Expecting trust

Expecting trust

There’s only so far hype can take you. Without delivering solid products and following through on promises, you’ll just fall flat on your face. Apple is a company we constantly watch because of its ability to balance hype with genuine innovation. It’s managed to use product design, marketing, user interaction and consumer psychology to imbibe its products with unmatched levels of desirability. This is what industry watchers call a “reality distortion field”, and Apple has used it to full advantage. This is the effect that glorifies every new feature and makes all faults and omissions seem insignificant in comparison.

The illusion needs careful and regular tending. It’s also worked because Apple has been an underdog for a very long time. Its computers have always had miniscule market share, but a disproportionate (and carefully engineered) amount of media coverage portraying them as the preferred choice of artists, creative professionals, fashionistas, free thinkers and bohemians of all types. These days its iPods and iPhones are everywhere, and apart from outer cases and two body color choices, there aren’t many things differentiating one user from another. The white earphone cords that once advertised your exclusivity now only make you one of a million drones. No longer the underdog, Apple is now one of the most visible success stories in tech— so visible, in fact, that it’s become somewhat of a target.

It’s difficult to comment on the justifiability of claims that the company’s latest iPhone antenna design is critically flawed without much firsthand experience using the device, but it’s extremely easy to believe people’s claims that the company deliberately released a flawed product into the market. Whether or not that proves to be true, the company has been unusually high-handed and defensive about dealing with complaints, dragging its competitors into the fray and setting off another storm of high-profile criticism. Telling people to hold the phone differently hasn’t just annoyed users, it’s painted Apple as arrogant. Recommending people buy insanely overpriced slipcovers makes it seem callous. Refusing for so long to acknowledge that there might be a problem turns their pioneering spirit into pigheadedness. If the halo effect proves true in reverse and people start believing that the company’s new product designs severely compromise the most basic functionality, the distortion field might never recover its full strength.

Maybe Apple understimated the amount of trust buyers have in it, or maybe it's built expectations up too high over the years. Facebook found itself being similarly demonized everywhere a few months ago, proving that rapid growth earns companies as many critics as fans. Apple needs a serious image fix and a more humble public tone—and everyone else needs to learn that no one is too big or too well loved to fall.

Jamshed Avari
Deputy Editor