Between the Gizmodo leak and the white delay, there were to many eyes on iP4.

[Bobby Corwen]

Part of what made antenna-gate happen is that so many millions of people spent so much time browsing in anticipation.

Too many eyes were fixated on this release and so much focus was dedicated to every detail that this minor downside turned into a spectacle.

Think about it, once you have an iPhone in your hands are you gonna be reading articles every morning about it anymore? Are you gonna Google iPhone 4 and scour every article you can find? Not after you already have it. You only want to read about the thing until you actually get your hands on it. Until then thats the next best thing, reading every detail you can about it.

But despite the 3 million that found one, millions more still didn't have one. And add to that the giant pool of people delaying their gratification for a few weeks to get the white. Well those people were still browsing the web ABOUT it as opposed to browsing ON it. --And some of these bystanders are not good guys. Some are more judgmental and critical.

This means there are still millions of people excitedly anticipating their ownership of one. Which means that they are excited and thinking about it and are obsessing over it. And the only access they have is the web. We all know what the internet did to this release.

Part of the people wanting it are not necessarily Apple die-hards, and some are even on the fence. But either way, from a technology standpoint, its an exciting release and its an exciting topic that has been covered to death every step of the way and everyone, no matter what side they are on, wanted to read about it. Not many people own one first hand, but EVERYONE has an opinion on it already. And people copy each others ideas.

This groundswell of researching/reporting created the vicious cycle of hate and confusion. If Gizmodo hadn't leaked it, there would have been less early web browsing about it --weeks before it was even announced people started to super study everything they could about it in detail and formed that daily habit. And now there are so many iP4-less bystanders still watching, waiting, reading, judging from afar.
It would have been less of a debacle if everyone black and white got it together and there wasn't so much sideline speculation. So far, only a few million have one, and even millions more are just anticipating. Part of the widespread magnitude of this reaction was caused by the early leak and the sloppy white phone situation. If those two things had never happened, not saying the imperfection would be less severe, but I believe it would have been less mainstream.

 

[Snaaake!]

as has been said, by a certain CEO, "blown way out of proportion"

 

[tigress666]

Very good point.

 

[maflynn]

Didn't the antenna thing come out after the phone was released? gizmodo's leaked IP4 wouldn't and isn't responsible for apple's poor design. The antenna issue would have reached the same level of hysteria regardless of when the story broke. Precisely because so many people were excited for the iPhone 4 and when they finally had it, found the antenna design defective.

Was it blown out of proportion, perhaps, did apple have anything to do with the story raging like it did. Undoubtedly, since Jobs himself emailed people that your holding it wrong. Then they said its because the logic used to display signal strength is the cause. Then silence. Only have CR issued a do not recommend on the IP4 did apple hold a condescending new conference to say yeah, holding it will cause the problem but because we love you , we're providing free cases

Also people were frothing at the mouth for Iphone 4 news, so when a iP4 prototype landed in their laps, they jumped at the opportunity. While many people condemned gizmodo, how many of those people condemning them were glued to that site and using those pictures to further the hype.

 

[btrav13]

Didn't the antenna thing come out after the phone was released? gizmodo's leaked IP4 wouldn't and isn't responsible for apple's poor design. The antenna issue would have reached the same level of hysteria regardless of when the story broke. Precisely because so many people were excited for the iPhone 4 and when they finally had it, found the antenna design defective.

Was it blown out of proportion, perhaps, did apple have anything to do with the story raging like it did. Undoubtedly, since Jobs himself emailed people that your holding it wrong. Then they said its because the logic used to display signal strength is the cause. Then silence. Only have CR issued a do not recommend on the IP4 did apple hold a condescending new conference to say yeah, holding it will cause the problem but because we love you , we're providing free cases

Also people were frothing at the mouth for Iphone 4 news, so when a iP4 prototype landed in their laps, they jumped at the opportunity. While many people condemned gizmodo, how many of those people condemning them were glued to that site and using those pictures to further the hype.

It's Apple...hype happens.

 

[a042349]

It was the guy in the black turtleneck...

I disagree.

There were several things that caused "antennagate" and here's what I believe were the primary causes:

1) The CEO of the company gave a sales pitch of an INCREDIBLY anticipated product where he touted their new antenna as a "revolutionary design" and that "nobody's ever done this before" which of course was true (the exposed metal antenna that comes in direct contact with users skin).

2) Then the clear and obvious antenna degredation when it was touched in certain ways, in certain reproducible circumstances, when the signal was not 100%. By focusing on how "cool" their new design was, coupled with iPhone's (deserved or not) "dropped call" reputation, drew everybody to closely examine how well it performed. When was the last time any cell phone vendor touted their improved antenna design (which people naturally translated into reception) when releasing a new phone? I'm betting we'll see it one more time - when the redesign of iP5 is unveiled, and then never, ever again.

