Apple CEO Cook goes from record sales to iPhone stumbles

12 years ago

“Apple Inc. Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook called the introduction of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus over the weekend the ‘best launch ever.'” Tim Higgins and Adam Satariano report for Bloomberg. “He may have spoken too soon.”

“Just three days after announcing that Apple had sold a record 10 million new iPhones over the opening weekend, Cook was faced with multiple snafus related to the bigger-screen handsets,” Higgins and Satariano report. “The company pulled a new mobile-software update, dubbed iOS 8.0.1, after the program caused some people to lose cellular service yesterday, and promised a fix soon. Scores of consumers also took to social media to criticize the 6 Plus and how it can bend if sat on or if enough pressure is placed upon it.”

MacDailyNews Take: SNAFU stands for Situation Normal, All F–ked Up. This is not a normal situation for Apple. Well, on second thought, maybe under Cook, it is.

“The stumbles blemished what had been a carefully choreographed product unveiling that was meant to put Cook’s stamp on Apple,” Higgins and Satariano report. “Now Cook’s rollout of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus is marred, recalling incidents that the CEO has faced with other product debuts. Last year, Cook apologized for the iPhone’s warranty and repair policies in China after receiving criticism from state-run media over customer service in the market. In 2012, Cook also said he was sorry for Apple’s malfunctioning mapping software, which was faulted for misguided directions and inaccurate landmark locations.”

MacDailyNews Take: The so-called “bending” issue is nothing more than FUD from competitors and parroted by idiots. The iOS 8.0.1. and Maps releases were fiascos for which Apple and Cook, as CEO, deserve to be lambasted.

“‘I just wish that Tim Cook had a better handle on things,’ said Jason Nochimson, 34, an iPhone 6 owner who spent 2 1/2 hours on Apple’s customer support line after downloading the software upgrade yesterday and finding it stopped his cellular service. ‘I was worried that my daughter’s school was going to call me today and I wasn’t going to be able to get them,'” Higgins and Satariano report. “Apple said in an e-mailed statement that it has devised a workaround for iPhone 6 users who lost voice service or other features. Users can reinstall the previous version of iOS to restore past functionality and Apple plans to release a new version of the operating system, iOS 8.0.2, in the next few days. ‘We apologize for the great inconvenience experienced by users,’ Apple said in the statement.”

“The new iPhones are crucial to Apple. The devices generate more than half of the company’s annual $171 billion in revenue and precede a swath of other products, including new iPads, an Apple Watch and a mobile-payments system called Apple Pay,” Higgins and Satariano report. “Nochimson, the customer who spent 2 1/2 hours on the phone with Apple customer service yesterday, said his representative was unaware there would be a software update. ‘He told me that he was not made aware that Apple was releasing 8.0.1 today,’ Nochimson said. ‘It was a shock to him that that happened. He said typically when they do software updates they know about it days in advance so they’re ready for it.'”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: Hey, Tim, we have an idea:

Get your shit together.

Perfection is unattainable, but a company the size of Apple, the world’s most valuable company, simply should never have squatted out something like iOS 8.0.1. You know, we know for a fact they have iOS developers on staff. So, where’s the quality control? And, did Apple even give their iOS 8.0.1 testers actual iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus on which to test iOS 8.0.1? Those were the devices affected by iOS 8.0.1. bugs. (We ask because many Apple employees are still stuck with rather old – in tech time – non-Retina MacBook Pros, so we’re wondering if that practice of lagging on hardware for employees extends to new iOS devices, too.)

Apologies are nice, but they only go so far. Fix the problem(s), Apple.

Here’s a time where Cook actually should ignore Steve Jobs’ advice and ask himself, “What would Steve do?” And then do it.