11:26AM Looks like that's it! Lots of questions still linger, if you ask us.
11:26AM "Okay so I think this is it. Has that helped? I wish we could have done it sooner, but then you wouldn't have had anything to write about."
11:25AM Q: Will the bumper offer extend outside of the US?
A: Yes.
Q: And beyond September 30th?
A: We'll evaluate.
A: Yes.
Q: And beyond September 30th?
A: We'll evaluate.
11:24AM Q: You've been communicating with customers through email quite a bit -- how is that impacting how you're dealing with these issues.
Steve: I always have, and you know, the address is out there and I've always emailed people back. I try to reply to some of them because they're our customers. But now people post them to the web... and some people just make things up. So don't believe everything you read!
Steve: I always have, and you know, the address is out there and I've always emailed people back. I try to reply to some of them because they're our customers. But now people post them to the web... and some people just make things up. So don't believe everything you read!
11:22AM Q: Well you fixed this bug two years ago, and now you say there's always been a problem...
A: They're probably unrelated. I honestly don't remember what the issue was before, but they're probably totally separate.
A: They're probably unrelated. I honestly don't remember what the issue was before, but they're probably totally separate.
11:15AM Q: What kind of impact do you think this will have on sales?
Tim: We'll hold financial stuff for our Q2 results call next week.
Tim: We'll hold financial stuff for our Q2 results call next week.
11:13AM To be clear, Jobs was not happy with our question. "You guys talk to each other a lot."
11:12AM We asked if there was possibility of a software fix... based on the NYT article stating an inside source claimed there could be a fix of that type coming.
Steve had a long answer largely dismissing the question. Then Scott Forstall asked for a mic, and he said that the statement in the Times was "patently false."
Steve had a long answer largely dismissing the question. Then Scott Forstall asked for a mic, and he said that the statement in the Times was "patently false."
11:08AM Q: Was a recall ever up for discussion?
Steve: We get email from people all over the world about issues. We're really serious about this. We try to figure this out. We come out to their places with test equipment, we want to see logs. We try to get the info and figure it out...
Bob: For the record, we told them we were coming first.
Steve: And we didn't break down any doors.
Big laughs for that one, on stage at least!
Steve: We get email from people all over the world about issues. We're really serious about this. We try to figure this out. We come out to their places with test equipment, we want to see logs. We try to get the info and figure it out...
Bob: For the record, we told them we were coming first.
Steve: And we didn't break down any doors.
Big laughs for that one, on stage at least!
11:06AM Steve: But not everyone is seeing this -- a small number encounter it. For those customers we'll get them a case, and if that doesn't work, we'll get them a full refund. And we'll continue to work on antennas that don't have this problem. But I think we're where the rest of industry is right now.
11:04AM Q: Is there a hardware redesign in this generation that could fix this problem?
A: You can go on the web and look at pictures of Nokia phones that ship with stickers on the back that say "don't touch here" -- you can go on YouTube and see these. We should you three phones today, all good phones. So right now the state of the art of the entire industry is that no one has solved this problem. Would I like Apple to be first? Yes. Can we make it better right now? Maybe, we'll see.
A: You can go on the web and look at pictures of Nokia phones that ship with stickers on the back that say "don't touch here" -- you can go on YouTube and see these. We should you three phones today, all good phones. So right now the state of the art of the entire industry is that no one has solved this problem. Would I like Apple to be first? Yes. Can we make it better right now? Maybe, we'll see.
11:03AM Q: Would you have done anything differently knowing what you know now?
Steve: Well, of course the Consumer Reports stuff was bad, and of course we would have liked to get on this sooner. We just got this data. We just learned what was going on. We're an engineering company. We think like engineers. We love it, we think it's the right way to solve real problems. I don't think that's going to change, and the way we love our customers isn't going to change. Maybe it's human nature -- when you're doing well, people want to tear you down. I see it happening with Google, people trying to tear them down. And I don't understand it... what would you prefer? That we were a korean company, that we were here in America leading the world with these products... maybe it's just that people want to get eyeballs on their sites. We've been around for 34 years... haven't we earned the credibility and the trust of the press? I think we have that from our users. I didn't see it exhibited by some of the press as this was blown so far out of proportion. I'm not saying we didn't make a mistake -- we didn't know that it would have these issues, we didn't know we were putting a bull's eye on the phone... but this has been so overblown. But to see how we could do better is going to take some time.
Steve: Well, of course the Consumer Reports stuff was bad, and of course we would have liked to get on this sooner. We just got this data. We just learned what was going on. We're an engineering company. We think like engineers. We love it, we think it's the right way to solve real problems. I don't think that's going to change, and the way we love our customers isn't going to change. Maybe it's human nature -- when you're doing well, people want to tear you down. I see it happening with Google, people trying to tear them down. And I don't understand it... what would you prefer? That we were a korean company, that we were here in America leading the world with these products... maybe it's just that people want to get eyeballs on their sites. We've been around for 34 years... haven't we earned the credibility and the trust of the press? I think we have that from our users. I didn't see it exhibited by some of the press as this was blown so far out of proportion. I'm not saying we didn't make a mistake -- we didn't know that it would have these issues, we didn't know we were putting a bull's eye on the phone... but this has been so overblown. But to see how we could do better is going to take some time.
10:58AM John Gruber: Do any of you use the cases? I don't.
Steve: Well I don't. And I get better reception, I hold it like this [death grip] and never see problems.
Steve: Well I don't. And I get better reception, I hold it like this [death grip] and never see problems.
10:52AM Q: Is there anything you could have said in the launch keynote to lower expectations?
Steve: (Long answer) Not really. We could have said "hey if you hold the phone in this certain way you might see some signal attenuation..." We're human. We make mistakes, and we figure it out fast. That's why we have the best and most loyal customers in the world.
Steve: (Long answer) Not really. We could have said "hey if you hold the phone in this certain way you might see some signal attenuation..." We're human. We make mistakes, and we figure it out fast. That's why we have the best and most loyal customers in the world.
10:51AM Apparently we missed that Jobs called that Bloomberg report mentioned earlier "total bullshit." Pretty strong...
10:36AM "We do this because we love our users, and if we screw up, we pick ourselves up and we try harder. And when we succeed, they reward us by staying our users. We take this really personally. Maybe we should have a wall of PR people keeping us away from this stuff, but we don't, we take it really personally. So we've worked the last 22 days on this trying to solve the problem. And we think we've gotten to the heart of the problem."
10:33AM "Also on July 30th, we're going to bring the iPhone to 17 more countries, with the omission of South Korea. So that's the update on iPhone 4."
10:32AM "So I have some other updates. We're tracking some problems with the proximity sensor and we're working on it. White iPhone, we're going to start shipping at the end of the month."
10:31AM "And if you're not happy, you can bring the phone back. We'll give you a full refund within 30 days. No restocking fee. We want to make everyone happy, and if we can't make you happy we'll give you a full refund."
10:30AM "We're going to send you a free case. We can't make enough bumpers. No way we can make enough in the quarter. So we're going to source some cases and give you a choice."
