Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Steve Jobs: Bad Move?
Last week, it was reported that Steve Jobs, the CEO of Apple, returned an email sent to him in a not so nice manner. Chelsea Kate Isaacs, a senior at Long Island University was assigned a story that required her to talk to Apple’s Public Relations department. Isaacs was in need of a quote from Apple regarding students using iPads in an academic setting. She attempted to call Apple’s PR department and never got through, so she left six voice mail messages stating why she was calling and all her necessary contact information. Isaacs’ friend joked around and suggested she email Steve Jobs. That’s just what Isaacs decided to do. Isaacs said she didn’t expect a response, because after all, it is Steve Jobs, but lucky for her, she received one about a half an hour later.
Isaacs told Jobs why she was trying to contact Apple and how she was concerned that a company that takes such pride in helping the needs of students has a Media Relations Department that failed to get back to her. She explained that getting a quote from Apple would help her achieve academic success. Job’s replied to Isaacs with, “Our goals do not include helping you get a good grade. Sorry.” This response upset Isaacs and so she did what any angered college student would do; she wrote back. Minutes after sending her second email, Isaacs received another email from Jobs. He told her Apple has over 3oo million users and they cant respond to everyone unless they have some sort of a problem. Isaacs replied again pleading her case and told Jobs, “Please, I am on a deadline.” Clearly Jobs was not concerned with her deadline or her problem, and responded one last time with, “Please leave us alone.”
The first thing I noticed when reading the transcript of the conversation Isaacs and Jobs shared was he was sending his emails via an iPhone, and she was sending hers via a BlackBerry. Maybe he assumed since she wasn’t on an iPhone she wasn’t an Apple user at all and that upset him? If that’s the case, I would think he would give her all the answers she needed in addition to trying to persuade her to become an Apple user. But then again, like he said, Apple does have 300 million users so maybe he doesn’t care.
I understand that Steve Jobs is an incredibly busy man. He took the time to reply to multiple emails when he could have sent Isaacs’ first email to Apple’s PR department. If the email would have shown up in the PR office from Jobs, the problem would have been solved there and he wouldn’t have ended up looking like a jerk that doesn’t take the time to solve a problem, rather make more problems.
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