Last Friday’s Apple iPhone 4 antenna press conference was amazing. Steve Jobs put on a masterful performance to quell the rage generated by tech bloggers over the company’s flagship device. I learned so much from watching the presser. Here are five nuggets of knowledge I extracted from Apple’s event.
1) Apple Loves You — I lost count of how many times Steve Jobs said that Apple loves its customers and loves making its customers happy. For a few seconds, I stopped seeing Jobs on stage and saw WWE Brother Love instead. It was mushy and gushy, but like so many love affairs it was also conditional. Apple loves its customers so much that it will give them free cases…but only until September 30th.
2) The iPhone Antenna Issues are Overblown — I agree with Jobs’ point that this issue is overblown. That’s just the nature of Internet reporting these days. The major tech blogs have been posting multiple stories on the iPhone 4’s antenna woes every day for the last few weeks. Out of the three-million consumers that have purchased the iPhone 4, the reception issues only affect a small percentage.
3) The iPhone Antenna Issue is More Serious Than Apple Will Admit — Jobs was simply brilliant at spinning the issue and some of you have already bought it. The Apple Care number of 0.55 percent is absolutely meaningless. That’s the percentage of iPhone customers that have complained, not the percentage that experienced reception issues. Some people never call to complain about any issue. A lot of Apple users followed the issue closely and knew that calling Apple Care wouldn’t solve anything.
Jobs also made the “one additional dropped call out of 100” seem small, when in reality it’s a significant number. According to one expert, the typical phone drops 1.5 calls per 100. If the iPhone 4 drops one additional call per 100 than the 3GS, that’s a sizable increase in terms of percentage.
Illustrating the “death grip” on other phones was another clever trick. Apple didn’t say where the test was being held or show an iPhone 4 for comparison. Furthermore, you don’t even need the full “death grip” to interrupt signal on the iPhone 4. Several videos have shown that a strategic poke will muck with the signal…which means Hulk Hogan’s finger poke of doom works on the iPhone 4 and Kevin Nash.
4) Apple Tests iPhones with Cerebro — I was blown away by the pictures of Apple’s antenna design and test labs. Covering tech and gaming for more than a decade, I’ve seen some really impressive labs, but Apple’s blew them all away. It’s totally Cerebro from the X-Men comics and movies. Just awesome.
5) It Doesn’t Matter What You Think! — Steve Jobs should have borrowed one of The Rock’s catchphrases and screamed, “It doesn’t matter what you think!!!” at the press. Ultimately, it doesn’t what any of us think of the issue. Apple is going to sell millions of iPhone 4 units no matter how big or small you think the antenna problem is. At best, the antenna debacle is just an annoying bump on the road. The iPhone 4 is a fantastic product with one pretty big flaw that most consumer will ignore.
Anyway, that’s what I learned. What did you pick up from the “antennagate” press conference?
It was half a percent not 55%. That would be .005. I think the AppleCare numbers are useful. If a customer complains to ATT they are advised to call Apple. If that number half a percent of 3million then that is amazing.
I'm astonished that the other manufacturers took exception to Apple calling them out though. Didn't quite a few have ads or statements detailing how they don't suffer from degradation?
@ Smartguy
But how many of those calls to Apple were dropped?
(rimshot, cymbal crash)
I'm still getting one.
"Several videos have shown that a strategic poke will muck with the signal…which means Hulk Hogan’s finger poke of doom works on the iPhone 4 and Kevin Nash."
this is hilarious XD
@ray
disregard what I said. It's the way I look at percentages.
@smartguy If you use the word or symbol, then ".55 percent" is correct. Anyway, aside from the reasoning I gave, why is that number impressive? HTC reported that it received ".16 percent" support calls for the HTC Droid Eris. I'm not really impressed by either figure.
@Ray
Out of 3 million units that is 15k calls. Pretty good figure if you ask me. Any product will have customers who are dissatisfied for whatever reason. That runs the gamut of the people who think their money is worth more than others and stretched to buy something and it has a small issue.
