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PR Experts Suggest iPhone 4 Recall 'Inevitable' as Antenna Issue Snowballs

CalebF said:
MacBook Air. haha A "hobby" (Apple spin for failure). Oh, wait. He hasn't fired the starter pistol of the MBA hobby era yet. I guess Apple TV then.

Still not seeing any of those revolutionary MBA-in-a-manila-envelope ads the past few years. ;)
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How are either of those products a failure? Let alone a multi-billion dollar failure?
 
PerfSeeker said:
quote]Heck, back in 1995 what ELSE was there to buy except a Windows PC?
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Um... Macs? There were droves of beige pizza box Mac models available for anyone so inclined, as well as Mac clones. Nobody forced PCs down anyone's throat.

I was on the fence myself back in 1992-93 or so, wanting to replace my Atari ST with something more future proof. I looked at both Mac and PC but ultimately went with PC because Mac felt like Atari and Commodore all over again (Apple was indeed only 90 days away from going the way of Atari and Commodore), a walled garden tied to a single company. I was a poor student at the time and didn't want to spend my money on yet another computer from a company that would go belly up a few months, like so many of them did back then (Atari, Spectravideo, Sinclair, Oric, Luxor etc etc). On the PC side there were so many different manufacturers on board, it seemed like a safer horse to bet on for the future. I think many others felt the same way. We had been burned so many times in the 80's and 90's with platforms that turned out to be dead ends, but the PC universe was something different, it was big and diverse and you felt reassured that manufacturers may come and go but the platform itself will live on.
 
None of any of this makes sense to me. I give my phone the death grip and the bars drop. In other places it makes the bars go up. In my car I can't make it budge. Purposely death gripped in a low signal area such as my home while on a call, and the call did not drop even though the bars did. In some areas the death grip causes bars to drop and then rise again. My results are all over the map with no rhyme or reason as to the behavior. This is what makes me think it's software related. But I must also repeat that I did not experience a dropped call ever as a result of this death grip thing.

I recently compared my iPhone 4 bars to my friend's Blackberry. Standing beside each other, she had 5 bars and I had only two. According to Apple, then, my two bars were actually exaggerated and I was really getting even less signal. So what does that say about the equation Blackberry uses to report signal strength? Why doesn't anyone make a stink about that?
 
I don't own the iPhone 4. But at this point there is a problem that should be addressed and quickly. It's either the phone or the negative press. Regardless, this is not a positive for my beloved tech company.
 
Pathetic

The biggest ecological disaster in US history is going on without an end in sight and everyone's worried about a stupid toy. :rolleyes:
 
btrav13 said:
I don't own the iPhone 4. But at this point there is a problem that should be addressed and quickly. It's either the phone or the negative press. Regardless, this is not a positive for my beloved tech company.
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Either way they should try to take control of the story. They should know the media by now. The split second you try to stonewall your way out of a situation by declining to comment, it explodes in your face and you have an unstoppable bandwagon on your hands. The media is power hungry and stonewalling them is a refusal to acknowledge their power, which only fuels their desire to nail you.
Why is this still a story? Why does this issue generate thousands of posts on every new thread about it? Because Apple remains silent, save for a letter and some one liner emails from Steve.

I don't know why they even think twice about it. "Get ahead of the story" is probably paragraph 1 of chapter 1 of PR for dummies.
 
Although an electrical tape cures the problem for now, I don't know if I can deal with that for 2 years. Hopefully they will get their act together before the 30 day return period ends or this is going back.
 
Anuba said:
Um... Macs? There were droves of beige pizza box Mac models available for anyone so inclined, as well as Mac clones. Nobody forced PCs down anyone's throat.

I was on the fence myself back in 1992-93 or so, wanting to replace my Atari ST with something more future proof. I looked at both Mac and PC but ultimately went with PC because Mac felt like Atari and Commodore all over again (Apple was indeed only 90 days away from going the way of Atari and Commodore), a walled garden tied to a single company. I was a poor student at the time and didn't want to spend my money on yet another computer from a company that would go belly up a few months, like so many of them did back then (Atari, Spectravideo, Sinclair, Oric, Luxor etc etc). On the PC side there were so many different manufacturers on board, it seemed like a safer horse to bet on for the future. I think many others felt the same way. We had been burned so many times in the 80's and 90's with platforms that turned out to be dead ends, but the PC universe was something different, it was big and diverse and you felt reassured that manufacturers may come and go but the platform itself will live on.
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The thing is by the early 90s you could find all the productivity software + games for PC, but only a small subset for the Mac. Also that was a time when Macs did not have the "genius" industrial design that has been exhibited in the last 7 years or so. So back in the 90s there really was no compelling reason for a non-Mac user to switch. Also people hadn't felt burned by Microsoft yet.
 
