Never mind Steve, we all have our off days

Never mind Steve, we all have our off days

The unveiling of the iPhone 4 was another big launch for Apple, but unfortunately it didn’t go very smoothly. Good to know even the big boys can struggle.

June 9, 2010 2:07 by shafeer

The editorial team at Kipp is not noted for its technical know-how. Ironic for a website, you might think, and you’d be right, but the fact is we have a team of techie types to make sure the site runs smoothly.

So it was with a little sympathy that we watched Steve Jobs, Apple’s iconic CEO, struggle through a presentation in front of hundreds of the world’s top technology journos and bloggers during which his shiny new iPhone 4 refused to do any of the things it was supposed to.

Jobs fumbled his way through the grand demonstration, as the phone resolutely refused to connect to the Internet. In the end, Jobs announced that the problem was the hundreds of wi-fi hook ups in the room, and he demanded that the assembled legions of bloggers and journalists switch off their devices if they wanted to see more. They did, and the phone began to work, but its performance was still anything but smooth.

We’ve all been there. Who hasn’t spent the first ten minutes of a presentation to clients struggling to get the laptop connected to a projector, only to have the battery run out? Then, once connected, your carefully crafted Power Point presentation – the one you spent hours on – refuses to open, and you end up doing your presentation without it, forcing your audience to follow on the handouts they are sharing one between two, because you didn’t bring enough copies.

It’s reassuring to know that these problems also beset the big boys. Even one of the biggest tech companies in the world. But while many pitches or clients have been lost through a bad presentation, Kipp is pretty sure the iPhone 4 will have no shortage of customers when it eventually hits the shelves.