
Why Steve Jobs is (Legitimately) Pissed at the Media - raganwald
http://www.theangrydrunk.com/2010/07/16/why-steve-jobs-is-legitimately-pissed-at-the-media/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheAngryDrunk+%28The+Angry+Drunk%29&utm_content=Bloglines
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michael_dorfman
He may be pissed at the media for "blowing things out of proportion", but it
seems to me that he spends most of his time trying to get the press to blow
things out of proportion to his benefit. Live by hype, die by hype.

~~~
dieterrams
Funny sense of desert you've got there. Being good at marketing doesn't mean
you deserve a shitstorm of FUD and anger, the vast majority of which isn't
even coming from iPhone 4 owners. And while you've decided to focus on how
Steve Jobs benefits, you've neglected to mention how those of us who actually
use Apple products benefit. There's a reason their stuff constantly gets the
highest consumer satisfaction ratings and accolades from all over. No other
computer company even comes close.

And if you actually knew anything about Jobs, you'd know he spends most of his
time agonizing over design, not scheming over ways to build hype.

~~~
michael_dorfman
Sorry I touched a nerve. Are you his brother-in-law or something?

I use Apple products, and like them. However, statements like _No other
computer company even comes close_ are the kind of hyperbole I'm speaking of.
It's not false, it's just "blown out of proportion." Similarly, the antenna
problem is not false, either.

Apple's design is great--equaled only by their branding, dating back to the
"1984" days, about the "revolutionary" aspects of their products. Again, not
false, just blown out of proportion.

Coincidentally, a friend just wrote on Facebook about 'a company that doesn't
pee on my leg and tell me it's the "most revolutionary rain storm ever!"'

I stand by what I said: live by hype, die by hype.

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simonsquiff
I can relate to this bit "More than once in my career I’ve been in a situation
where something has gone wrong, sometimes catastrophically wrong. During
situations like that, when every available hand is on deck trying to fix the
problem, the most enraging thing in the world is a chorus of people who have
no data, no real understanding of the issue, or even an understanding of the
principles involved with the issue demanding answers NOW!"

It's frustrating when people in the company point the finger of blame without
the data to back it up. Development teams are often those who suffer from this
the most as they are where the buck stops - e.g. after a major software
release there are issues that might be caused by installation errors/poor
implementation/poor support response/user error but development get
immediately blamed on 'poor product'.

I like that Jobs went down the whole clearly presented 'hard data' route to
try to get to the heart of the problem; this is a good lesson on how to defend
from criticism from those without knowledge of the real issues.

~~~
cgranade
Mind you, hard data without even the possibility of independent verification,
delivered far too late and after a string of PR blunders. Apple didn't __just
__screw up, they kept screwing up by not respecting their customers enough to
admit the problem early and giving much-needed data. Instead, they went down
the route of being condescending and insulting to their customers ("you're
holding it wrong"). That fierce Apple fanboyism that enables the company can
rather severely backfire if Apple forgets, as it has done throughout the
iPhone's short history, that their customers are intelligent human beings
capable of making their own choices and coming to their own conclusions.

~~~
MWinther
In what way has Apple forgot that their customers are reasoning individuals? I
don't see how you come to that conclusion in this case, but you seem to argue
that this has happened before?

~~~
cgranade
Well, by their behavior with respect to pornographic or erotic apps, their
response to jailbreaking, their decision to completely lock the device against
unauthorized apps, and their censoring of books and comics over non-sexualized
nudity. From the very beginning, Apple has demonstrated a near complete
dismissal of their customers' ability to make decisions for themselves, as can
be seen from their decision to make a walled-garden sort of marketplace where
customers can play around without getting hurt.

~~~
MWinther
With respect, I think a lot of reasoning individuals who are Apple customers
like or are at least indifferent to the walled garden approach. Just as those
saying that they get better reception from the iPhone 4, or saying nothing at
all like or are at least indifferent to the antenna design.

It seems that many critics of the walled garden approach as well as the
antenna design have a hard time realizing (or conveniently forget) that those
not complaining loudly aren't necessarily mindless drones who buys anything
with an Apple logo on it.

So in my mind, I'd say that there are huge amounts of intelligent, reasoning
individuals who are using the iPhone 4 at the moment who like the phone as it
is. So while I agree that they should have done more when it comes to telling
the world they were on the case, even though I doubt it would have helped
much, I think your image of how badly Apple treat their users is vastly
exaggerated.

