Steve Jobs says that the iPhone antenna problem "has been blown so out of proportion that it's incredible." He seems puzzled and annoyed by the intense anger, frustration, and criticism bombarding him. What he doesn't understand is that whenever you establish a monopoly, you had better make sure that your product or service is perfect - because any glitches or problems will be magnified by customers' feelings of being trapped.
Twenty years ago, when I was a manager at a large metropolitan newspaper, our advertising clients would angrily tell our sales reps: "If you guys weren't the only game in town, I'd take my business elsewhere!" Our rival newspaper had gone belly up, leaving us with a monopoly on display advertising. Our ad rates were exorbitant and every year our executives raised them. This infuriated advertisers, who felt trapped by our paper's monopoly on high-income readers. And whenever there was a typo or mistake in an ad, the client would fume helplessly because his hands were tied. Advertisers bitterly complained that our newspaper was arrogant and didn't care about customers.
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