In an article from the Wall Street Journal on July 16th, 2010 it was revealed that Apple had prior knowledge to the problems that the iPhone 4 has with antenna reception. The dilemma was that, as many people know, the metal band around the outside of the iPhone doubled as the antenna. This seemed like an ingenious idea until customers realized that whenever your hand covered the lower left corner while talking on the phone, the reception was gone and the call was lost. Public discontent stemmed from not only the trouble with the antenna, but with the fact that Apple so rarely falters from flawless designs and cutting edge success.
The original PR move by Apple was for Steve Jobs to insist merely on holding the phone a different way or buying a case for it. This did not satisfy consumers who feel they should be free to hold the phone however they want and still have it work. Eventually it leaked that Apple knew about the design problem from the beginning and still went through with releasing the iPhone 4 anyway. This increased public outrage because any possibility for ignorance on Apple's part and it being an unknown and accidental problem disappeared.
This is an ethical issue because Apple violated its fiduciary responsibility to its consumers who trust that the product they are buying is backed by Apples reputation of quality products. The company itself responded poorly, refusing to recall the iPhone and waiting until the next generation iPhone to fix the problem. Consumers responded by expressing their discontent and anger at the usually upfront and trustworthy company.
One company in consumer electronics that shows corporate social responsibility is LG Electronics. They have been known to renovate universities including the University of Lagos in Nigeria. LG has built facilities in order to uplift communities around the world and continues to set the bar for corporate social responsibility.
The main part of Apple's mission statement is that it "continues to lead the industry in innovation." This shows that Apple is mainly dedicated to producing newer, better products and outdoing itself and other consumer electronic companies. Hewlett Packard has a slightly different mission statement and values. It stresses customer loyalty, commitment to employees, and results through teamwork. It appears that HP is slightly more concerned with customer satisfaction than Apple or at least according to the mission statement. All consumer electronics companies are interested in pursuing the latest, fastest, easiest technology but some take customers to heart more than others.
Although I do not have the iPhone 4, I can see the obvious discontent with Apple from the consumers. If Apple knew about this problem ahead of time, it is there responsiblity to fix the issue before putting the item on the shelves. This business decision was obviously not an ethical one because they knew about the defection, and knew that there product was going to seel regardless. After reading Apple's mission statement, I am no longer surpised that they tried to pull this stunt on their consumers. They are clearly more worried about the bottom line, instead of customer satisfaction.
ReplyDeleteI had previously heard about the problems with the iPhone 4. However, I was unaware that Apple was cognizant of the problem before the iPhone 4 was released. This has changed my perception of Apple and I am sure it did the same for many other consumers. It is my believe that Apple did not have their customer’s best interest in mind in the way they dealt with the problem. By failing to initially address the problem, Apple lost sales of the product and customer satisfaction, a relatively large price to pay for a small problem.
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