iPhone 4 - Apple’s most painful product launch

When Steve Jobs announced the iPhone 4 at WWDC 2010, it surprised no one. Tech blog Gizmodo had already spilled the tea two months earlier by publishing photographs of a lost prototype. Jobs was furious, but he found a way to turn the situation to his advantage. 

The design of the iPhone 4 set the standard for all subsequent models. And with innovative new features like FaceTime and the Retina Display, Jobs described it as the biggest leap forward since the original iPhone. 

iPhone 4 proved wildly popular, but the launch did not go smoothly. One month later, Jobs had to rush back from a family vacation in Hawaii to deal with “Antennagate,” a media frenzy over concerns about dropped calls. The institutional learnings Apple acquired from this PR nightmare continue to inform iPhone launches to this day.

LINKS

Original Gizmodo iPhone 4 leak coverage via the Internet Archive:
https://web.archive.org/web/20100421020922/https://gizmodo.com/5520164/this-is-apples-next-iphone
https://web.archive.org/web/20100423034754/http://gizmodo.com/5520438/how-apple-lost-the-next-iphone

Gourmet Haus Staudt:
https://gourmethausstaudt.com

The guy who sold the iPhone 4 prototype to Gizmodo did a Reddit AMA:
https://www.cultofmac.com/news/the-guy-who-sold-apples-lost-iphone-4-prototype-spills-all-on-reddit

WWDC 2010 Keynote - iPhone 4 launch:
https://youtu.be/EP81hZ_HdXU?si=DT2FHhmYWq-IZh5N

Gizmodo Antennagate coverage:
https://gizmodo.com/video-clearly-shows-antenna-defect-on-iphone-4-web-brow-5575347

Jonathan Mann Antennagate song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKIcaejkpD4

Antennagate press conference:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8tXyfjfnB0

AnandTech iPhone 4 review:
https://www.anandtech.com/show/3794/the-iphone-4-review/2

Kara Swisher’s Burn Book includes her account of asking Steve Jobs what he planned to do in the next ten years:
https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Burn-Book/Kara-Swisher/9781982163891