If you haven’t already heard, Apple’s iPhone4 antenna is busted. It’s been a complete PR nightmare for them. First denying that the problem, existed, then telling people they’re just holding it wrong. They’ve even gone as far as removing the Consumer Reports review being posted in their forums. Desperate acts of a company who knows there’s a material flaw in the product’s design. Email responses from Jobs, a press release, and a software update were not enough. It’s come to this. On Friday morning, Apple will address the media in a press conference. It’s unknown what the company will do, but here are some suggestions:
1) Reality Distortion Field on full blast
Steve can convince the public about anything. He’s done it with non removable batteries and the impending death of Flash. He tried it with the iPhone4 by saying to just hold it differently and failed miserably. Truth is all mobile phones experience antenna attenuation, but not as bad as the iPhone4. I’ve personally tried replicating the “death grip” on several iPhones at ATT and Apple stores with no luck. He hasn’t made a public statement yet, so tomorrow Steve needs to take the stage and convince people it’s no big deal. He’ll say the reception is in fact much better than all the other phones they’ve built.
2) Recall shmeeecall
Don’t count on a recall. It’s not Apple’s thing. There was a problem with the 27 inch iMac that took them weeks acknowledge and months to fix. It would cost them millions and months to execute.
3) Bumper
Apple should offer a deal. iPhone owners would qualify to receive a free $30 bumper case, which seems to fix the reception problem. They should also offer an alternative free 30 day refund and discounted phone bill should you decide to return the phone. This is the easiest solution that helps rebuild Apple’s damaged good will.
Lessons learned
Much like Toyota, if there’s a hardware defect just be completely open with the public and admit the error. Ensure them you’re working on a fix and offer a fair compensation such as a full refund or upgrade. The worst thing you can do is keep silent and let internet geeks run a muck on Twitter and message boards. If there’s a company that can pull off a unscathed from a giant blunder, it would be Apple. Watch them masterfully sail through this tomorrow.
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