A missed opportunity by Apple??

May 3, 2010 by Marcel Fairbairn 3 Comments

I was in Canada last week spending some time at my mountain paradise with my LED Source franchise team. One evening while we were enjoying a nice hottub and watching the snow, my Consultant, Marc suddenly realized he’d been sitting in the jets for 30 minutes with his iPhone in his pocket.

You all know what happens next. A form of panic sets in and the hair dryer comes out. Marc went on a mission googling “Wet iPhone” and various other iterations of “oops, I drowned my iPhone” and tried each – one after the other.

I thought to myself that Apple has missed an opportunity here. I guess they’re happy to say “sorry, you got this thing wet, your screwed”.. then sell the loyal fan another iPhone. But why not do more. Why not do something that no one would expect and offer a Life Jacket to the drowned phone. Why not exceed expectations? This is about the 10th person I know who’s done this, so it’s certainly not uncommon.

One idea would be for apple to say “Great, you’ve drowned your iPhone. Don’t worry… we’ve got a drowning survival kit. Make an appointment at the apple store and for $49.95 you’ll be back in business”.

So it’s a stretch but wouldn’t this make people even more loyal to this growing brand that seems to be moving deeper into our wallets with their every move?

Marc was (like most people in this situation) unsuccessful. Apple want nothing to do with him except to sell him a new phone, and if he wants to save the photos and videos he took while in the rockies, he needs to send the phone away along with $100.

I just think Apple is missing an opportunity to do something remarkable in this case.