Given the two I'd say the Eris should have had the lower number since it more than likely never sold 3 million units in 3 weeks. I'd really have to know the time frame for their claim before I can compare correctly. I'd also guess that Verizon will handle Eris complaints as opposed to handing them all off to HTC. HTC doesn't strike me as guarded as Apple is about their products.
@smartguy Yeah, I understand the math, but I don't think it means anything. Like I said, a lot of people don't call Apple Care about any problem (which I think is dumb). A lot of people knew that Apple Care couldn't do anything.
@All I'm back at super secret project. I shall check in as much as I can. Please chat it up!
@Ray
That is one hell of benefit of the doubt you give the average consumer lol. I know when I went to pick up my unit that there were plenty of dumb (sorry ladies) women in line waiting to replace their blackberries or whatever to get the "Eye Phone with bigger G Bs". I think most would not pay attention to the blogosphere or really have any sense on the matter and would call ATT if they had a problem and then ATT directs them to Apple.
@smartguy That's only part of it. I also think a lot of people don't even bother to call, which would apply to a lot of the "dumb women" and customers like that. What percentage of people call customer support for any consumer electronics they have?
@smartguy
haha @ reference about bigger G Bs. I love that video. I wonder what happened to that guy.
I learned that Jobs cut his Hawaii vacation short just to talk to the people about "Antennagate." no seriously, i learned that the public can be brutal when you mess with their phones. The fix was as easy as getting a case but people wanted them change their phone design. Hey! This makes me wonder if that's why the guy who lost that prototype iphone in march knew that?? didn't he had a case or cover that made it seem like it was a regular iphone and when it was taken out what came to be the iphone 4 was revealed??? hmmm interesting. I wonder if Apple knew about this the whole time but still pushed this out.
@Ray
True. I have called a customer support once in the last few years and that was because my MacBook would not pick a partition to boot up on. I solved it myself while punching through the menu at Apple so I hung up.
99% of the time though I just fix it myself or I just outright replace it. I don't have time or patience to send stuff in or sit on hold lol.
@tokz
He was reinstated by BestBuy but last I heard he was unsure if he wanted to go back to work. Last I heard.
@rpad
when i worked Comcast we would always be busy but it was always repeat people who would always try to work the system and get credit or promos. I gave it to them but do you know what a day a credit is most of the time like some of the times it will be 1.50 or 2 if you're paying for service full price but when it's on a promo it's cents maybe .30 or .50 at the most for cable. They would get mad and ask for more but we weren't allowed to do it if they didn't set up for a tech to come out. but sometimes you get these customers from 1980 something with no notes that would complain about static on channels and they would say it's been happening for years. I'd call them back after a tech went out to make sure it worked and i not only credited them the time the tech was out but also 6 months credit retro-active on that service. My sup hated it but hey they put up with our crappy service for that long and finally had enough what other way to thank them then by doing something like that.
@smartguy
I wouldn't go back to work. i know they probably caught some flack about it from people. It's not like he mentioned bestbuy anywhere on that video but i bet if he goes back to work bestbuy would make it uncomfortable for him to work or nitpick at something and fire him for that.
@tokz
most definitely.
@tokz_21 That's really apple's and oranges. Comcast provides a service. Apple provides a product.
@rpad
it is but the customers never look at it that way. You should hear how many calls we received because people didn't like the programming or why hbo shows the same movies over and over again. you and others who really understand telcos know who to really hold accountable for that but other people see telcos as the beginning and end; they provide the products and services.
@Ray @Smartguy
I would say that most people would not think those numbers (5% and 16% both mentioned above) are that impressive; however, statistical significance can be as low as 1% in some cases but is generally accepted at 5%. So both numbers are pretty significant, especially the Apple number of 5% if that is believed to be a smaller than it actually is.
@bsu
Your percents are in correct. That half a percent and nearly 2 tenths of a percent. Both are less than 1 percent.
@Smartguy
I really missed that . before those numbers. I stand corrected on those percentages, but 1% and 5% are still the standards for statistical significance.