Apple’s press conferences are certainly different!

On the 16th July 2010 to sounds of smooth Jazz and a YouTube song, of which one of the key lyrics was “If you don’t want an iPhone 4 don’t buy it, if you don’t want an iPhone 4 take it back”, Steve Jobs jived onto stage with what looked liked Starbucks in hand. Referring to the YouTube song, Steve said “We saw that on YouTube last night” and thought we would share it with you”**.

The Press conference was called to respond to the on going comments in the press about the iPhone 4’s antenna problems dubbed “antenna-gate”. Apple had seen its stock value fall and its competitors attacking the iPhone 4 in the press. The antenna issue had been reported in the press pretty much from the launch of the iPhone 4 (21 days in the media). Steve Jobs, you would think would be a worried man, 57% (82% of iPhone owners)* of consumers in the UK said they had seen/heard issues to do with the iPhone 4 in the press. However Steve Jobs has a lot to be happy about, 3 million iPhone 4 sales in three weeks**, best ever quarter (£10.2bn in the three months up to 26th June)*** and Steve Jobs has leaped into the number one spot in the Media Guardian 100, not bad for the CEO of a company which in 1997 was on the brink disaster****.

Nine years ago with the launch of the iPod and seven years ago with the launch of iTunes Steve Jobs and Apple changed the way we consume music. Now with the iPhone it looks like they are changing what consumers want their mobile phone to do, 43% of consumers agree with the statement that “Apple has changed what consumers want their mobile phone to-do” and 41% agreed that “Apple is a market leader in mobile phones”*.

“Antenna-gate” gave Apple’s rivals their chance to add to Apple’s bad press over the iPhone 4’s antenna issue. Nokia decided to dedicate a page on its official blog entitled “how do you hold your Nokia?” ending with the comment “Of course, feel free to ignore all of the above because realistically, you’re free to hold your Nokia device any way you like. And you won’t suffer any signal loss. Cool, huh?”***** Nokia was probably not counting on members of the public proceeding to scan and paste on to its’ official blog copies of Nokia’s own instruction manuals pointing out to “Avoid touching the antenna area unnecessarily while the antenna is transmitting or receiving. Contact with the antenna affects the communication quality…”

Understanding your customers and consumers is very important today. Consumer generated media has a huge impact on your product, brand and reputation, it is something we at Opinium take very seriously and work hard with media companies to help them understand their audience. The “antenna-gate” issue does seem to have resulted in people becoming more cautious about buying or upgrading to the iPhone 4, 45% of iPhone 3GS users said that based on the stories head or seen in the press, that they were less likely to buy or upgrade to an iPhone 4*.

The antenna-gate incident was widely reported by media organisations and consumer generated media. Apple’s PR will be hoping that its press conference on 16th July did the trick but slowness in responding to this incident does seem to have damaged Apple’s brand, 42% of people disagreed with the statement that “Apple produces fault free mobile phones”*. Apple is also seen as expensive 50% agreed that “Apple’s mobile phones are too expensive for what they are”*. In this 24 hour seven days a week media world Opinium runs its “Brandcheck” in order to help brands measure and manage issues.

However if there is one silver lining for Apple, it would be that Apple understands its’ customers. The Applecare service is highly rated and anyone buying an iPhone 4 would have been entitled to a free single incident help within 90 days. When Opinium spoke to our representative sample of the UK we asked what manufacture of mobile phone they had and also how satisfied they were, a staggering 90% of iPhone owners were satisfied (60% very satisfied and 30% satisfied)*.

Design over function? – There may be something in that, however if Apple has demonstrated one thing very well it is that they understand their customers and provide them with what they want, which in today's market place is crucial.

If you would like to better understand how people engage with your content / gadget and what they think, contact paulcrooke@opinium.co.uk.

Sources:

*= Opinium Research, Nationally representative sample of the United Kingdom (N=2089) Conducted on Friday 16th July – Monday 19th July 2010
**= Apple Press conference 16th July 2010
*** = The Guardian 21st July 2010
****= Media Guardian 100 2010
*****Nokia's official blog