The scandal over the easily scuffed iPhone 5 has come slowly to a climax as Apple handled the situation in the typical arrogant Steve Jobs Era “You’ve got it all wrong” style. It seems that Apple hasn’t learned anything in terms of handling objections under the reign of Tim Cook.
Man Apple! We were just starting to find our way back to each other when you hit me over the head with this awful reply! Instead of taking the right path and admitting your error, you string the users along as if they were fools and once again, show exactly what you think about the people who contributed to your success: namely, Nothing!
What happened? “Scuffgate”, as this processing scandal became known, launched on the same day as the iPhone 5. Hundreds of users have complained since then in the Apple support forums and social networks. On Twitter the Scuffgate hashtag litters the web page with new complaints about the displays from all around the world. Rather than approaching the subject with humility and grace, the so-called “President of Marketing,” Phil Schiller has answered the desperate customer inquiries with nothing better than a terse, arrogant Steve Jobs-esque reply:
Any aluminum product may scratch or chip with use, exposing its natural silver color. That is normal.
The iconic perfectionist designer has not only released a new phone with quality control problems and a faulty maps application, but they are doing so under the assumption that their customers will be dumb enough to fall for it without complaint.
Sorry Apple, that’s just plain stupid. Especially when the iPhone 5 is excellent, if not the best smartphone on the market!
Maybe they should just pretend that they accidentally shipped a whole supply of the 2013 Apple iPhone 5s’s, the “S” would stand for “scuff” or “Scratch”, and then it would be as cool as the former trend of torn and faded jeans. It’s not a bug, it’s a feature!
P.S. Pro-tip for buyers of the black iPhone 5:
PPS: The iPhone 5 I tested had not a single scratch!
(Translated from the German by Sascha Pallenberg)
Source: Cult of Mac
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Ha Ha, Malarie. I want to know after a month, if your iPhone got some scratches
Aluminum is softer than glass (No revelation there), but its also lighter and thinner. I’m a classic i-Hater, but Apples response is quite fair. The lightness and thinness of the iPhone 5 makes up the bulk of its praise. In spite of the questionable longevity of the iPhone 5s aesthetics, it was a good design choice, given how reviewers are still swooning over its diminutive weight and size. Plastic could have been used to the same effect, but…..
@chuk daly
I’m not a iHater or some Android lover fanboy etc. I’m rare breed who goes with good value for money products.
Most of the elite bloggers swoon over it because it’s an Apple product. If the same kind of light weight thin smartphone came out from some no name company, no one would have said a word of praise for that no name phone.
All that praise is nothing more then fanboy-ism. I’m not saying that iPhone 5 is a bad phone or something. It’s fast. But nothing sort of much more then that. Every new phone which comes to market is faster then its previous model, so nothing new in that right? So all that extra bit of praise goes just for that fruit logo.
There are few products where no body could able to touch Apple yet. Like FCP (Final Cut Pro) running on Apple machines. They still got the best video editing ecosystem till date.
I think Nicole also uses an Apple machine with FCP to edit and publish videos.
Same way there is no match to Microsoft when it comes to regular usecase of PC in office administration or MSoffice area.
So they got there own specialty.
But here, most of the top elite blogger are smitten by Apple. Not because of the Apple products, but because of the elitism associated with its products.
One more reason of this smitten factor is also the fact that most of the media house were already into apple ecosystem because of better handling of multimedia by Apple machines at the time when Apple launched it’s first iPhone, most of these elite bloggers were already into Apple ecosystem, so the adoption was natural and Apple’s pricing of iPhone at that time made sure that their product remain in hands of elites, which gave them more push towards make it a elitist product. And rest is history.
It’s a complex phenomena. But Apple pulled it well. And created a generation of rich fanboy’s who buy their products year after year, just like that.
I totally agree with your observations of the press and their reaction to the iPhone 5, if not most Apple products. I am a retailer of high end audio/video products, where virtually all the electronics I sell have an aluminum faceplate. On a daily basis I see the susceptibility of anodized aluminum to fingerprints, scratches, and discoloration.
The problem lies with how the press and general publec perceive aluminum and glass as a product material. Aluminum and Glass are viewed as exotic and luxious, while plastic is…Cheap. This view is not limited to Apple fanboys. Apple wanted to produce a lighter and thinner phone, and while plastic would have been a great material to use, it didn’t have the cache of aluminum or glass. Ultimately, Apple gave the public what they wanted, and now some are unhappy with what actually was their own preferred choice. I highly doubt the mainstream tech blogs will make a big deal of Scuffgate, which is why I stated previously that it was a good design choice by Apple.
Personally, I wouldn’t except a phone that scratches as easily as the iPhone 5 does.
@Chuck Same here, I never look for a metal body phones, they are more prone to dents and scratches.
Also an aluminum phone if dropped on a particular corner can damage the entire phone because of it’s properties of not to absorb shock. That is why people see so many shattered screen iPhones.
But the thing is, Americans and Hype. Sigh!
I had the HTC Legend, Aluminum Unibody. Had it for a year, even put it through the washer and dryer. Not a scratch, I think it depends how serious they are about durability.
Isn’t the HTC Legend’s aluminum finished painted and not anodized? That would be the reason for the lack of scratches.
It’s just solid brushed aluminum, no fancy anodized finish
HTC legend! Jesus Christ.. That Chuck Norris phone.
The durability of Actual screen and the Top layered unbreakable Monkey glass is two different stories all together. Apple started this marketing gimmick but somewhere they got stuck as this was not saving the actual LCD from shock value or bent values and thus cracks.
Now looks like Apple re-solved it in iPhone 5. (Technically LCD screen manufacturers solved it. like LG /Hanss /Samsung /Monkey Glass etc.) But Apple will get credit for obvious reasons. Blame fanboy bloggers.
This might be the last generation of cracked screen we are using. So from next generation phones from Samsung, LG, Sony etc and tablets this should be standard.
Earlier the Monkey glass was tough. But beneath that the actual lcd glass screen layer was very fragile. Which used to crack by slight bent or pressure.
Now LG has resolved it. (Actually it’s a collected effort by Glass, Semiconductor and LCD companies) They have fused the LCD between the layers of Toughened Gorilla or Similar Glass. So now the LCD screens should be more accurate and tough to break or crack. As more or less they are part of toughened glass.
Technically it should be cheaper as it cuts process and material cost. Welcome to unbreakable screens in the year 2013.