A recent new article from the Boy Genius Report is being used as a main source of news for many websites. However, the original article mistakenly quoted the Apple representative as saying that people should just relax because (the iPhone) is just a phone. The nonchalant and apathetic approach was thought by many to be quite the wrong attitude to show the public during the height of a major hardware issue in a new smart phone.
What made this even worse was that the emails seem to have come from Steve Jobs.
However, recent actions from Apple’s very own PR have come into play and the Boy Genius Report has updated their original article; first by properly placing the quote as one that is being said by the customer at the very end of the exchange (and not be Steve Jobs) as the man is obviously tired of having to deal with the issue. The second update confirmed that it was not actually Steve Jobs writing the emails.
In general, this is good, because it means that the email exchange does not represent Apple or the company’s stand regarding the issue. In fact, Apple is taking a very active role in trying to figure out what is wrong with the phone. Even if they are saying that the issue can be temporarily fixed by holding the device in a different manner, they know that an issue like this needs to be fixed.
At the same time, the prevalence of this news report –as errant as it may seem to be, is a reflection of how the tech industry views Steve Jobs. The man may be credited for being the business genius that he is, but at the same time, he is considered to be cold, brash and oftentimes, outright rude –to a point that when a news article depicts him as such, people are more likely to believe it.
