14 DAY TRIAL // A crisis communications expert is giving Apple high marks for Friday’s press conference, but an overall low score for the way it handled the entire “antennagate” situation since originally emerged, according to a report by Computerworld, cited by Macworld.
The tech-site offers a number of statements from Patrick Kerley, senior digital strategist with Levick Strategic Communications, a Washington, D.C.-based firm that specializes in situations where companies are backed against a wall. Kerley said, “For the test, I’d give Apple a B+ or A-, but for the entire semester, they get just a C.” The strategist said that “Apple got caught flat-footed,” adding that, “By waiting as long as they did, they created a vacuum of news, and others stepped in, like Consumer Reports, to fill that vacuum.”
Admittedly, Steve Jobs handled last week’s press conference very well, Kerley said: “That was a good way for him to walk into the conversation,” he said referring to Jobs’ defense of the iPhone 4, when the Apple CEO outlined that “All smartphones have weak spots, this is not unique to the iPhone 4.” Commenting on this approach, Kerley said: “That’s a pretty classic way to try to talk about a situation. The idea is to soften the focus on Apple.”
“They didn’t have to have a solution, but they needed to get out in front of it with a statement that they were working on it,” Kerley added, when asked what he would have told Apple if they had been a Levick client. “They should have simply acknowledged the fact that the iPhone 4 has reception problems, said ‘We’re getting reports of problems, and we’re invesitigating,’ then sit on that message throughout.”
However, some believe that Apple’s delayed response is well justified, and was actually necessary. Michael McGuire, an analyst with Gartner Research, counters Kerley’s beliefs, saying “One of the worst things you can do is appease bloggers, especially when it’s a technical issue. Apple had to be very careful about how to position [the iPhone 4’s problems] and how to disclose them.” The analyst added that “Reacting too quickly risks exacerbating the situation,” and provided a relevant example to Computerworld.
For iPhone 4 “Antennagate” coverage, scroll through the related links.