Newsletter #462 Preview: Is Apple Finally Learning How to Listen to You?
October 5th, 2008On quite a number of occasions, Steve Jobs has said that Apple listens to its customers. In fact, he’s mentioned some examples when it comes to new product features and changes. Surely, when he made some unbelievably flippant remarks about last year’s major price cut to the iPhone, that it was the price early adopters pay for technology, he got an earful. It was such an earful, in fact, that Apple decided then and there to give a $100 credit to those most impacted by the price reduction.
As a result of such thoughtless behavior, it didn’t come as a surprise to see Apple referred to as “opaque” in a recent commentary about their inscrutable nature by columnist Rob Pegoraro in the Washington Post.
When Rob appeared as a guest on The Tech Night Owl LIVE recently, I found myself pretty much in agreement with everything he had to say. Apple’s typical public relations approach is notoriously secretive, even in situations where they need to be forthcoming about an important matter.
Certainly, the health of Steve Jobs is a matter of critical importance to the success of the company. Sure, there are thousands of smart people working at Apple developing and supporting their insanely great products. But it’s the vision of Steve Jobs that provides fuel to the company’s huge creative engine, right? How would they survive without him.
Well, supposedly, after some health issues earlier this year, he’s healthy, despite his gaunt appearance. However, when a fake report appeared on a CNN citizens blog that Jobs had suffered a major heart attack, the stock took a huge beating. The story turned out to be false, and some conspiracy theories suggested it was planted by nefarious hedge fund people who wanted to manipulate the stock price.
Story continued in this week’s Tech Night Owl Newsletter.
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