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I doubt it. Every email already gets a ton of press. How much higher profile could they be? Jobs knows exactly what he's doing with the responses.

by johns 17y ago

cookiecaper 17y ago
It just seems like, if this catches on, external control of such a dump would threaten Apple's PR department pretty extensively. Perhaps the emails have been excusable heretofore because it's not all that common that they come up and get "tons of press", as you claim, or because they figured those isolated emails that do get attention are relatively harmless and not a big deal as independent, one-off stories. For instance, I check HN a lot, and I used to check reddit a lot, and I've heard of perhaps only two of these emails. Most of them do not cast Jobs in an overtly positive light. It's a publicist's nightmare, basically, because they lose control of the image. And Apple is all about image. I don't know, I just think that there will be a lot of internal pressure on Jobs to stop emailing people who may go and repost the conversation verbatim. He might not stop, we all know that Jobs has a general contempt for business-as-usual and does what he wants, but making a thing like this just seems to kind of be "looking a gift horse in the mouth", as it were, because most CEOs have the sense not to even try personal responses to customer complaints or feedback for the reasons mentioned in this post.
- jkincaid 17y ago
  I suspect Apple's PR team plays a role in at least some of the email responses. The emails serve as a channel that's 'official' enough for people to take it seriously, without Apple having to bother with making an official announcement or giving a reporter a quote. It also helps make the company seem more accessible ("hey, Jobs will answer an average Joe's email, he loves us!") when in reality Apple PR is notorious for ignoring the press unless it serves them.
- glhaynes 17y ago
  Apple is in no danger of losing its image because of Steve Jobs expressing himself too much. Christ, just the opposite.

I doubt it. Every email already gets a ton of press. How much higher profile could they be? Jobs knows exactly what he's doing with the responses.

by johns 17y ago

I doubt it. Every email already gets a ton of press. How much higher profile could they be? Jobs knows exactly what he's doing with the responses.

cookiecaper 17y ago

It just seems like, if this catches on, external control of such a dump would threaten Apple's PR department pretty extensively. Perhaps the emails have been excusable heretofore because it's not all that common that they come up and get "tons of press", as you claim, or because they figured those isolated emails that do get attention are relatively harmless and not a big deal as independent, one-off stories. For instance, I check HN a lot, and I used to check reddit a lot, and I've heard of perhaps only two of these emails. Most of them do not cast Jobs in an overtly positive light. It's a publicist's nightmare, basically, because they lose control of the image. And Apple is all about image. I don't know, I just think that there will be a lot of internal pressure on Jobs to stop emailing people who may go and repost the conversation verbatim. He might not stop, we all know that Jobs has a general contempt for business-as-usual and does what he wants, but making a thing like this just seems to kind of be "looking a gift horse in the mouth", as it were, because most CEOs have the sense not to even try personal responses to customer complaints or feedback for the reasons mentioned in this post.

jkincaid 17y ago
I suspect Apple's PR team plays a role in at least some of the email responses. The emails serve as a channel that's 'official' enough for people to take it seriously, without Apple having to bother with making an official announcement or giving a reporter a quote. It also helps make the company seem more accessible ("hey, Jobs will answer an average Joe's email, he loves us!") when in reality Apple PR is notorious for ignoring the press unless it serves them.
glhaynes 17y ago
Apple is in no danger of losing its image because of Steve Jobs expressing himself too much. Christ, just the opposite.