By SteveJack
Apple screwed up two things with iPhone 4S: Media management and paint.
As I just wrote over here:
Why Apple didn’t leak “there will be no iPhone 5″ – strongly enough to seriously dent the rumors – to The Journal or some other credible outlets last week is beyond us. Leaks to convey important information to trusted journalists is nothing unusual and Apple’s done it many times before. Tamping down overwrought expectations should be standard operating procedure for Apple Inc. And it’s so easy! Under-promise (this includes not only saying little, but also managing out-of-control expectations) and over-deliver. So simple.
And, it obviously doesn’t matter if Apple said anything about an iPhone 5 or not, it’s the perception that’s the problem. In general, too many people expected an “iPhone 5.” That is clearly a problem for iPhone 4S. That the overly-inflated expectations were not caused by Apple is meaningless. It’s Apple’s job to manage hyped up expectations that will negatively impact the reception of their products – especially with a new CEO trying to do the impossible and stand up there in Steve Jobs shoes. Why is Apple so tone deaf? Have they become too insular?
The same sort of media mismanagement happened with “AntennaGate,” too. Apple was maddeningly slow to react, lost control of the narrative early on, and then had to resort to trotting out no less than Steve Jobs – along with videos of competitors’ phones attenuating all over the place – for a way-late dog and pony show just to regain some vague semblance of the control they never should have relinquished in the first place! Apple seemingly manages everything well, except for the media sometimes. Ignoring the media and letting hype spiral out of control is not a valid strategy for managing your message, Apple; it’s incompetence.
But, even without doing a thing to properly manage the hype, Apple could have better launched iPhone 4S – and sold many more units – with just a bit of paint.
Where is the silver iPhone 4S? Apple can clearly make them black. They can finally make them white, too. Silver couldn’t be that difficult. Apple forgot to make a silver one!
What, you don’t like silver? Then substitute “silver” with “unlike iPhone 4.”
Call me shallow. Call me elitist. But I want my iPhone 4S to proclaim its iPhone 4S-ness to everyone who sees it. And their mothers. Whether you admit it or not, you probably do, too. Certainly, you can admit that it might be possible that more people than not would like and want an iPhone 4S more if it wasn’t doomed to forever be confused with any random old iPhone 4.
I mean, seriously, if I’m going to make the effort to stand in line Day One, I want an iPhone that screams, “I’m new! I’m the best there is! Nah, nah, nah, nah, nah!”
iPhone 3GS suffered from the same problem. It looks exactly like an iPhone 3G. And, for that reason, to the general public, the 3GS just wasn’t anywhere near as compelling as was iPhone 3G or iPhone 4.
Like it or not, people judge a book by its cover. Back when everyone had a 3G or 3GS and you’d whip out your new iPhone 4, people looked. Some of them even stared. They asked you about it or they at least noticed. Now, you brandish your big, bad, nondescript iPhone 4S in public and you might as well have pulled a freaking Android out of your pocket. The collective meh will be deafening.
I’m telling you, had Apple introduced iPhone 4S in a choice of black, white, or silver, the silver model would have outsold the black and white models combined. With ease.
There’s still time to introduce a silver iPhone 4S, Apple. I won’t even charge you (much) for the idea.
SteveJack is a pen name used by a long-time Macintosh user, web designer, multimedia producer and, when he feels like it, a contributor to both MacDailyNews Takes and the Opinion section.
It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.
The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.
Theodore Roosevelt
Beautiful and spot on!
” . . . those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat” but only copy the work of others.
Right, Samsung?
+10. I lol’d 🙂
Too true.
Thank you
Ridiculous. Most people bury their iPhones in a case, so you never see anything but the glass front anyway. I would like the silver color; that would be cool.
But to say that Apple won’t sell as many iPhone 4Ss as it would have iPhone 5s is silly. You’re forgetting how many people who have iPhone 4s are locked into their contracts, most with the new, higher $350 early termination fee (particularly on Verizon, where people haven’t even been on the contract for a year yet). So upgrading without paying a huge amount isn’t an option anyway, no matter what Apple released.
