Yellow blotches, a dodgy phone antenna and easily-breakable glass. With grumbles about iPhone 4’s build quality growing, at this point one might be forgiven for expecting a recall…
But when the UK’s Mail On Sunday reported such today, it got the wrong end of the stick. It quoted Twitter’s @ceoSteveJobs as saying “We may have to recall the iPhone. This I did not expect.” … except @ceoSteveJobs is a fake Steve Jobs (not even the Fake Steve Jobs). The Mail quickly retracted its story after noticing the parody (copy here, courtesy of TheNextWeb).
But would a recall be such a bad idea… ?
As our finance chart shows, though June 7’s iPhone 4 announcement piled more than $30 on to Apple’s stock, the days in which the phone has actually been available have seen retrenchment, as reports of problems and supply issues filtered through….
With early reports of poor iPad WiFi reception (I can vouch for them), the iPhone 4 issues and – on a personal note – my iPhone 3G power button simply fell off recently, Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) needs to work carefully right now to retain its reputation for attention to detail and expert product building.
The Real Steve Jobs’ answer has been to tell users they’re holding the gadget wrong, that the blotches will go away and: “There is no reception issue. Stay tuned.”
Between these answers, may lay a combination of denial, truth, PR retort or arrogance. Jobs’ latter response may suggest a software update in an upcoming iOS upgrade. If the murmurs grow, Apple could have a material problem on its hands. But we simply don’t yet know how representative the complaints will turn out to be.
Until then, there’s an app for some folks finding the reception problem – it’s called Scotch tape. Apple is getting a little damaged by these reports, and ridiculed in another kind of parody; it must act…