IPhone 4 Recall.

IPhone 4 Recall.

So what do you do, Steve?

Simple.  You come clean.  That's the Apple image and you built it that way.  So here is what you need to do, fast.

1. Admit your rare mistake.  Have Jony do a video on what you learned.  Apple gets all due credit for great design but now it's time to take the bullet for poor design.  People will trust you more next time.  Apple thrives on that trust.  No way will you get people lining up outside your stores for days if you don't rebuild it.

2. Fix the problem. In your new iPhone 4 (rev2) figure out how to use the user's finger to increase the signal strength instead of coupling it from one antenna to the other.  Or at least change the design so the width of a human finger can't cross-couple the antennas (make a less conductive dead zone near the bands.)

3. Make it right.  Create a new, limited edition "Early Adopter" silver bumper for the first 3 million iPhone 4 users and provide them free in your stores.  Make it a big deal!  Invite the customers to come into the store to get their special bumper and auto-enter them into a "thank you" contest.  One winner wins one of EVERY APPLE PRODUCT in the store.  Hire a street team to find customers using these limited edition bumpers for the next 60 days and give them $100 iTunes gift cards instantly. Give away $10M worth of iTunes cards (you'll make it all back anyway). 

My opinion: I am amazed at how affective the apple marketing can be. By having such a big problem with a new product and then still being able to recover from their mistakes is amazing. Also by hosting a competition with a huge grand prize a brilliant way to make new customers aware of how great the product really is.