Watch Steve Jobs in the full ‘Antennagate’ video before it gets erased again
Unless you were in the room when Steve Jobs gave his 2010 “you’re holding it wrong” speech, you’ve only seen half of it. Now the full version is online and it’s a great watch.
This is a famous moment in Apple history and even if you don’t remember when the iPhone 4 had signal problems, this is still a video to watch that you’ve never been able to see before. It’s from the emergency event that Apple called to try getting ahead of this antennagate problem.
It was huge at the time and for many years Apple kept a video of it online. But that video was about 34 minutes long and the actual event went on for a further 47 minutes.
You can still see the version Apple put up as a copy of that is online on YouTube. That one is notable for including “The iPhone 4 Antenna Song” by Jonathan Mann, and it does feature Jobs’s presentation on the topic.
But that video ends when Jobs opens up a Q&A session. This newly-released copy of the video is of just that portion.
It’s not as if any Qs about the iPhone 4 losing signal strength depending on how you held it, is still interesting 16 years later. It’s not really as if any of the As are still relevant.
Yet if the substance of the answers are now out of date, the way Jobs answers them is fascinating. In some ways he’s similar to how he was in the famous “fireside chat” where he was frank about the issues facing Apple.
He was equally blunt here when asked to apologize to investors for how the issue had hurt Apple’s stock price. “No,” he said, “I have no apology.”
“I would say, I hope you invested in Apple because you trust us in the long run, to keep innovating, to keep coming out with great products,” he continued. “And if we hit a bump in the road, it’s just like, you know, just like having kids.”
At the same time, Jobs is also seen to be surprisingly thoughtful before answering questions. He gives some long answers but they are considered and persuasive.
That includes Jobs making the case that what matters most with Apple is not the hardware, but the software that runs them. He argues that this is what distinguishes great devices, “and we realized that we are pretty good at software.”
The video was first spotted by John Gruber, who actually was at the event. As he says, this upload is not sanctioned by Apple so the odds are that it will be taken down soon.
The issue was that if you covered this antenna bar with your hand, signal quality dropped radically – image credit: Apple.
Whether or not you remember that Apple spent $175 million giving away bumper cases to alleviate the complaints, watch the video. Whether or not you remember Nokia’s rebuttal to Jobs’s claims in this event, watch this while you still can.
And then read how it wasn’t until 2025 that a developer figured out what had really caused the iPhone 4 to lose signal strength. Steve Jobs was wrong: you weren’t holding it wrong.