3) The CEO (or somebody answering his email) telling people "you're holding it wrong" (which was so wrongheaded for him to say that the phrase will live on as a sign of corporate arrogance/indifference for years) when people noticed how "sensitive" the new design was to human hand interference.

4) Having a design that was so clearly "improved" by a small piece of tape or a $30 accessory that nearly everybody could see/experience.

Now don't get me wrong. I love Apple products. I've had every iPhone, and an iPad, and spent way too many hours in line on launch days of most of those. I got my iP4 on launch day and have no intention of returning it. But I've also got a Nexus one (which also had problems but since the release was not on the front page, and 3 million weren't sold on launch day, was way under the press radar) and have had Droid's a Pre, an HD2, etc, etc.

Apple simply handled this wrong from the touting of how "cool" their new design was at launch to how they responded to the first complaints/questions about the observed (and reproducible) performance problems as it got into the wild.

Does anybody think the new "revolutionary antenna design" will live on in iPhone 5?

Bet not.

Apple screwed up. When a company on as high a pedestal as Apple screws up it of course is going to get big news airplay. Big news when prototype found, big news at launch, big news if it has any failures.

 

[feddy84]

oh. and i thought they said something like "so you see, there is no antennagate"

im okey with the free bumper. would have left it there if not for the rest of the press conference.

im not okey with apples dishonesty and mud slinging brain washing pr machine.

 

[samcraig]

Part of what made antenna-gate happen is that so many millions of people spent so much time browsing in anticipation.

Too many eyes were fixated on this release and so much focus was dedicated to every detail that this minor downside turned into a spectacle.

Think about it, once you have an iPhone in your hands are you gonna be reading articles every morning about it anymore? Are you gonna Google iPhone 4 and scour every article you can find? Not after you already have it. You only want to read about the thing until you actually get your hands on it. Until then thats the next best thing, reading every detail you can about it.

But despite the 3 million that found one, millions more still didn't have one. And add to that the giant pool of people delaying their gratification for a few weeks to get the white. Well those people were still browsing the web ABOUT it as opposed to browsing ON it. --And some of these bystanders are not good guys. Some are more judgmental and critical.

This means there are still millions of people excitedly anticipating their ownership of one. Which means that they are excited and thinking about it and are obsessing over it. And the only access they have is the web. We all know what the internet did to this release.

Part of the people wanting it are not necessarily Apple die-hards, and some are even on the fence. But either way, from a technology standpoint, its an exciting release and its an exciting topic that has been covered to death every step of the way and everyone, no matter what side they are on, wanted to read about it. Not many people own one first hand, but EVERYONE has an opinion on it already. And people copy each others ideas.

This groundswell of researching/reporting created the vicious cycle of hate and confusion. If Gizmodo hadn't leaked it, there would have been less early web browsing about it --weeks before it was even announced people started to super study everything they could about it in detail and formed that daily habit. And now there are so many iP4-less bystanders still watching, waiting, reading, judging from afar.
It would have been less of a debacle if everyone black and white got it together and there wasn't so much sideline speculation. So far, only a few million have one, and even millions more are just anticipating. Part of the widespread magnitude of this reaction was caused by the early leak and the sloppy white phone situation. If those two things had never happened, not saying the imperfection would be less severe, but I believe it would have been less mainstream.

Oh wow. Just wow.

How naive to think that people stop reading news about Apple, the iPhone or anything AFTER they've purchased the product. No - I would say that, at least on MR and maybe other sites people go to them right away and stay on them (as proven here) to see what new apps are out for the new platform, read reviews to see if other news sites agree with how you love or don't love your phone, and many other reasons.

And seriously "And some of these bystanders are not good guys. Some are more judgmental and critical."

Not good guys? Who are you - George Bush after 9/11. What constitutes someone not being a "good guy." Someone who isn't swayed by Apple's marketing and PR?

I could go on - but why bother. You're obviously trying to make yourself feel better about your purchase and rationalize that despite all this bad press - you still feel like you made the right decision.

Guess what? If you like your phone - enjoy it. It's that simple.

 

[Bluehinder]

I disagree.

There were several things that caused "antennagate" and here's what I believe were the primary causes:

1) The CEO of the company gave a sales pitch of an INCREDIBLY anticipated product where he touted their new antenna as a "revolutionary design" and that "nobody's ever done this before" which of course was true (the exposed metal antenna that comes in direct contact with users skin).

2) Then the clear and obvious antenna degredation when it was touched in certain ways, in certain reproducible circumstances, when the signal was not 100%. By focusing on how "cool" their new design was, coupled with iPhone's (deserved or not) "dropped call" reputation, drew everybody to closely examine how well it performed. When was the last time any cell phone vendor touted their improved antenna design (which people naturally translated into reception) when releasing a new phone? I'm betting we'll see it one more time - when the redesign of iP5 is unveiled, and then never, ever again.

