Computer Bild feels the wrath of Apple's PR department

Sep 30, 2014 14:25 GMT  ·  By

Apple has pulled Computer Bild’s accreditation after the German mag published a Bendgate video. The magazine’s editor-in-chief fired back with a letter addressing Tim Cook.

Computer Bild is probably not the only publication to feel the wrath of Apple by bending an iPhone 6 Plus on purpose using brute force just to show that the device is not indestructible.

Honestly, what are these people thinking?

Apple has always been sensitive about matters like these, pulling accreditation left and right whenever people intentionally cast a bad light on its products and / or practices.

Take the Antennagate episode as an example. As a result of publishing photos of a stolen prototype, Gizmodo lost all their Cupertino privileges. The entire tech world knows about it, and surely Computer Bild knew about it too. So it’s surprising that they’d go ahead and do their own Bendgate tests purely for the views.

Their tests are no more scientific than the vandalism acts carried out by those 15-year-olds yesterday.

According to the mag’s editor, they did it for the readers. We’re not buying it. If you’re out to do a public service, you do a scientific test like Consumer Reports. That’s proper reviewing. Not some guy with an urge to bend a phone. You can even see it on his face that he’s flexing every muscle in his body to warp the thing.

Computer Bild’s letter to Apple

We embedded the whole thing below, but here are some noteworthy excerpts.

“To be honest: We were shocked about how easy it was to bend the device.” It doesn’t look that way, guys. Sorry. In fact, everyone trying to bend iPhones on video looks like Superman fighting Kryptonite.

It continues: “And so were around 200.000 viewers who watched the video up until now. We can imagine that you and your colleagues must have been shocked, too.”

Why would they be shocked a full week into the debacle, with signs of the hype losing its Steam. Annoyed, maybe. Shocked? Probably not even when the first video came out.

“This might have been the reason why we got a call from one of your german colleagues the next morning,” the mag continues to spew. “He was upset, and it was a rather short conversation. ‘From now on,’ he said, ‘you won’t get any devices for testing purposes and you will not be invited to Apple events in the future.’”

Not that Apple is right

We do have to say that Apple’s approach wasn’t better. Pulling Computer Bild’s accreditation makes them look afraid of bad press. Instead, why not just work with the magazine to show the world that you have to try hard to bend it?

Bild’s people are obviously upset about the situation, and they’re letting Tim Cook have it. Get the full scoop in the letter embedded below, and let us know what you think. Whose side are you on?

Letter To Tim Cook