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cgranade
I don't think Jobs' anger is legitimate at all. Yes, all phone have problems,
and sometimes the media misreports on them (look at the DroidX/eFuse story,
for instance). What's different, however, with Apple's iOS platform, is that
there's only two choices available to consumers: use an iPhone 4 or use an
iPhone 3GS. By narrowing the market so dramatically, Apple makes otherwise
forgivable flaws into acute failures. If you like to hold your phone
differently than how Apple thinks you should, then too bad-- that's their only
current-gen phone. I think that, more than anything, is what legitimizes
turning an otherwise minor issue into a complete shitstorm.

The antenna problem is one __forced __on consumers of iOS devices, including
those consumers with a significant amount of money invested in paid iOS apps
that can't leave the platform without leaving those behind. The antenna
problems illustrate why buying an iPhone is always a losing deal: the consumer
has no choices other than those Apple explicitly allows. Now if only people
reacted so strongly to the horrendous lockdown of the iPhone and of the App
Store.

~~~
glhaynes
_If you like to hold your phone differently than how Apple thinks you should,
then too bad-- that's their only current-gen phone._ Or you can get their free
case, which leaves it still thinner and arguably better looking than most
other phones on the market.

 _The antenna problems illustrate why buying an iPhone is always a losing
deal_

That seems _really_ hyperbolic... _always_ a losing deal? Unless perhaps you
assume that the portion of critical-problem-havers is 100%. In actuality, it's
a tiny fraction. (And, of that tiny fraction in this particular case, the vast
majority can be solved with the free case.) Could Apple someday be struck by
the inability to make a good product, leaving users with no upgrade path? I
guess so, but that doesn't keep me from buying what appears to be for me
easily the best device on the market. If that ever changes, yeah, I'll have to
find replacements for maybe $50 worth of apps. Not the end of the world --
it's not like I'm signing on me and the next few generations to Apple-only.

~~~
cgranade
To start with, the free case is a very recent concession that was made in
response to intense media pressure (whether deserved or not). Moreover, I
didn't say that the antenna problem is a critical problem for all users, but I
said it illustrates why for all users, it's a sucker deal. You are betting
against Apple ever deciding that its one sanctioned upgrade path should go in
a direction you don't like. You are gambling not that Apple will suddenly be
unable to make good products, but that their design decisions will be
different from your needs and desires. Moreover, there is likely a lot more
investment in the platform than just $50 of apps.

As for "easily the best device on the market," that's only true if you are
completely fine with a device that does only and exactly what Apple allows it
to do, rather than a device that is, as computers throughout their entire
history as successful consumer devices have been, designed to allow you to do
what you want-- including create and innovate. Compare the approach of
Google's App Inventor to the approach of Apple's monolithic and
cryptographically signed dev chain, for one specific example of what I mean.

~~~
glhaynes
I understand what you're saying, but the vast majority of people who have
iPhones (and the people who Apple is explicitly targeting with their product
design and marketing), are completely fine with a device that "does only and
exactly what Apple allows it to do".

So to say that "for all users it's a sucker's deal" is to ignore these
millions and millions of people while making a statement about yourself and
your tastes and desires. For you, apparently the iPhone's tradeoffs are
unacceptable, and that's fine. I'm sympathetic with what you're saying: in
theory, it sounds obvious that an open ecosystem where every device
manufacturer can create whatever they want is going to lead to better hardware
than Apple could ever compete with. In reality, that just could not be farther
from the truth for a huge group of people: there's not another phone I like
better than the iPhone 4, so I'm "stuck" with Apple — not because they have me
locked in but because nobody else seems to make a phone whose particular
tradeoffs are more in line with what I desire.

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jsz0
_I think that he’s expressing his dismay over how the press, in the complete
absence of any actual hard evidence, blew this issue completely out of
proportion_

In a crisis situation you have to play defense. The burden was on Apple to
provide the hard evidence. When they determined it was going to take some time
to gather this information they should have communicated a time table. That
being said it's totally surreal that we live in a world where the iPhone has
become so important that it gets a level of mainstream media coverage usually
reserved for death & destruction so it's probably understandable that Apple
wasn't prepared.

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shareme
Lets not forget some points:

1\. iphone4 looses more connections than iphone 3 as stated by Steve Jobs
himself. 2\. despite irrational iphone fan people no other smartphone has a
magic spot to hold to decrease phone call connection success. If you doubt me
try it on iphone3gs..no magic spot whatsoever.

3\. apple thinks its a problem and has hired extra hardware antenna engineers
to review the problem.

The only legitimate things Steve Jobs should be pissed at is Apple's
performance on this issue. Back during the 1990s we had this Apple that ducked
responsibility for product design execution mess ups and Apple paid the price
both in lost sales and stock price performance.