Anuba said:
Um... Macs? There were droves of beige pizza box Mac models available for anyone so inclined, as well as Mac clones. Nobody forced PCs down anyone's throat.

I was on the fence myself back in 1992-93 or so, wanting to replace my Atari ST with something more future proof. I looked at both Mac and PC but ultimately went with PC because Mac felt like Atari and Commodore all over again (Apple was indeed only 90 days away from going the way of Atari and Commodore), a walled garden tied to a single company. I was a poor student at the time and didn't want to spend my money on yet another computer from a company that would go belly up a few months, like so many of them did back then (Atari, Spectravideo, Sinclair, Oric, Luxor etc etc). On the PC side there were so many different manufacturers on board, it seemed like a safer horse to bet on for the future. I think many others felt the same way. We had been burned so many times in the 80's and 90's with platforms that turned out to be dead ends, but the PC universe was something different, it was big and diverse and you felt reassured that manufacturers may come and go but the platform itself will live on.
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I logged in to say I love this post. I love hearing about older machines. It reminds me that I missed a big part of the industry I love so much. I was only 1 year old when the first Mac came out.

As for the iPhone issues, no clue. I'm still waiting for a verizon iPhone.... or AT&T to put a tower up in my area. I can tell you that my 82 year old father "knows" the iPhone doesn't work because he saw it on NBC or something.
 
a balanced approach?

First, so you know where I am coming from:

1) Purchased my first Mac in 1986

2) Have never purchased a Windows machine (but have used them at work)

3) Own iPhone 3G and three other Macs right now.

My iPhone 3G sucks. It can do a lot of great stuff but the battery is basically useless and people can't hear me unless I use the headset. And this is actually a replacement I got last year. My favorite thing to say here is that my iPhone's the best wired phone I've ever had, except you can't make a call.

Here's my opinion on the iPhone 4.

1) Probably a design flaw. Software fix won't "fix" it.

2) Apple's response a PR disaster because they made people with legitimate complaints sound like whiners.

3) No recall.

But here's what they should have done.

1) Admitted that while they believe this is a standard problem that occurs with any phone, please bring your phone to an Apple store if you think there is a problem. We'll check it out for free.

2) If we find a problem we will give you several options (discounted bumper, like $9.99 -- but this would be "unofficial")

3) If solution provided doesn't work we will provide you with a new phone.

This solution:

1) Makes Apple look like they care.

2) Gives an audience and voice to the customer.

3) For most people will solve their problem.

4) Gives people an opportunity to visit the store and buy more stuff.

That all said I ordered a phone tonight. My current phone is terrible and I figure I would put a case on it anyway. And if there is a recall (which I don't think there will be) I'll get a new phone.

I guess the next three days will be very telling.
 
I hoe Apple does a recall to make it right. Giving a bumper would "fix" it. I know cuz I was one of those suckers who paid the $30 for one because my phone reception was bad.

BUT It needs a hardware fix. Why? Now if I want a holster for my phone, I have to make sure it'll fit with the bumper. I can't buy one of those "invisi shield" plastic protector because the bumper would lift it off the phone. So now it's hindering my options on what I can use. So I would consider this a defect in hardware design.
 
corkscrew said:
My recommendation....buy Apple Stock now. The stock is down on this "recall" issue and believe me.....it is a "buy". Apple always recovers and this will be no exception.

Even if Apple has to recall 2-3 million iphone 4g's it should only cost about $100 million. That is totally manageable for Apple and pales in comparison when the projection is for sales of 7.5 million iphones in the June quarter and 40 million in 2010. The stock is valued at only 18.6 percent of 2010 value and projected to be 15+ percent in 2011.

By the way, I have owned every iphone since the first generation and I cupped my hands over the edges of my 3gs and after 7 seconds or so guess what? The signal strength went down.
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There are projections that this recall will cost $1.5 Billion.
 
BaldiMac said:
What was Job's first multi-billion dollar mistake?
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He sold a huge percentage of all APPL stock in existence for somewhere around $5 a share (adjusted for splits), except for 1 share.

What would that be worth today?