3) The CEO (or somebody answering his email) telling people "you're holding it wrong" (which was so wrongheaded for him to say that the phrase will live on as a sign of corporate arrogance/indifference for years) when people noticed how "sensitive" the new design was to human hand interference.

4) Having a design that was so clearly "improved" by a small piece of tape or a $30 accessory that nearly everybody could see/experience.

Now don't get me wrong. I love Apple products. I've had every iPhone, and an iPad, and spent way too many hours in line on launch days of most of those. I got my iP4 on launch day and have no intention of returning it. But I've also got a Nexus one (which also had problems but since the release was not on the front page, and 3 million weren't sold on launch day, was way under the press radar) and have had Droid's a Pre, an HD2, etc, etc.

Apple simply handled this wrong from the touting of how "cool" their new design was at launch to how they responded to the first complaints/questions about the observed (and reproducible) performance problems as it got into the wild.

Does anybody think the new "revolutionary antenna design" will live on in iPhone 5?

Bet not.

Apple screwed up. When a company on as high a pedestal as Apple screws up it of course is going to get big news airplay. Big news when prototype found, big news at launch, big news if it has any failures.

+1

 

[King Luis]

It's Apple...hype happens.

exactly.
before the phone was even released, so many people went nuts hyping this phone up saying it was going to be the best thing ever made by man kind spreading rumors galore. now that its released and it didn't live up to their expectations and that it has a couple issues, they think it was the worst thing to come from apple.

 

[Shoesy]

Whatever recent events, it doesnt seem to be hurting apple's bottom line. Moan all you like- apples still sell like hot cake.

 

[ReallyBigFeet]

I think Apple's quarterly financial report pretty much invalidates this whole thread. Clearly, they benefited GREATLY from "all the focus" issues. Ka-CHING.

 

[samcraig]

I think Apple's quarterly financial report pretty much invalidates this whole thread. Clearly, they benefited GREATLY from "all the focus" issues. Ka-CHING.

Their stock hasn't surged up too much. And it's WAY too early to determine the impact of the negative PR they've endured.

But no one can argue that sales are strong thus far.

 

[Bobby Corwen]

Oh wow. Just wow.

How naive to think that people stop reading news about Apple, the iPhone or anything AFTER they've purchased the product. No - I would say that, at least on MR and maybe other sites people go to them right away and stay on them (as proven here) to see what new apps are out for the new platform, read reviews to see if other news sites agree with how you love or don't love your phone, and many other reasons.

And seriously "And some of these bystanders are not good guys. Some are more judgmental and critical."

Not good guys? Who are you - George Bush after 9/11. What constitutes someone not being a "good guy." Someone who isn't swayed by Apple's marketing and PR?

I could go on - but why bother. You're obviously trying to make yourself feel better about your purchase and rationalize that despite all this bad press - you still feel like you made the right decision.

Guess what? If you like your phone - enjoy it. It's that simple.

Well maybe people like me an you still read about it, but not the masses.

What I'm trying to say is that if everyone got their phone together and if this whole situation came and went within 2 weeks: its announced, then pre-ordered, released and executed with enough shipment to satisfy most and make it so its still available, then things would have been crispier. The damage would have been less widespread and mainstream.

We are STILL in the midst of the release. Its only been partially released. So by the millions, people are still internet-ing about it.

But usually, once you have the item you are hyping about, you are using it and you're over reading about it cuz you already know everything you need to know about it, having having it. And also once you have it you are less likely to bash it because you want to be in denial anyway

Instead of just playing with their phone and realizing its real life behavior, people spend every day online stirring the pot.

And as far as for the good guys comment, are you doubting cynical/jealous people exist? Are you doubting the existence of hate now?

Didn't the antenna thing come out after the phone was released? gizmodo's leaked IP4 wouldn't and isn't responsible for apple's poor design. The antenna issue would have reached the same level of hysteria regardless of when the story broke.

Yes but our public awareness exploded with the Gizmodo release, we didnt know the issue back then, but it attracted a lot more people for a much longer time, many weeks longer.

This is all a generalization of millions so its hard to quantify but the extra time gave us a certain pre-ownership ownership experience on a general level.

Its almost like it all came and went and everyone is tired of the iPhone 4 already even though hardly anyone has one. And everyone that might have gotten one cant get one now, nor in the near future, and with all the bad press, its like the momentum is gone and everything has been decided and the phone is not even available in stores yet.

See what I'm saying? Too much pre-mature information/hype for too long and people feel like they have lost their patience, and by extension, like the iPhone is past its prime.

I am trying to speculate at the phenomenon on a scale of millions so its hard to quantify exactly the impact. Its all very psychological and hypothetical.