

How Apple Broke the PR Rules - And Got Away With It - awulf
http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/02/how_apple_broke_the_pr_rules_a.html

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boredguy8
Apple "got away" with it because they have a product that's compelling despite
the problem AND they provided a (partial?) solution to the problem.

Which is what Apple does best in every category in which they're successful.
Is the iPod the most feature-laden PMP? No. It is still the best across the
categories that matter for most users. Same with the iPad: I know no 'normal'
user with an iPad that doesn't like it. And they almost all have some point of
"I wish x was better." It's just that the goods far outweigh the bads.

Oh, and their branding doesn't hurt, either.

~~~
TomOfTTB
But the point the article makes is they didn't apologize or provide a partial
solutions at first. That's what the rules say you should do and that's
absolutely not what Apple did

(Unless "hold it differently" is the partial solution you're referring to)

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glesperance
I think the real reason explaining why apple has been able to get away with
that is the fact that by (1) denying the issue, then (2) minimizing it by
saying its a problem with all other phones, and thus (3) making the antenna
problem an industry wide one, they were able to play win some time.

You see, the iphone -- or for the matter, any apple product -- can only be
fully appreciated within a specific mindset, by adopting a specific reference
frame, or point of view. To me, apple had to restore this _my-iphone-has-so-
many-feature-i-dont-care-about-the-issues_ POV that enabled them to initially
sell a device with a lot less battery longevity than other competitor in the
past.

Playing on time and making this a industry wide issue that is not so
important, both allowed them to win more customer but also to allow those to
adopt/restore this POV. Thus the more they had owners who just signed a
X-years contract to get the new iphone the more they had advocates for their
case.

The way I see this : its the ultimate win of the fanboy/evangelist strategy
agains't the traditional "be-aware/show-you-care/do-your-share" PR moves.

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daimyoyo
When I bought my iPhone 4 I noticed the attenuation issue when I first started
talking on it. So I stopped holding it that way. Then it went away. A few
weeks later, the bumper program came out and once I got mine, the problem went
away entirely. Bottom line: if your phone attenuates when you hold it a
certain way STOP HOLDING IT LIKE THAT!

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TomOfTTB
All the facts they report are correct but I really don't think this option was
"available to any of their competitors to use". The reason Apple "got away
with" AntennaGate is because they'd built up so much good will with their
customers. So they'd banked enough positive behavior to be forgiven for the
negative behavior.

It's like a relationship between spouses. If one cheats it won't necessarily
kill the marriage. The marriage will survive based on how good it was in the
first place.

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kenjackson
Do these types of screw ups ever really have that huge of an effect? Even BP
seems to have come out looking pretty good. I can't recall this type of thing
having a medium-term effect on a company.

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awakeasleep
I think the real masterstroke was putting the attention on the nebulous
antenna problem, so that the quality of the camera --a problem with no fix--
was totally ignored.

It's like a new twist on "the emperor has no clothes" every day. See if you
start noticing how many photos you see have giant green color distortions in
the middle of the image. Those are iPhone 4 photos, and no one talks about it.

~~~
threepointone
Because of what you said, I went through about 600 photos I have on my iphone
4(some hdr, some not); I don't notice the problem you mention. Perhaps you
just got a defective piece? You should probably go to the apple store and ask
them about it, before assuming all iphone 4s have the same problem.

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JacobAldridge
I wouldn't say Apple got away with it. My beautiful wife is looking for
smartphones at the moment and asked for my run down - the antenna problem and
Apple's ongoing efforts to pass the buck (both in this instance, and in a lot
of App Store criticism) were the first things I raised.

Having said that, she'll likely still get an iPhone. Ultimately, she'll
benefit most from what Apple do best - closed garden simplicity. So by that
measurement, you could argue they did get away with it.

~~~
Anechoic
> _I wouldn't say Apple got away with it. [...] Having said that, she'll
> likely still get an iPhone._

It looks like Apple _did_ get away with it.

