blog364

Thank you Steve Jobs

No one but you (only the good die young) by Queen:

A hand above the water

An angel reaching for the sky

Is it raining in heaven -

Do you want us to cry?

And everywhere the broken-hearted

On every lonely avenue

No-one could reach them

No-one but you

One by one

Only the Good die young

They’re only flying too close to the sun

And life goes on -

Without you…

Another Tricky Situation

I get to drownin’ in the Blues

And I find myself thinkin’

Well – what would you do?

Yes! – it was such an operation

Forever paying every due

Hell, you made a sensation

You found a way through

One by one

Only the Good die young

They’re only flyin’ too close to the sun

We’ll remember -

Forever…

And now the party must be over

I guess we’ll never understand

The sense of your leaving

Was in the way it was planned…

So we grace another table

And raise our glasses one more time

There’s a face at the window

And i aint never, never saying goodbye…

One by one

Only the Good die young

They’re only flyin’ too close to the sun

Cryin’ for nothing

Cryin’ for no-one

No-one but you

… and thank you for so much magic!

I love Apple products. I love how they look, I love how they function and I love how they make me feel when I use them (Seth Godin was right in All Marketer are Liars when he said that we don’t buy products, we buy the stories that we tell ourselves about the products we buy!), but please don’t call me a “fanboy”. A “fanboy” has nothing but great things to say for the brands/products he/she loves. As much as I can see and appreciate the greatness in Apple (whether you like it or not they’ve come back from an ‘almost’ assure extinction), I can also see its shortcoming, mistakes and fumbles. From the app store approval process to the recent “antennagate“, Apple has had and will continue to have its share of issues. But one issue that no one seems to have brought up or made much fuss about is the current inability to delete any one of the pre-installed Apple apps on any of the iPhones.

My iPhone 3G came with 20 pre-installed apps. Of all these, there’s only one that I can think of that shouldn’t be deleted: Settings. This would be the same as deleting the Control Panel on a PC or System Preferences on a Mac. Clearly there’s a need for it. But why can’t I delete any of the other applications, such as: Weather, Stocks, Clock, Photos, et’al? Certainly, there are thousands of other applications in the App Store that can do the same things that these pre-installed apps can do and better. Why is it that Apple will let me uninstall pretty much any application that came pre-installed on my MacBook Pro but won’t let me do so from my phone?

So I decided to call Apple Care (I paid a pretty penny for it, so I figure I’d put it to some good use). After a little bit or “routing me around” I finally heard what I was expecting: “We don’t support that functionality. If you don’t want to see the pre-installed apps, just move them to the last ‘page’ on the phone.” Again…. F#$*ING LUDICROUS!!! Move them? Shove them under the proverbial “carpet”? OMG – LOL! This to me sounded much like the, now infamous, email from Steve Jobs to the user complaining about the iPhone 4 reception issues where he tells him to “Just avoid holding it in that way.”

I’m not saying: “don’t give me any pre-installed apps with my new phone”. All I’m asking is to have the choice to remove them if I want to. It’s my phone, I should be able to have a saying in what I put in it and what I remove. Can you imagine Ford telling you that you cannot change the tires on your new car or the stereo? Ludicrous!!!

Not too long ago Microsoft was made to capitulate about including Internet Explorer with Windows OS. Microsoft argued that it needed to include IE with Windows for the OS to work. The courts didn’t buy the argument and Microsoft had to provide a way to remove the intruding program (albeit in a way that made you feel that you were better off WITH the program rather than trying to go through the week long process to remove it!). That was ONE program. My iPhone has over 10.

To: Steve Jobs, Jonathan Ive, Apple designers, et’al: your customers are smarter and more capable to make choices on their own, even if you don’t agree with them, than you give them credit for. Exercising such a tight control over your products long AFTER they have left the factory and been paid for will only help, in the not so-long term, to alienate your core supporters and only leave the “fanboys” behind. Of which, I’m sure aren’t enough to sustain your delusions of grandeur. You created the BEST MP3 player in the world but you didn’t tell us how to fill it up. You gave us great laptops but trusted us to fill them with useful applications…. please trust us that we are equally capable with your….err…. OUR phones!

Sincerely,

A loyal Apple user, but NOT a “fanboy”

As Friday morning approaches (July 16, 2010, at 10:00 am) and we all get ready for Apple’s last minute press conference about their new iPhone 4 and scandal, we can only guess and speculate as to what Jobs’ and Co. have to say and/or tell us about Apple’s latest and greatest PR fumble.

