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Steve Jobs, The Media and All Of Us
Today a slight diversion from VideoNuze's usual online/mobile video coverage, to share a few thoughts about "Antennagate" as the iPhone 4 signal loss issue has been called. If you're sick of reading anything related to Antennagate (and I don't blame you if you are) then feel free to move on now. But if you're like me, and believe that the whole Antennagate episode says far more about state of today's media than it does about Apple, then please read on.
The iPhone 4's signal issue, arising when the phone is held in a certain way has been demonstrated, and Steve Jobs completely acknowledged it right up front at Apple's press conference last Friday. However, since the start of Antennagate I've wondered just how serious it actually is? Apple's statistics, though no doubt presented with Jobs's best spin, pretty much summed up what I've suspected from the start - that Antennagate was a relatively minor issue completely blown out of proportion by the media.
In all the articles I read about Antennagate, the consistently missing piece was a real world quote from an actual iPhone 4 buyer who returned the device due to signal issues (Jobs revealed the returns number: a paltry 1.7%, less than a third of those who returned the iPhone 3GS). Absent this real-world sanity check, I had pretty much decided a while back that Antennagate was more about the media making a mountain out of a molehill to attract readers than anything else.
During the Q&A session Jobs hit on this same point, speculating that "it's human nature when you see someone get successful you just want to tear it down." He further took the media that whipped up the Antennagate story to task by saying "Sometimes I feel that in search of eyeballs for these web sites, people don't care about what they leave in their wake."
Though I respect the success Apple has become under Jobs, I've learned to be wary of him because of the overt showmanship and hyperbole he uses to describe Apple's products (the iPad being "magical" is just the latest example). Still, with respect to Antennagate, Jobs put his finger right on the problem of how today's media, too focused on one-upmanship and not enough on facts and restraint, works. Antennagate is a textbook example of why online news readers who are trying to be smarter about how they run their businesses need to read judiciously and cautiously. Sorting the real from the imagined when you're being bombarded by headlines on a daily basis is admittedly no easy task, but as Antennagate shows us, it's more important than ever.
With Antennagate, the Internet's echo-chamber was in full gear. Stories with no new facts ricocheted through blogs, Twitter, RSS feeds and even mainstream media each day. For sure Apple bobbled the ball along the way, further feeding the frenzy. Antennagate seemed to reach a crescendo of ridiculousness when Consumer Reports posted about why it couldn't recommend the iPhone 4. Instead of simply saying that by adding a bumper (something the vast majority of iPhone users seem to do anyway) the problem would be solved, Consumer Reports suggested using duct tape, a ludicrous hack that of course then became a touchstone of Antennagate. (Consumer Reports's exclusive use of its "isolation chamber" to test the iPhone 4's signal, instead of actual usage on the street, also seemed like a weirdly limited approach if their real goal was to size up how big an issue signal loss really was in actual use).
Apple is a big successful company and with Jobs's deft touch, it will put Antennagate behind it. In fact when Apple likely reports another blowout quarter this Thursday tomorrow (Tuesday), the story will quickly recede. What won't change however is the relentless pursuit by today's media of the next big "story." Once again we'll see bombastic headlines and carefree rumor-mongering. All of this means that readers will need to think critically for themselves, reaching their own conclusions and acting accordingly. When the next "Antennagate" inevitably arises, readers will need to decide if it's real or not.
What do you think? Post a comment now (no sign-in required).Categories: Devices
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