! Or better yet, DO NOT BUY IT if that bothers you that much. Jeez.
Jason
Media attention with something like this is a given. It’s like celebrity news for the tech world. Apple made a mistake, then made more mistakes on top of that which tarnished their reputation. Now, they’ve got to deal with it like any other company did. No one who’s complained about the amount of press the issue has received would say a thing about a media frenzy aimed and the Android OS, and that’s fact.
I’d be willing to bet those people who believe that the news reports of the iPhone 4 problems (which exist and which have loosely, carelessly and poorly covered up with lame excuses by Apple) are excessive would say the exact opposite had it been the Android under fire. The tone would read more like “it’s right that the company should have to come under scrutiny for such a large mistake, I mean who do they think they are?”
Faced with the same opinion and outrage from customers who are having major problems with the phone, and there are a lot even if you do choose to ignore them, I think that continued coverage is understandable and validated. I think Apple should bite the bullet and make a recall of the phones, then fix them!