Raymond M. Jones/The New York Times
The so-called iPhone “death grip.”
But he insisted that the problems, which can result in dropped calls when the device is held a certain way, affect all smartphones — a claim that was challenged by some Apple competitors. And he accused the news media of exaggerating the scope of the issue, saying customers and reviewers were thrilled with the new phone.
“This has been blown so out of proportion that it is incredible,” he said.
Mr. Jobs said that to put the controversy behind it, Apple would give free bumpers — cases that wrap around the rim of the phone and seem to reduce the problem of dropped calls — to all iPhone 4 buyers who want them.
Those who have already bought the cases will be reimbursed, and customers who are still not satisfied can return the phones for a full refund. The cases will remain free at least until Sept. 30, when Apple will consider whether it can offer a different solution.
Some marketing experts said Mr. Jobs had been effective at deflecting a potentially damaging crisis and predicted Apple would suffer little damage from the antenna ruckus.
“It is inexcusable that this problem was not found out in advance,” said Peter Sealey, a former chief marketing officer of the Coca-Cola Company, who teaches at the School of Management at Claremont Graduate University. But he said Mr. Jobs “did what he needed to do. He is the best marketing guy in America, and this is just a bump in the road.”
Mr. Jobs offered some contrition. He said Apple was not perfect and apologized to customers affected by the antenna problem. “We are human and we make mistakes sometimes,” he said.
But he quickly went on the offensive, saying every smartphone suffers from similar problems. To bolster his case, he showed videos of smartphones, including a BlackBerry, an Android-powered phone and a Windows Mobile device, that dropped signals when they were held in certain places.
When a reporter said he could not replicate the signal drop on his BlackBerry, Mr. Jobs said the problem was only evident in places where the signal is weak.
Most of all, Mr. Jobs said time and again that the iPhone 4 was the best phone Apple had shipped, and that most reviewers believed it to be the best smartphone on the market. He said he had evidence to back his claims.
First, only one in about 200 buyers had called Apple to complain about antenna issues, a historically low number, he said. What’s more, he said that return rates at AT&T, the exclusive carrier of the iPhone in the United States, were 1.7 percent, or less than a third the return rates of the iPhone 3GS.
Mr. Jobs conceded that the iPhone 4 suffered from a slight increase in dropped calls over the iPhone 3GS, but said that the increase was less than one additional drop for every 100 calls. He would not provide absolute numbers of dropped calls, but he said that he believed the increase was because fewer iPhone 4 customers were using a case, or bumper.
“The data supports the fact that the iPhone 4 is the best smartphone in the world,” Mr. Jobs said. “And there is no ‘Antennagate.’ There is a challenge to the entire industry to improve antenna performance so that there are no weak spots.”
Mr. Jobs also rejected criticism that Apple had been slow to respond to complaints about the antenna, saying engineers had been working around the clock to diagnose the problem. “It is not like Apple has had its head in the sand,” he said. “It has been 22 days.”
Mr. Jobs revealed that Apple had sold more than three million of the black iPhone 4s and said the white model would start shipping at the end of the month. On July 30, Apple will start selling the iPhone 4 in 17 more countries, including Australia, Austria, Italy, Ireland and Switzerland.
Some Apple rivals took issue with the contention that all smartphones suffer from antenna problems. Karen Lachtanski, a spokeswoman for Nokia, said in an e-mail message that antenna performance can be affected by a tight grip, but added: “That’s why Nokia designs our phones to ensure acceptable performance in all real-life cases, for example when the phone is held in either hand.”
Sanjay K. Jha, Motorola’s co-chief executive, said in a statement that his company had avoided putting antennas on the outside of its phones “because consumers don’t like being told how to hold the phone.”
Mr. Jha said it was “disingenuous to suggest that all phones perform equally,” adding that in the company’s tests, Motorola’s new Droid X had performed better than the iPhone 4 when held in the hand.
Other phone makers and carriers contacted did not return calls for comment.
For its part, Consumer Reports, which shone a spotlight on the iPhone 4 problems by saying Monday that it could not recommend the device, called Apple’s response a “good first step.” Paul Reynolds, the magazine’s electronics editor, said it would continue to withhold its “recommended” rating.
“We want to take a little more time to see what else Apple will come up with,” he said.
No comments:
Post a Comment