Right now the web is abuzz with blog postings about what Apple may say or do (“It’s NOT a bug. It’s a feature.” – FREE bumper cases for everyone – Total Recall!, etc). Where theories and guesstimates abound, a very important one seems to be missing from everyone’s predictions… and it’s probably the one that Apple “fan-boys” would like to hear the most: We, Apple customers, won’t hear:

iAM Sorry!

“I am sorry!”

Three simple words. Three simple words that had Jobs’ or anyone else at Apple said, as soon as the reports of the reception problems started coming in, would had diffused most of the troubles, angry customer and bad PR for Apple. Now, I’m not saying that just by saying: “I’m sorry” we would have just go ,quietly, back to our lives without feeling ripped-off that we spent $200 plus to get a phone that…well… it takes great pictures. No! It would have not been enough but it would have been a great way for Apple to star dealing with a situation that, I think, they knew it was coming.

A few years ago I was working at your typical Silicon Valley start-up. You know… “we have to build an N-tier application with a holographic communication device using only Lego parts and duct tape in three weeks and can only spend $1.29 (and that needs to include pizza and sodas).” That means that needs where greater than resources so we had to wear the proverbial “many hats.” One of the “hats” that I had to wear was that of “technical support and customer service.” Having a half baked application going live to customers (we only had $51c left) was a sure sign that we’d be getting plenty of calls in the “hot-line” – now, I’m not calling it the hot-line because it was our tech support number. I’m calling it that way because the phone was literally getting HOT from all the calls that we were getting. Now, we had customers calling us from the entire “anger/frustrated” spectrum (and let me tell you… it’s a looooooooong one). We knew that we couldn’t resolve all the problems for all our customers right away and/or in a satisfactory manner (but we were doing our best!). But we had a strategy to help us cope. Or more precisely, help our customers cope… The FIRST thing we’d say to our customers after they were done “explaining” their problems in as calm a manner as they could was: I’AM SORRY you are experiencing difficulties. YES, WE ARE AWARE OF THE ISSUE and WE ARE WORKING hard to fix it.” Read the upper-case parts again… trust me… they are important.

Three key parts in the message:

1. Apologize right away. Trust me, there’s nothing more disarming to an angry person than to hear: “I’m sorry” and/or “you are right”. Think about it. Here they come all ready to fight and yell at you. They are ready for, wanting, a confrontation just so they can tell you how much they hate you and your $39c product… Instead they get what they’ve probably never gotten before when calling customer service: an apology. It stops them cold on their tracks. They feel, partially, re-vindicated and that it’s not their fault. Another, side effect, of saying this and stopping the customer before they can really get going on their rant is that now they are stunned into silence, which give you the perfect opportunity to talk and explain to the customer how you are going to help them.

2. Acknowledge the problem/issues: Saying “I’m sorry” is a great start but, sometimes, not enough. Now you, and/or your company, need to own-up to the problem. You don’t have to go on a long story about when and how you first discovered this issue – it won’t change a thing to the customer. Just let them know that you are aware of it. This removes any “I’m the problem” doubt from their minds and diffuses their anger even more: it’s very hard to get any at someone one when they are accepting a mistake. WARNING: whatever you do, DO NOT attempt to deflect blame for the issue (even if it’s truly not your fault – this is not the time). Any sentence that has a “but” and/or “because” after the “yes, we are aware of it” is a clear sign that you don’t really believe that there’s and issue and/or if it’s yours and that will only re-start the customers fire and it will be directed at you!

3. Offer a solution: depending on what the issue is, you might have just “the right solution”, a “good work around”, or worst-case scenario… no solution at all. IF you have “the right solution” give it to them right away. They’ll thank you for it, go back to being a happy customer and tell all their friends about the product and how the customer support team kicks as. If all you have is a “good work around”, again, give it to them along with any and all important information/side effects that they should be aware of (i.e.: it will erase your entire HD but you’ll have the “pretty” icons back). In this case, more information is better than just enough. Not only you want them to understand how and why to work around the issue, but you also want to avoid them any possible “surprises” later on that might give them a reason to go back to square one. Now, if you don’t have a solution at all but are aware of the issue, then you most likely (“if” you want to stay in business that is) are working on it. You don’t have to apologize for not having a solution ready for them. Just telling them that you are aware of the problem and that you/your company is working on a solution is the best that you can do. Gather as much info about the customer’s problem and their contact information so that you can follow-up with any new information that you might have about their problem and/or to call them “as soon” as there’s a fix for it.

Three words. Three steps. You’ll be surprised how many karma points this approach will buy you.

—

Now, I’m not going to hold my breath until Friday morning and expect Jobs to offer an apology (I hope he proves me wrong). And that’s too bad. We’ve come to expect great things from Apple and most of the time they deliver. Why not give users what they really want: an honest “I’m sorry”, a FREE bumper case and the comfort to know that Apple still cares about providing an excellent customer experience, even if the path to it is not always what was in Steve’s mind!

