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.