~~~
JacobAldridge
Which was the purpose for my second paragraph. But for every person like my
beautiful wife, there will be someone (or some fraction of someone) for whom
the anntena problem will convince them to make a difference decision.

So I stand by my point that, in my recollection, Apple handled it poorly, that
left a lasting effect on the population, and that lasting effect, however
small, means they didn't break all the PR rules and get away with it.

~~~
danilocampos
>there will be someone (or some fraction of someone) for whom the anntena
problem will convince them to make a difference decision.

From Apple's last earnings call:

"Tim [Cook]: If you look at iPhone, we had record sales with 16.2 million
units sold in quarter. As Peter said, we believe we could sell more if we had
more supply"

If what you're saying is true, and perhaps it is for around 200 nerds
scattered around the world, it seems to be irrelevant to Apple's bottom line.

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nika
Apple didn't get away with anything, because there was nothing to get away
with. I know android fans hate to hear it and will likely pound me into
oblivion for it, but the reality is that the antenna on the iPhone 4 is better
than all the previous devices Apple has shipped, and better than most in the
industry.

An external antenna is going to pull in more signal most of the time, and this
makes it better. Every device must find compromises to provide the best signal
as much of the time as possible, along with convenience. Most android and
other smart phones use internal antennas and that is a good design from a
usability perspective. Apple did to for the first three iphones. For the
iPhone 4 they found a new way to put an antenna on the outside of the phone,
without having the silly pull-out antenna that predominated ten years ago.

This gave them better signal pulling capability in almost every situation,
with the usability of an internal design. This is a significant innovation.

Which means that the entirety of antenna gate was fueled by anti-apple forces
(eg: hack journalists looking for a dramatic story, and general apple haters
who posted to blogs and spread the story).

Apple got away with it because there was no real defect in the antenna. The
observable effect exists in all modern mobile phones to one degree or another,
and this particular design is superior to all past iPhones.

The real lesson here is that a dedicated social media campaign can create
massive hassle for a competitor, even when that competitor produces a superior
product. I am quite astounded that they were able to make such a big deal out
of this. Apple produced an innovative design that was superior in usability
_and_ reception, and they managed to turn that into some sort of a liability.
They did this even though within days it was revealed publicly that the claims
were nonsense by people who understood how radios work. But the few people
with technical knowledge cannot beat the masses who don't have it who
propagate the FUD. This is the power of FUD, and this is why you see it so
often.

Even today there are people who think there is a defect with the iPhone
design. For many of them, it is a matter of ideology. They hate apple, and
therefore they will continue to believe.

~~~
dhimes
No, I'm sorry, the design is flawed. I own one. Our family has owned the
iphone 1, 3, and now 4. Yes, the iphone 4 is the best "phone" of the lot, but
1 and 3 were lousy- far too poor for me to risk using as my primary business
phone. Which is why I waited for the word on the 4 before I bought one. The
main problem was something I could fix with a case- I use cases anyway, so it
wasn't a problem for me. Or so I thought.

Turns out, there is another flaw, one that I never had with a 2006 motorola on
the same network and used under exactly the same conditions. The iphone 4 has
an echo- some times- that makes it very difficult to talk. When I'm talking on
the phone I get an echo in my ear of what I'm saying. If I have any mobility I
can manage this by moving to another room or sometimes just changing the
direction in which I'm holding the phone.

I love the iphone, it does a lot of things brilliantly, but it has never been
a terrific phone.

Besides, they advertised for an antenna engineer just after the brouhaha.

And, in fairness to them, I never _dropped_ a call because of the antenna (in
the week or so I used the phone before the case). I actively tried to a couple
of times, but it didn't drop.

~~~
brianpan
If you're hearing an echo, that means echo cancellation is not working, either
in your network or the network of the person you are calling. I don't believe
handsets do any echo cancellation.

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dhimes
Never, ever, got it with the motorola- same network, same callee.

~~~
brianpan
What can I say- if _you_ are hearing the echo, it's their phone or the
network. Maybe they're using speakerphone more? Maybe the network changed
somehow?

