It’s Not Like I Didn’t Say This Was Going To Happen

Back in June I commented on the fact that customers of  the new Apple iPhone 4 complained about poor reception within hours of purchase and that Apple’s initial response was, “You’re holding it wrong.” Finally, after Consumer Reports gave the phone a “Not Recommended” rating, Steve Jobs came forth with his July press conference and stated that the performance issues were not to unique to Apple and that there was no “antennagate.”  He went on to say that because Apple loved their customers they were going to give all who purchased an iPhone 4 between the phone’s release date and 30 September, a new $30 case which would be a better fix than the duct tape solution Consumer Reports had recommended. 

So, $30 times the 8.4 million units sold since the release date equals $252 million dollar in lost additional sales. And if you’ve ever worked in retail, you know that add-on sales, which these cases were intended to be, add directly to the company’s bottom line. So it was a safe bet that if your name wasn’t Steve Jobs and you just cost your company $252 million dollars in sales, you might have a problem with job security. Well, today,  the other shoe dropped for the Apple iPhone 4 or at least for the man who was in charge of the iPhone and iPod division at Apple.  Mark Papermaster was fired from what had previously been one of Apple’s most successful money making divisions. The story of Mr. Papermaster’s hiring and firing is here. I don’t think Mr. Jobs attended Mr. Papermaster’s farewell party.