Apple "Big Wigs" visit the forum?

[lucky8926]

Has anyone else wondered if Apple "Big Wigs" visit any of these forums? If you think about it that would be the best way to find out what the consumer is saying about their product to better upgrade or update it. I think it's possible that there is some corporate higher ups check them out, hell I bet Steve Jobs himself gets curious as to what we say about his latest and greatest product. HEY STEVE IF YOU'RE READING THIS, CAN YA SEND ME AN 8 GIG, I'M STILL WITHOUT AN iPhone!

 

[xoulo]

ok.. you spotted me, whats your address ill send it tomorrow

 

[lucky8926]

ok.. you spotted me, whats your address ill send it tomorrow

HA! I'll send you a PM Steve....

 

[spacerog]

I doubt anyone from Apple directly visits these forums.

I do know that a company like Apple will hire a Marketing company to troll through forums like this and get a general feel for what customers are saying. I don't know if Apple specifically is doing this but other companies do. There are companies dedicated to gathering information from blogs and forums about particular products.

Remember Apple has their own forums that they can troll through all they want.

- SR

 

[ColsTiger]

I used to post pretty regularly on a Martin Guitar message board and from time to time Chris Martin (CEO) would post. It wasn't often, but he would from time to time answer a question about an upcoming model or something. I'm sure some Apple employees read this board simply because it is the largest of all the iPhone forums.

 

[chris]

I voted for "It's possible". I know that Motorola regularly frequents Everything Q.

This site is a resource for end users to learn more about their iPhone and get answers to problems they might be experiencing. The percentage of posts on any forum are usually problem related.

On the flip side, companies can use this site to get immediate unfiltered consumer feedback. Just look back at the weekend of June 29th here at EIP and you could find a host of threads discussing activation issues.

Personally, I'm a big fan of forums and not just because I run a few of them. Some of my favorites include AVS Forum, TiVO Community and LitterBox Central. Yes, there is even a forum for cat litter enthusiasts. It was very helpful when finding the right litterbox and litter.

 

[bcaslis]

I have no idea if anyone from Apple does, but I can understand why even if they do, they won't identify themselves. I've seen tons of forums where if someone from the company posts (Apple, Palm, take your pick) they get deluged with two primary types of replies:

1.) Every irrational problem possible. Like the "I broke your product why won't you replace it free?".
2.) The "I paid you money so you need to respond to me immediately for any whim I think of".

Sad, since a true dialog would be really interesting.

 

[gannon145]

I'm sure somebody at Apple trolls the forums here for personal gain if not as part of their job. I would even bet that some forum members are Apple employees.

 

[lucky8926]

Like Chris said, it's the best way to find out what users are truly saying about their product. I know Jobs could hire someone to read up and report back but you gotta admit, he probably gets kinda curious.....

 

[stiphone]

I vote for "It highly possible". Why won't they? It's a great place to gather consumer feedback without exposing themselves. Sort of like a secret agent? ;p

 

[wjp09]

While they may not do it publicly im sure some do. They need to be in touch with the people.

 

[robhon]

I voted "doubtful" just because the poll asked if "big wigs" browsed the forum. Steve ain't wasting his time here. He's got big demands on his time, as do all the other higher ups. But I would assume they have hired guns in house that are paid to read everything we write about the iPhone and tie it all up into a report.

I have one friend who works at Apple whose job is to just play with iMovie. Essentially his job is to try to break it. He can work on any project he likes. Gets paid pretty handsomely to do this.

 

[lucky8926]

I vote for "It highly possible". Why won't they? It's a great place to gather consumer feedback without exposing themselves. Sort of like a secret agent? ;p

My thoughts exactly!

 

[Bosco115]

Yes they check out these forums. At least the smart companies do. I'll tell you why I know.

I did some work for a pretty large Palm OS site. Years ago (dear god, five years ago now that I think about it), Sony came out with two new Clies called the NR70 and NR70v with portrait folding clamshell designs, digital cameras, keyboards, giant 320x480 screens with virtual graffiti, MP3 players, MS expansion, and the fastest processor available (66 MHz Dragonball SuperVZ) with the most RAM possible at the time (16mb). When the article came out announcing these new monsters, the site was SWAMPED with hits. The server hit redline and saw 100%. Comments to the news article started racking up in the hundreds, so the site owner disabled viewing/posting comments to save bandwidth on each hit. He soon got a call. It was Sony USA, requesting him to turn comments back online. They wanted to read as much feedback as possible!

True story. And if Apple was smart, they'd be doing the same thing Sony did five years ago.

 

[robhon]

That's right. It's just not the "big wigs." It's underlings assigned to the task.