Harvard Biz Review: Steve Jobs's Disastrous iPhone 4 Press Conference

"Today, he was deep in his own personal maelstrom of defensiveness and hostility. His head was frequently down; in fact his whole posture betrayed his unhappiness. He frequently hid his hands behind his back — a classic defensive posture — when he wasn't clasping them in front of his stomach (another defensive posture)."

It was a defensive press conference, by nature. It's not like he's announcing a new product or something. Do you expect, or even want Steve to summon fake enthusiasm on command?

Say what you want about the "reality distortion field", but Steve is a profoundly honest guy, in the sense that he won't convey any impression other than that which he really feels. I bet he couldn't give a Stevenote about a toaster no matter how hard he tried.

"Apple is now a dominant player in the consumer technology market and it can't afford this kind of ham-fisted performance. Jobs should remove himself from the lineup and let someone else take over. Or he should get over himself and cheer up. But Friday's press conference was not good corporate PR."

This is exactly the type of ivy league business exec extrodinaire that could lead to Apple's demise in the post-Jobs era. Yeah, let's be all unicorns and butterflies on stage when our crown jewel, the best cell phone ever made, is being torn apart unfairly by the media. If you're not angry on stage, either your product is defective or you're not being sincere.

Strange, might have been the reality distortion field, but as I watched the press conference I though to myself at several occasions "yeah, this will shut the nay-sayers up."

I thought they made a pretty strong case with the data they presented. I myself have never had a dropped call with the iPhone because of the reception issue -- believe me, I have tried. However, the not-so-sensitive proximity sensor has, on several occasions, caused me to inadvertently press the "End call" button with my cheek.

Agree with the article's observations, but disagree with its conclusions. Although the article correctly described Jobs' body language, tone, anger, defensiveness, etc., the effect of all that was positive for Apple because it was totally honest and matched the situation perfectly. People who watch the video understand the Jobs has every right to have acted the way he did in the press conference, and that understanding builds empathy for the company and works in Apple's favor.

The media is making a mountain out of a mole hill here. Unfortunately for Apple, right or wrong, people listen to the media.

So this article goes from using the analogy "Yeah, well, Jimmy stole cookies from the cookie jar, too!" to using beefy words like petulant and contrite. I'm lead to believe that readers of the Harvard Business Review are linguistic ninjas who are simultaneously somehow unable to analyze the simplest abstract description. Or am I reading too much into this?

Hacker News AKA anti-apple-circle-jerk. Seriously. Stop beating the long dead anti-apple horse, it's starting to smell like reddit.