Is Apple Outside→In™ when it comes to customer service?
Posted by Mary Lee Shalvoy on Fri, Jul 16, 2010
We've been following the whole Apple "Antennagate" story today, mostly for fun (since we got the new iPhone 4 the first day, thankyouverymuch) and partly because we recently wrote about Apple being a company that espouses the Outside→In™ approach in its development.
Today's press conference about the situation and Apple's response to the problems of the antenna was part of the company's strategic management of its user base. It does beg the question (for us, at least): Is Apple Outside→In™ when it comes to customer service?
[Click here for the whole press conference as it was live blogged on www.engadget.com.]
First, we believe that, like the iPad, the iPhone 4 is the result of Apple's Outside→In™ approach to development and the market. It has features that answer our needs in a smartphone and more. Is it the best smartphone? After certain specific benchmarks, that title is subjective, and, the "best in technology" title only stands until the next leading edge product comes out. It seems that antennas are part of a design flaw in smartphones in general and something that everyone is working on. "Less dropped calls" is every cell phone company's marketing line, which indicates that there are some to begin with. Anyone that says that the Blackberry has no dropped calls is lying, whether your service is AT&T, Verizon or any of the other carriers.
For some people, Jobs' response was not enough of an apology and more of a reluctant, and arrogant, admittance to the problem. Let's get some perspective on this, Apple's faulty cell phone antenna is not akin to Toyota's sticking gas pedal or BP's gushing well. Those faulty designs require continued apologies. No one is dying due to a dropped call (we hope).
From our perspective, Jobs was the mouthpiece for a large group of engineers who seem to be dedicated to their own mission of providing a well-developed product by listening to their customers. If they didn't listen, there wouldn't have been a press conference today.
Now, how do we get that free bumper case?