Want your iPhone to look different? Buy a new case.
“But to say that Apple won’t sell as many iPhone 4Ss as it would have iPhone 5s is silly. ”
That’s probably why SteveJack never said such a thing.
Ouch!
By the way, with iPhone 4S people will be free to go from Verizon to AT&T to Sprint when their contract expires or if they are buying unsubsidised phone (more actual for international markets).
There is no silver paint which would not contain metal particles, so it is not really possible for Apple to use it.
Apple could only use metal back in 2G phone since 2G signals are of lower frequency and have higher strength. 3G is faster requires either plastic or glass, and the paint obviously can not have metal particles.
Best antennas ever, wrapped around the edges, nice try.
In terms of shielding radio (cellular) signal by metal (metal-containing glass) back, the outer antenna does not improve anything much. Signal gets blocked in significant area of directions around the device. So if you situate the phone one way, the connection will be strong, but if you will situated it differently, your voice call (data connection) will be all of sudden much weaker/lost.
Of course, Apple (Jobs) would want to make metal/silver back as they did in original iPhone, but they can not.
“Nice try”.
This is utter BS, IMHO.
Totally BS. Written by a grade school student who only cares about image not tech. iPhone 4S is freaking awesome and worthy of an 18 month reign. Don’t expect a 4G LTE iPhone 5 before Spring 2013. The market doesn’t need nor want it before then.
only time will tell if Apple screwed up with the 4s. My money is on Apple.
No silver iPhone but we got a white iPod Touch. That’s an upgrade, right?
Agree 100% with this. Even more would have been sold with a larger form factor version housing an elite 4″ screen.
Lesseee…. if the iPhone had a 4 inch screen;
I wouldn’t have bought one
My wife wouldn’t have bought one
My sister wouldn’t have bought one and
My mom wouldn’t have bought one.
iPhone 4 (s) is already borderline “too large” to hold/carry comfortably and, unless a larger screen could be packed into the existing case, I don’t want one.
+1
The only good way to make 4″ screen is to only extend in length/height, without changing width of the phone. This means change of aspect ration from 1:1.5 to 16:9.
The additional space would be reserved for task switching and other OS-only functions, and used in wide-screen view of video. All the rest will be steel given a “canvas” consisting of the usual 960×640.
Why not make the phone slightly longer and wider? I see no reason why this would not be practical. It would easily fit in any pocket.
Enough with bigger screen already. The iPhone is big enough!
So many people that are downing the iPhone 4S now will still buy it an love it in the next few months.
Steve, I get your point. However, if you are like me, this is what’s really going on. You hype Apple to the world because you love their products – hardware and software. It’s not that they can’t screw up but their products are so much better it’s crazy. It’s crazy other people don’t see it as clearly as we do.
We are known as mavens. That is, whenever someone has a tech question – and especially and Apple question – they come to us. We’re smart. We’re sharp. We can defend almost anything about Apple because, well, they aren’t a hacked OS running on multiple manufacturers’ fragmented devices. They aren’t built cheaply to try and maintain razor sharp margins.
So we see Android increasing market share. That, my friend, isn’t a result of Android being better. It’s clearly not. It’s because Android manufacturers drive down each others’ margins. It’s because shortcuts are taken and they are cheap. There is a large section of people who just want cheap and are willing to accept crap. Look at the new Amazon Fire. It’s a freakin’ PlayBook. It sucks. But people will buy it because it costs $200 and comes from Amazon.
And so we find ourselves a little under fire just like the good ole days of PC versus Mac. We continue to hype up the iPhone 5.
And when Apple delivers an iPhone 5 in a 4S shell, people try to make fun of us and pummel us. Fact is, Apple did tell us.
