Steve Jobs on leg during Apple ’s iPhone 4 antenna press group discussion .
I knew for sure that Apple had a public - relations problem on its hands with iOS location tracking when I got the e - mail from my mammy :
What about this matter with iPhone & iPad that Apple include that tracking system ?
Steve Jobs on stage during Apple’s iPhone 4 antenna press conference.
My mother is not a follower of technology news . She lives in a retirement community out in the middle of the Arizona desert . If something like this tale reach out her — and more troublingly , with a twirl that Apple has included a “ tracking organisation ” on some of its iPhones and iPads — the story is in the urine and is spreading far and broad .
At that power point the tale — no matter how bonny or unfair , no matter how mistaken and bedevil some of the coverage was — require a response from Apple . Some response to explain what was materialise and why , to switch the trajectory of the floor and protect the reputation of Apple and its Cartesian product .
Sound familiar ? Sure . The same thing happened just last class .
Reacting with care
Between the iPhone trailing saga and theiPhone 4 antenna disputation , in less than a year we ’ve seen two examples of how Apple deals with hurt control . ( There are other examples , too , such as the Foxconn suicide and the repeated assaults on Apple ’s environmental phonograph record by Greenpeace , but let ’s place those by for the moment . )
There seems to be a commonly held set of beliefs about how corporations should comport in a crisis . Look no further thanthis Computerworld storyin which a “ crisis - management expert ” named Michael Robinson criticizes Apple ’s handling of the situation :
Apple seems to have dropped the formal in a big way in this compositor’s case … This blunder have no sense to me at all … We live in a world that ’s value in seconds . Companies raise and go off in that time . If it take up a week , it might as well take a month … . It just boggles the mind that they wait a workweek .
It should n’t surprise anyone to notice that even when it comes to crises , Apple does n’t behave like most corporations . understandably the rulebook in this place is that a company straight off responds , pose in front of the crisis with some retort - PR of its own . And yet , with both the tracking number and the antenna controversy , Apple remained soundless for several 24 - time of day news cycles before excuse itself .
Consider what Steve Jobs say at Apple ’s hastily - assemblediPhone 4 antenna press league .
We heard about [ response problems ] 22 days ago and have been bring our butts off . It ’s not like we ’ve had our head in the sand for three calendar month .
And here ’s what hetold All Things D ’s Ina Friedon Wednesday :
We ’re an technology - driven company … When people accuse us of thing , the first thing we desire to do is find out the truth . That hold a sealed amount of time to go after all of these thing down . And the accusation were coming twenty-four hour period by Clarence Shepard Day Jr. . By the time we had figured this all out , it took a few Clarence Day . Then writing it up and trying to make it intelligible when this is a very high - tech topic took a few days . And here we are less than a week by and by .
Apple ’s philosophy , then , isnotto release a vague statement and then dillydally while the companionship forecast thing out . Instead , the company prefer to remain still until it can offer a thorough explanation and harbinger a solution . In both cases , the company also used its response to rope in its competitor , explicate that the issues necessitate were industry - wide , not limited just to Apple .
allow ’s also keep in intellect that Apple ’s a proud company that prefers to keep proficient details hidden from consumers and describe its products as “ witching . ” There ’s a carefully train mystique that is definitely part of Apple ’s secret sauce . Having company executives hold in world that they ’re not quite certain what ’s going on , but by gum they ’re blend to get to the bottom of it , would work counter to that image .
Responding in detail
Consider the fashion Apple at long last dealt with both these issues . The antenna issue bring forth a newfangled interpretation of Io that recalibrated how bar of cellular signaling are measure , a promise of free iPhone 4 cases to anyone who felt they call for one , a website full of picture of competitive products that also suffered from signal fading problem , anda hitch of its top - secret wireless examination labto show that it took antenna testing seriously .
The tracking issue generated aQ&A on positioning datathat admit a hope of next software package updates to address the issue and a technical account abouthow and why Apple uses the data point . In the speech sound call to Fried , Jobs and other Apple executives challenge the tech journalists of the humanity to enquire Apple ’s challenger while crowing about Apple ’s best - in - class approach to overall locating privacy in iOS .
Apple ’s approach to the Foxconn state of affairs was similar , with the company create an annualSupplier Responsibility report . And of form , the Greenpeace criticisms have been blunted by some changes in Apple ’s manufacture materials and the party ’s inclusion ofenvironmental responsibilityinformation in the marketing material for all its products .
Would Apple be dependable off doing what most companies do , namely what experts like Michael Robinson indicate ? It ’s unvoiced to say . Certainly there are big risk Apple incurs by wait day or hebdomad to release information : a growing media furor , politicians trying to make points , and the like . There ’s also an argument to be made that Apple customers merit faster resolution out of Cupertino when something is amiss , rather than discover nothing but radio silence until the company has craft a strategic ( and rival - sock ) response .
But given the monolithic success of the iPhone 4 even after the so - called “ antennagate ” issue , I ’m not convinced that Apple ’s been given any reason to trust that its approach to crisis management is ill-timed . It ’s idiosyncratic , to be sure … but that ’s Apple . Apple goes its own agency . Even in a time of crisis .
