Ten Reasons Why Apple’s ‘Death Grip’ Videos Will Backfire

Apple is at it again. Like it did at its press conference showing other smartphones that experience antenna problems when users hold them in the wrong place, Apple has released a video showing the Motorola Droid X, arguably its iPhone’s biggest competitor, experiencing the same drop in signal that its own smartphone suffers from when users hold the device in a certain way.

Apple’s intentions are now clearly defined. The company wants to stop everyone from thinking that only its smartphone experiences reception issues, and wants to drive the point home that the competition should be dragged through the mud just as much as its iPhone has. But along the way, Apple is only making itself look worse. And if it continues to attack the competition, the company will hurt its own business.

Here’s why:

1. Apple looks desperate

It’s certainly not Apple’s intention, but by showcasing the competition’s problems with signal strength, the hardware company looks desperate. It might or might not be true that the Droid X, the BlackBerry Bold and several other devices have antenna problems, but that’s not the focus right now. The focus is on the iPhone, the device that is supposed to be the best smartphone on the market. Apple shouldn’t demonstrate that its smartphone is similar to the competition; it should show how its phone is superior. But it isn’t doing that and it’s making the company look worse with each new video.

2. The competition is winning

Try as it might to show that the Droid X and every other smartphone have the same signal issue, Apple is failing. And along the way, the company is losing to that competition. Right now, the average consumer or enterprise customer knows that the iPhone 4 has an antenna problem. But if someone asked them if they knew that the Droid X had the same issue, the chances are that they would be clueless. Realising that, Apple should stop trying. No matter how many videos it releases, the average consumer doesn’t know (and arguably doesn’t care) that the iPhone 4 has competitors with the same antenna problems. Get over it, Apple.

3. It’s unnecessary

Apple’s decision to highlight the competition’s reception problems makes little sense. In fact, it’s entirely unnecessary. Apple is the kind of company that typically knows how to target customers. It realises that its consumer base is tired of the same old marketing techniques and it wants something new and fresh. By focusing so much of its efforts on the competition, Apple is looking like the companies that it has bested. It needs to realise that highlighting another products’ flaws only puts that device in front of customers that might not have known about it in the first place. It’s doing more damage than good.

4. It highlights the iPhone 4’s flaw

Make no mistake that the more Apple tells the world about the competition’s antenna problems it will only make the iPhone 4’s antenna issues even greater. In essence, Apple is telling its viewers that it isn’t alone in having antenna problems. All the while, they’re hearing that Apple has antenna problems. Enough is enough. The more Apple focuses on the competition’s flaws, the more consumers will view it as a bigger issue for Apple. And that’s exactly what the company doesn’t want to happen.