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That Apple Reputation Problem - Did It Just Get Even Bigger?

This article is more than 10 years old.

Image via CrunchBase

There must be a team of executives within Microsoft lapping up Apple's current plight. A stellar company, with stellar performance. But increasingly it seems like Apple can't do right, at least in the eyes of the press.

Peter Cohan asks here on Forbes should Tim Cook continue as CEO having seen the Apple valuation drop by $30 billion? Over on the BBC’s website, news that European legislators are thinking of taking Apple to task for the phrasing of its warranty advertisements. At the same time, faults with SIRI have been dragged back into the spotlight, where previously they had been allowed to fade. And over the weekend, news that Apple is battling to avoid a court ruling that it should place an ad in British papers to acknowledge Samsung did not copy the iPad.

I happen to think Apple will come through this patch relatively unscathed – though Shel Israel’s warning that they need maps and location based business is a very important caveat - but it is nonetheless worth looking at its reputation problems. $30 billion seems to be the current price of reputation failure (see here for the $20 billion reputation boost Google got last year).

The problems began back in April when people began taking notice of negative analysis from Edward A. Zabitsky, of Toronto-based ACI Research. Zabitsky seemed to be saying that Apple’s market advantage was temporary because it depended on iTunes and content. As html 5 becomes more prevalent perhaps the apps model of content delivery will wane. Maybe.

At the time I wrote this:

Apple has also proved itself to be a master of radical adjacencies, easing into new markets, and creating new market categories, erasing its failures from memory very quickly (the first generation of iPhone had the habit of bringing down broadband mobile networks, the second generation dropped calls easily).  All the while maintaining first rate interaction with the information ecosystem around it.

But by September it was clear that Apple was no longer maintaining first rate interaction with the information ecosystem.

A brief analysis of reaction to the Samsung patent trial verdict showed:

the reaction against the (Apple) brand is coming from its own fan base. Following the verdict, a significant proportion of comments on the Apple Facebook page, were strong reactions against Apple’s use of the patent laws for what was seen as trivial innovation.

This weekend saw another round of anti-Apple sentiment brewing. Apple didn’t become a significantly worse company all of a sudden but like its “no comment” to potential EU action showed today, it has lost the knack of pleasing commentators. That, more than Maps, might explain the $30 billion dive in valuation. And that might be its biggest problem going forward.

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