Apple Inc - A Case of Effective Communication
Apple, Inc.
A Case Study in External Communication
Executive Summary
Background:
On June 25, 2010 Apple released the iPhone 4. With its sleek, new, stainless steel frame design, thousands of people rushed to buy Apple’s latest gadget. Apple and its partner carriers received 600,000 pre-orders for the iPhone 4s in the first 24 hours, making it the largest number of pre-orders Apple had received in a single day for any device up to that time. By the end of the month, Apple had sold over 1.7 million iPhone 4s’.
Not long after the release, customers began to report antenna issues with the phone. They said that if they touched the antenna located on the outside of the phone or gripped the phone too hard, they would lose reception and their phone calls would drop. With such high demand for the iPhone 4, one would think that Apple would have ensured their product was as up to standard as possible before making the big release. Unfortunately, this was not the case and they were not prepared for such a large retaliation from the iPhone 4s users.
Apple was then faced with the challenge of having to address the issue to the public. From the result of the public address that Apple issued, two things are certain:
1. Apple was not prepared to deal with such negative feedback from their customers
2. Apple’s public relations or communications team did not handle the situation correctly.
They lacked some very basic communication skills and therefore failed to please their customers. Apple ignored the technical problem in their product. Then, after receiving thousands of complaints from their customers, they failed to fix the problem immediately. Lastly, they put very little effort in trying to regain their customers’ satisfaction after the initial disappointment in the iPhone 4s.
Main Issue at Hand:
The biggest issue with this problem was not necessarily the technical glitch, but rather Apple’s poor approach in addressing the issue. Instead of
A Case Study in External Communication
Executive Summary
Background:
On June 25, 2010 Apple released the iPhone 4. With its sleek, new, stainless steel frame design, thousands of people rushed to buy Apple’s latest gadget. Apple and its partner carriers received 600,000 pre-orders for the iPhone 4s in the first 24 hours, making it the largest number of pre-orders Apple had received in a single day for any device up to that time. By the end of the month, Apple had sold over 1.7 million iPhone 4s’.
Not long after the release, customers began to report antenna issues with the phone. They said that if they touched the antenna located on the outside of the phone or gripped the phone too hard, they would lose reception and their phone calls would drop. With such high demand for the iPhone 4, one would think that Apple would have ensured their product was as up to standard as possible before making the big release. Unfortunately, this was not the case and they were not prepared for such a large retaliation from the iPhone 4s users.
Apple was then faced with the challenge of having to address the issue to the public. From the result of the public address that Apple issued, two things are certain:
1. Apple was not prepared to deal with such negative feedback from their customers
2. Apple’s public relations or communications team did not handle the situation correctly.
They lacked some very basic communication skills and therefore failed to please their customers. Apple ignored the technical problem in their product. Then, after receiving thousands of complaints from their customers, they failed to fix the problem immediately. Lastly, they put very little effort in trying to regain their customers’ satisfaction after the initial disappointment in the iPhone 4s.
Main Issue at Hand:
The biggest issue with this problem was not necessarily the technical glitch, but rather Apple’s poor approach in addressing the issue. Instead of