Notice the “4” (date) in their media email? Just like the iPad 2 launch (which was on the 2nd), the 4 denotes that it would be a 4 device. As well, Apple now has a pattern of 3, 3gs, 4, 4s. So when the 5 has been out for a year, expect a 5s even when all the media calls for a 6. Especially if the media date is on the 5th.
Truth is, Apple released pretty much every thing that was hyped except a larger screen (which wasn’t coming because the iPhone 5 is going to have curved glass and Apple just started experimenting with it.) It didn’t have a new form factor. It didn’t have the “5” moniker.
When people come up to me and ask, I simply tell them the 4s is everything that was hyped. It’s an awesome device. If you want the 5, you’ll be waiting a year. Get the 4s now.
Time will tell but the 4s with Siri is a MASSIVE release. Anyone with sense could have predicted the 5 wasn’t coming out.
The only hard proof of the 5 was from case designers in China and likely Apple seeded that to cause them all to lose a bunch of money predesigning cases on false rumors.
Could Apple have issued a press release earlier saying they weren’t going to release a 5? The did through WSJ among others that there would be no iPhone 5.
Apple rocks. The iPhone 4s is unreal. Siri is something that won’t be copied in 2 years let alone 1. And it just works.
Add in iOS 5 and iCloud, TV mirroring, 1080p recording, 8mpx camera and wow.
Book ‘m, Danno.
I simply wrote all that just for your comment Ringgo. My day has been made.
Be there. Aloha!
I soooo want a silver iPhone 4S now!
SteveJack’s totally right: it would outsell the black and white 4S models combined.
I’m holding out for the Lil Wayne Gold Edition.
: )
…uuuhhh, well, no….never mind…
I want the Eddie Bauer Edition.
I hear that leather touchscreen kicks ass!!!
I never though the same brilliant Steve Jack that brought many od us over here with brilliance would loose his balance and perspective because he’s worried about his investment taking a hit.
Appe’s iPhone 4s will be more coveted than the 4 and will see record sales – I bet your ass on that Jack. You’ve lost it.
Stupidest crap I’ve seen today. ThAnk you for living up to the stereotype of apple users being “look at me” form over function snobs. I could care less what anyone thinks of my electronics choices, I do want the best, for ME, not for appearances. The 4s looks very compelling, I’m getting one.
You are grossly incorrect.
Stereotypical Apple users are nowhere near the stereotype you seem to bestow on them. However, vast majority of iPhone owners (current and future) are NOT stereotypical Apple owners; they are ordinary people. And ordinary people are exactly what Steve Jack describes: when they hear an announcement of something new, they want it to be really new, and not old.
Because world is populated with ordinary people (and not stereotypical Apple users), even a small, but conspicuous change in the 4GS appearance to set it apart from 4 would have definitely made a difference on the perception, and therefore the bottom line.
The typical users don’t care what design the iPhone is, they do care because of quality, service, and support. They care because it just works beyond expectation. The iPhone 4S will be the most successful release to date. Watch.
I’m a long, long time Apple user, as in Apple II. I wasn’t bestowing any stereotype on Apple users. I’ve had to listen to that crap for years.
From the ‘editorial’: “Call me shallow. Call me elitist. But I want my iPhone 4S to proclaim its iPhone 4S-ness to everyone who sees it. And their mothers. Whether you admit it or not, you probably do, too. Certainly, you can admit that it might be possible that more people than not would like and want an iPhone 4S more if it wasn’t doomed to forever be confused with any random old iPhone 4.”
THAT, THAT, is what I was railing against. That is the old stereotype I have battled for years, PERSONIFIED. I left out ELITE, which is the stereotype you seem to bestow on apple users since they are not ‘ordinary people’.
WTF..
The shallow lives of people clamoring for change just for the sake of change.
Wow, is it a phone or a fashion accessory? Seriously, this is just vapid.
It’s both. Always has been.
Function and design before fashion sheep always.