( 'course he used the proceeds to buy Pixar and found Next, so it wasn't a complete loss. :)
 
WiiDSmoker said:
There are projections that this recall will cost $1.5 Billion.
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3 million strips of duct tape (CR's recommended fix) won't cost $1.5B. Even if you want "designer" tape, you could probably make a few million strips out of one box of fabric tape from your local sewing/knitting supply shop, and not be anywhere close to maxing out your personal credit card.

Even "free" bumpers for everyone wouldn't cost Apple more than a few $M.

Send them out by customer request. My guess is that 10% or less of all i4 customers would even bother.

The free publicity (spelling Apple's name correctly), being near or on the front page for several days, is worth magnitudes more to Apple.
 
WiiDSmoker said:
There are projections that this recall will cost $1.5 Billion.
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Guess they shouldn't have released a knowingly defective product now should they of? [Though your estimate of 1.5 billion is a little obsurd] They have had crap for quality control since 2007 and they seem to think it is perfectly fine to rush release their products without testing them or testing them but releasing them buggy and fixing them later.

I'll be glad if a recall happens because perhaps this will stop Apple's arrogant attitude they've had since recovering in the computer market, climbing the mobile market, and dominating in the portable media market.

Apple is a better company when they aren't on top, once they are on top its like they can do no wrong.
 
So this is where I'm at.

I have an iPhone 3G, which I LOVE.

I was DEFINITELY going to upgrade to an iPhone 4.

I found out about the antenna thing pretty early on. I read about it, I thought about and decided I could deal with it. I live in a decent signal strength area, and if I had problems, I'd buy a case, or find a different way to hold the phone. Fine.

My issue know is that I KNOW that if I get one, everyone will say "why did you get one of those phones that doesn't make calls?" "Or, ha ha, sucker, you bought a dud phone" Or even "how are you finding the signal on that"? It's all people know about iPhone 4, and I really don't want to have to be defending my phone to everyone I talk to. I'll probably hold off until there's some kind of fix.
 
nmhallworth said:
So this is where I'm at.

I have an iPhone 3G, which I LOVE.

I was DEFINITELY going to upgrade to an iPhone 4.

I found out about the antenna thing pretty early on. I read about it, I thought about and decided I could deal with it. I live in a decent signal strength area, and if I had problems, I'd buy a case, or find a different way to hold the phone. Fine.

My issue know is that I KNOW that if I get one, everyone will say "why did you get one of those phones that doesn't make calls?" "Or, ha ha, sucker, you bought a dud phone" Or even "how are you finding the signal on that"? It's all people know about iPhone 4, and I really don't want to have to be defending my phone to everyone I talk to. I'll probably hold off until there's some kind of fix.
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The odds of running into a Fandroid are very slim, so go ahead and buy an iPhone 4. :D
 
I still can't believe the solution to a fault on a $300 device is duct tap or spending $30+ on a case. I make decent money but I will not throw it away on something that may require duct tape. I did try and buy a new phone on pre-order day but having a life I did not have time to try and try again to order it. I do blame Apple for this as it is not difficult to work out how much traffic AT&T servers can take and throttle appropriately.

My current phone is the 3G phone and was looking forward to an early upgrade thanks to AT&T. Now I have cancelled my order for the new iPhone and will wait the next five months for my contract to run out before I make a move. I am now thinking by Feb a Verizon phone with a new Antenna will be out.

If anyone is interest I own a MacBook Pro, Mac Pro, two 3G iPhones, Mac Mini and a Apple TV. I retired many iPods, G4 and sold a G5. Therefore I am a mac fan who can see the wood for the trees.
 
davidbrummy said:
I still can't believe the solution to a fault on a $300 device is duct tap or spending $30+ on a case. I make decent money but I will not throw it away on something that may require duct tape. I did try and buy a new phone on pre-order day but having a life I did not have time to try and try again to order it. I do blame Apple for this as it is not difficult to work out how much traffic AT&T servers can take and throttle appropriately.

My current phone is the 3G phone and was looking forward to an early upgrade thanks to AT&T. Now I have cancelled my order for the new iPhone and will wait the next five months for my contract to run out before I make a move. I am now thinking by Feb a Verizon phone with a new Antenna will be out.

If anyone is interest I own a MacBook Pro, Mac Pro, two 3G iPhones, Mac Mini and a Apple TV. I retired many iPods, G4 and sold a G5. Therefore I am a mac fan who can see the wood for the trees.
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Bumper costs $38 in the UK... Now that takes the piss.
 
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