Concluding that presentation, Jobs said this:
“We love our users. And we try very hard to surprise and delight them… That’s what motivates us, and when we have problems like this and when people criticize us, we take it very personally. Maybe we shouldn’t. Maybe we should have a wall of PR people. Stay away from all that, but we don’t… But the data supports the fact that the iPhone 4 is the best smartphone in the world. And that there is no Antennagate. There is a challenge for the entire smartphone industry. To be One day we will be able to improve the performance of its antenna until there are no weak points in any smartphone and we are dedicated to doing so.”
After the 30-minute segment, he invited two of Apple’s lesser-known executives, Chief Financial Officer Tim Cook and Senior Vice President of Technologies Bob Mansfield, to the stage to answer questions. They sat on stools on stage and summoned the members of the press present for 45 minutes. And boy is it worth seeing.
Steve Jobs dominates the discussion with a masterful display of poise. He curses, belittles, jokes and rages, but mostly we get to see Steve Jobs dominate the room and defuse what could have been a much bigger scandal. Not only does it have an answer for every question, some of which are extremely stupid. His answers are detailed, thoughtful, and remarkably insightful. A transcript doesn’t do it justice.
Take this exchange with Engadget’s Joshua Topolsky:
Jobs: Can I repeat your question?
Poplar: Sure.
Jobs: You ask me: is there a software solution for the dimming of smartphones that is seen on almost all smartphones when you hold them in a certain way? Is that your question?
Poplar: On your phone.
Jobs: So could we get ahead of almost all smartphones that have dimming when you hold it a certain way by having better software on our phone? I’d love to.
Watching Steve Jobs barely smile throughout the entire process is simply glorious to behold. Tim Cook speaks a couple of times and Scott Forstall also makes an impromptu appearance, but this is mostly a Steve Jobs masterclass. And we finally get to see it.
