Featured Image Credit: Getty Images/Justin Sullivan/Nikola Stojadinovic
Topics: Apple, iPhone, Steve Jobs, Technology, Phones
Ella Scott
Topics: Apple, iPhone, Steve Jobs, Technology, Phones
Steve Jobs wasn’t one to mince his words and when Apple was being criticised for a major iPhone fault, he produced a meme-worthy response that has gone down in history.
It’s unbelievable to think it’s been 17 years since Apple released the first-ever iPhone.
Since the original smartphone hit the market, the multinational corporation has put out 42 different versions of the device as well as items like the Apple Vision Pro and the innovative Apple Pencil.
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But sticking with mobile, we want you to cast your mind back to June 2010 when the world was obsessed with the shiny new iPhone 4.
The cell was Apple’s first fitted with a glass body and premiered the company’s high-resolution Retina display and FaceTime support.
While hailed as game-changing, the iPhone was heavily criticised for bringing about ‘Antennagate’.
Many customers who purchased the mobile phone that summer complained that if they held the device in their left hand, it would lose network connection and calls would drop.
Apple was quick to downplay the severity of the issue, with a spokesperson telling The New York Times at the time: “Gripping any phone will result in some attenuation of its antenna performance, depending on the placement of the antennas. This is a fact of life for every wireless phone.
“If you ever experience this on your iPhone 4, avoid gripping it in the lower left corner in a way that covers both sides of the black strip in the metal band, or simply use one of many available cases.”
But as more tech users came forward with issues about the phone, Jobs, who was 55 at the time, condescendingly decided to break his silence.
In 2010 - a year before he would die following a prolonged battle with a rare form of pancreatic neuroendocrine cancer - he received an email from Ars Technica asking him about the connectivity issue.
In reply, he savagely wrote: “All phones have sensitive areas," before adding: “Just avoid holding it in this way.”
Despite Jobs telling Apple users to simply hold their phones correctly, he later conceded defeat and scheduled a last-minute press conference.
During the chat, he admitted the business wasn’t ‘perfect’ and neither were our cellular devices.
“We're not perfect. We know that. You know that. And [our] phones aren't perfect either. We've been working our butts off to understand what the real problems are," he said of Antennagate.
Unfortunately, issues rumbled on until 2012 when Apple put the case to bed by settling a class action lawsuit.
The settlement forced the company to issue a $15 check or a free bumper case to all iPhone 4 users.
Over a decade later, Antennagate remains one of Apple’s biggest scandals to date.
Meanwhile, Job’s hilarious email statement still gets a laugh out of tech users and is often still used in memes.