Silver? No, no, that don’t play in my yard. It’d be like all them silver cars out there ad infinitum. Besides, the sides are already a nice metal finish. How about some of the iPod colors on the antenna band?
I just wanted a bigger screen, and I liked the look of the “unibody” mockups. Other than that, it has everything I wanted…especially the 64GB. I’ll be camping out for mine.
SteveJack, We’ll get right on it. We’re painting the silver iPhones in the garage, and we’ll hold another special event soon to announce them.
This article is ridiculous. WTF is wrong with MDN as of late. Some spoiled rotten kid? Geez! The iPhone 4S is beyond EPIC! Get over your self-delusion of being special as a public status symbol of having a Silver iPhone. I wanna puke, seriously pathetic. That isn’t the Apple way? Have you totally lost perspective? Are you Paris Hilton?
“Are you Paris Hilton?”
In some respects definitely but without the sex appeal.
Did you actually READ Steve Jack’s article???
He is saying precisely that: iPhone 4S is epic. What he is saying is that ordinary (dumb) masses may not realise this, or may be annoyed that owning such an epic phone may be lost on their peers, who may think the person has an old, last-year-model iPhone 4. In other words, Steve Jack is arguing that the vast masses that buy iPhones tend to be dumb and associate the appearance change with substance change. For them, same look means same phone, and it will be an obstacle that Apple will need to overcome by investing (into advertising, probably). Even when they DO successfully educate the dumb public that the new 4S phone is so much better, people will still be confused (customer in an AT&T store: “So which one is this, the old one, or the new one? How can I tell?”).
The argument is valid.
Actually he’s mainly saying Apple should have tempered expectations by setting the expectations. Bull.
Can’t agree. The commercials highlighting the new killer features will educate the “dumb” public. If one thing sets Apple apart from most other marketers it’s that the product, once seen, sells itself. Listen—were customers all that confused about iPhone 3G vs. 3GS?
In the short time there will be disappointment and shock. But after the dust is settled in, people will appreciate how Apple think that this BIG improvement is not quite big for them to change the code name from 4 to 5. Consumer will appreciate how Apple don’t cheat their consumer with a silver lipstick or a new name tag. They name it as it is, iPhone 4S. Simply because they know what iPhone 5 is. Consumer can’t fool by silver lipstick and name tag anymore.
The only screw up is they should have just called it the 5.
it just goes to show how dumb group market mentality is.
Looks like Jack don’t know shit from shinola
You’ve got it. It’s the name that freaked people out. Apple was too humble- the upgrade merits a new whole number. People are now holding off because they expect iPhone 5 sooner rather than later. Worse- people think hardly anything’s changed. Now, the iPod Touch “upgrade” was better left unmentioned- insulting. Might as well get a Kindle. Best writing on this subject is by Ted Landau- “why the presentation was disappointing, but the phone isn’t.”
SnobJack
@ET – I agree with betting on Apple.
It has been my experience, over the years, that those who show the most outrage at something Apple does are the same ones who later prove to be very wrong.
yup, you nailed it, Stevejack. you’re shallow.
Paint would not resolve Apple’s less-than-stellar consumer response to the iPhone 4S unveiling.
While it is true that Apple may be unfairly criticized for adopting the same “tick-tock” development cycle that Intel has used successfully for many years — with complete consumer acceptance — it is also true that Apple did not address many issues:
1. inadequate explanation of Siri. For many users “Artificial Intelligence” is not a selling point, but a Catch-22-like Big Brother. And voice control simply has never worked as well as advertised before — it will take time to prove itself.
2. Apple endlessly continues promises of cloud services when ALL such services offered to consumers to date by Apple and others have sucked, big time. Even if Apple’s Mobile-Me rehash did work on their end as advertised, the “cloud” is useless for anyone who does not have 100% reliable internet access at all times. Wake up, Apple, cellular data communications are hobbled with caps or expensive surcharges. And Wi-Fi is a frustrating patchwork. Most consumers can’t even configure their home wi-fi for optimal performance, let alone find reliable network access wherever they travel.