(Note: this post was originally posted last year. Due to the hacker incident it’s being reposted again!)

About two months ago I was in the market to get a new laptop. Having secured a new job, I decided to spoil myself a little bit and indulge on a brand new 17″ MacBook Pro.

So I went down to the nearest Apple store that I could find, cash in hand and very excited. I walked in, and after a few minutes deciding whether I should go with the glossy screen or the matte one (I ended up getting the matte one) I walked up to a nice lady in a light blue t-shirt and asked for her assistance. She made a call to the stock room to check the availability and after a few minutes she gave me the sad news that there were none left. Up to this point everything had been fun and cordial and I was still very excited to be taking home my new laptop.

I asked her: “where is the nearest Apple store?”

She said: “Walnut Creek.”

So I asked her, what to me seemed a very logical and simple question: “could you please call the store and check if they have it in stock before I drive over?”

What happened next left me….hmmm… how to say it….. PISSED OFF and a bit confused.

She said: “NO! Sorry we can’t call other stores.”

Wait, stop! REWIND…..rrrrrrrrrrrrr……….

She said: “NO! Sorry we can’t call other stores.”

That’s right: NO!

Wait, am I at an Apple store? You know, Apple as in Steve Jobs’ Apple store?

Isn’t Apple all about the “user experience”?

Here I am. Cash in hand. Ready to spend well over $2500 on a new laptop and they CANNOT call another store to see if it’s in stock?

I mean… I’m not asking them to transfer the computer over. Gee, God forbid. Just call to see if the other store has it in store and if so put it on hold. Save me a trip…

That’s the confusing and frustrating part. That they can’t…no…, that they WON’T do such a simple thing.

Here’s the strangest thing: I’ve gone into The Gap… YES that’s right… The Gap to buy a pair of $40 jeans and if they didn’t have my size in stock they’d get it transferred overnight, from whichever store had it for FREE! Yes, that’s right! The Gap was willing to pay to get a pair of jean shipped over night at a higher cost than they would sell it to me and Apple cannot call another store so I CAN drive over and hand them over $2500?

So this begs the question: How come a company that prides itself on being user friendly and all about the user experience can’t provide one at the most basic level: The user/customer level!

I love Apple and all their products. Now, if they just started putting the same TLC and user friendliness that they put in all their products on customer service…. that would be… priceless!

p.s.: I took a week to cool-off, called Apple stores around to find the 17″ MacBook Pro with the matte screen and I bought it!

(Note: this post was originally posted last year. Due to the hacker incident it’s being reposted again!)

Today I downloaded my 100th iPhone application (Flight Control - careful, it’s HIGHLY addictive!). Of those, I usually keep 64 on the phone at any given time. At 4×4 apps per page that’s 4 pages to re-organize every time I add/remove an app, ONE app move at a time – this only gets worst if you add more apps to the phone (I know what you are thinking: “you don’t need that many apps on the phone.” And you are probably right, BUT… this is not what this posting is about. So lets move on) . So here’s a “recurring” problem that shows up again and again every time we add/remove apps to our beloved iPhones (and I know I am not the only one having to deal with this pain): how to organize all our apps on the iPhone without having to play a game of “Finger Twister”. I find this problem quite puzzling. Not because it’s technically challenging to move apps around on the iPhone – just time consuming (and YES, I did time myself once: 4:17 seconds to move those 64 apps around), but because I always thought of Apple as a company who very much cares about its user’s experience. We all have heard one or two stories about how “obsessive” Steve Jobs is when it comes to product and experience design. It’s said that he puts as much effort in the design of the hardware as he does on the packaging for it. Yes, they think and re-think even the smallest details…. So, how is it possible that a company that cares so much about details and user experience doesn’t provide us with a better way of organizing the apps on the iPhone? May Apple finds the problem of organizing apps on the iPhone to be similar to the problem of how to implement “copy & paste” on the iPhone OS. Where the problem wasn’t so much technical (read: coding) as to how to get the functionality working but more about how to do it in an elegant and integrated manner. So, maybe, they can’t think of a simple, elegand and well implemented solution for apps organization on the iPhone either. So I figure I’d give the guys down in Cupertino a look to one way of resolving the problem. Take a look:

Organizing apps on the iPhone via iTunes

How’s that for simple? You can use the arrows to add/remove apps (or just drag & drop) and the bottom arrows to scroll through the pages. I know this is not the most sophisticated implementation/solution but it’s one that shouldn’t be to hard for Apple to design and implement and it would make the life of its customers so much more blissful!