✪ Measure Twice, Cut Once: The Extended Cut

I threw in an old report from the Steve Jobs biography about his initial suspicion that the iPhone 4 antenna problem reports were a whisper campaign by Google and Motorola as just an aside in a previous post. However, I just realized that the story shatters one of the premises behind an old, proud Applevere meme, Measure Twice, Cut Once. But with some reworking, we can bring back the scenes left on the cutting room floor and tell the story as it was meant to be told.

Apple’s response is another example that indicates a consistent pattern:

1. An Apple-related crisis or problem occurs.
2. There’s an immediate flurry of news coverage and speculation.
3. Steve Jobs at Apple, convinced that this crisis originated as a smear-campaign by rivals, gathers evidence to prove this or to discredit those rivals.
4. Steve Jobs lashes out at a customer who obviously got swept up into the smear-campaign, and now mistakenly believes the smear is a real problem.
5. ...thus precipitating a greater flurry of media coverage.
6. Tim Cook advises Steve Jobs that the story is spiralling out of control, and Apple has to do something lest they be tagged as arrogant, complacent and — perhaps the biggest of all insults — Microsoftian.
7. Apple hurries a response — which will be declared as “decisive” by the friendly Apple-punditry — and will allow Apple to reset the narrative of the story.
8. Apple releases the evidence gathered on rivals, now to transform the story from Apple-related crisis or problem to an industry-wide crisis or problem.
9. Months later, through the mysts of time, the Apple-related crisis is viewed as a myth, blow out of proportion by a tabloid press. Should someone bring it up in a non-skeptical way, the Apple-punditry should counter with sales stats as though it disproves the story.

To be fair, all of the above steps are only required in the worst-case scenarios where a problem cannot be spun away by the very capable Apple-punditry. Typically a stonewalling will suffice as most crises do not move beyond stage 2. Just silence, then if necessary an answer. Seems to be working out pretty well for them.

That said, it also makes me wonder about this story. Apple PR has been known to lie, and knowing now that Steve didn’t believe there was a significant problem with the antenna, I have to wonder if he did tell someone the problem was made-up. If he thought so, why would he tell someone else otherwise?