3. And, yes, Apple’s anticipated internal improvements should have included some obvious change to the wrap-around antenna that lingers as a significant problem in some users’ minds.
4. The iPhone 4 form factor is less attractive and less comfortable than all prior iPhones in my humble opinion. I suspect i’m not alone.
0 for 4. Wanna take another at-bat there, Mike?
And why is it that everyone discounts the intelligence of the “consumer”? If they were as lemming-like as people on this message board seem to think, nobody would be buying any iPads, either. At some point you have to give credit to the consumers for recognizing that Apple IS creating products that are better than the schlop that is out there as alternatives. If consumers were not savvy, as many seem to think. Apple would be hurting right now as a company. Seems to me they are doing okay.
And lastly, anyone who think the 4S is going to be a flop is seriously underestimating the magnitude of Siri and where it is going to take people with their phones. That’s a mistake, IMO.
Right with you, Norrin.
Norrin, I did not suggest that the 4S would be a flop. I merely stated that lukewarm consumer/critic reaction could not have been avoided with a different color paint as suggested in this article; my 4 points are indeed being discussed by others as reasons that they won’t replace their phone immediately; they’ll get the 4S when their current phone is due for replacement.
Care to explain your reasoning why you think the points are invalid? You offer nothing in your rebuttal but a very fundamentally wrong logic, that Apple is “doing okay” “as a company” (financially?) and therefore the 4S will not be a flop. Of course the 4S won’t be a flop, but this is not because Apple’s financial success. It’s because the 4S has competitive hardware equal or better than the competition at an equivalent price, and its software and accessory infrastructure support are world-leading. No one but the occasional Android crackhead would dispute that.
What I bring up is the reality check that sales of the 4S might not take off quite as fast as prior iPhone models. I suggest you read other non-Apple-centric reports to see what others feel about the 4S, and you will find that all of my points are indeed valid reasons that won’t necessarily slow new iPhone sales, but certainly would have garnered new customer praise and prompted more immediate cell phone replacement demand if Apple had done them differently.
Only tiny portion of Apple customers ever heard/cared/wanted specifically “iPhone 5”.
Normal people are not like us, they do not browse computer technology sites every day, they do not hype themselves up, they do not really care.
So before seriously talking about any damage to Apple, you have take into account that this tornado in the glass is mostly irrelevant.
I see the same hype over the Apple branded TV set. I hope Apple doesn’t go there. Just mature the AppleTV and let people hang that iOS device on the back of the HDTV. Who cares about the low profit HDTV set. Just stick with the larger market and maybe even give us a Mac mini DVR with iCloud and iOS app features. Think bigger. Think different again.
You’re not thinking differently enough. The TV ecosystem is a mess and Apple can fix it. Think 4K TV with iOS, a fast processor, wireless connectivity with every other iDevice and the iTunes/iCloud glue, so to speak, and this is a product that will upset the current state of things in a very good way.
Follow that last bit of advice of yours. Think bigger. As in TV. As in really big, really powerful and really beautiful iPad on the wall- and the sum of all these devices functioning together will be far greater than they would by themselves.
The nascent iOS environment is far from complete.
Not to forget a red one. My wife would so love it and I would buy for Christmas. And a pink one for my daughters. No, I am NOT kidding. Color sells to different peer groups even I personally ever will buy a black one. However, I bought 150 Apple shares today since they got cheaper over the last days but will go up again.
I want the camouflage model!!! Damn it, why can’t Apple be like other retailers?
What is an iPhone 5?
What features does it have that the 4S doesn’t?
The ‘disappointment’ in the media is driven by the Android establishment and is an act of desperation. It says more about the lawsuits which are stymying Android sales before the Christmas season, than anything else.
iPhone 4S will sell well.
But I think the sleeper story is the iPhone 3GS. It’s free. Households with kids or strapped for cash will buy them up.