When some users and technology experts suggested that the iPhone 4 had reception/antenna issues, Steve Jobs replied that they were holding it wrong and causing their own problems. A straight and simple answer that earned the Apple CEO the scorn and contempt of the media, yet the iPhone 4 has gone on to become the best selling smartphone ever.
Apparently, President Barack Obama’s campaign manager, Jim Messina, wasn’t doing it right either and Mr. Jobs was none too shy about setting him straight last year before the tech titan passed.
According to BusinessWeek, Messina and Jobs spoke at length twice about technology and what the Obama campaign needed to do in order to successfully leverage mobile.
“Last time you were programming to only a couple of channels,” said Jobs, referring to the Web and e-mail. “This time, you have to program content to a much wider variety of channels — Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, YouTube, Google — because people are segmented in a very different way than they were four years ago.”
Everything has changed
Back in 2007 and 2008, the iPhone was new and the smartphone race was still undecided. Further, the iPad hadn’t happened and people still spoke seriously about how netbooks were changing the industry — no more.
“He knew exactly where everything was going,” Messina said of Jobs. “He explained viral content and how our stuff could break out, how it had to be interesting and clean.”
Though the 2012 presidential election is far from certain, Obama won’t lose because he got back advice from Jobs…
What’s your take?