Dear Apple,

Thanks for the open letter last week about the iPhone 4 antenna issue. You know I’m a lifelong supporter, and I wish nothing but the best for you. So please take this in the helpful spirit in which it is intended:

That letter was pretty dreadful.

I’m not talking so much about the content. It’s more the way you presented it — which I found very out of character for a company normally so adept at PR. Your choice of words affected how your fans and detractors think of you. And with both groups, you raised far more eyebrows than you needed to.

First, I was surprised that Steve didn’t write this letter personally, since it’s hard to imagine a topic more worthy of his attention. And then the way you tell the story just feels kind of amateurish.

Apple's own words lead directly to stories like the NY Post's

We have discovered the cause of this dramatic drop in bars, and it is both simple and surprising. Upon investigation, we were stunned to find that the formula we use to calculate how many bars of signal strength to display is totally wrong.

It’s a bit disconcerting to hear that you’re surprised and shocked. You get major points for honesty — but demerits for unnecessarily shaking our confidence. Surely you could have laid out the same facts in a far more positive way, without being shocked at your own misunderstanding.

This mistake has been present since the original iPhone…

Now you call it a “mistake,” and get into how iPhones have been falsely displaying bars since the beginning of time. You make yourself sound bumbling, which I know you are not. Unfortunately, putting it this way leads directly to headlines like the one pictured in this post.

We’re also making bars 1,2 and 3 a bit taller so they will be easier to see.

When I first read this line (not on your site), I was convinced your letter was a hoax. It actually made me laugh. This is purely cosmetic, and has nothing to do with the problem. Better to have just built this into the software fix and let it be received as a nice touch later.

It’s not like you haven’t been here before. You’ve always gone out of your way — sometimes at great expense — to turn negatives into positives. Remember when you faced a customer revolt over the $599 pricing on the original iPhone? Steve wrote an open letter, lowered the price to $399, gave out $100 Apple Store certificates to early buyers — and you ended up enhancing your image as a result.

Sometimes history is a very good thing to repeat. In this case, a letter from Steve could have cured all. He could have told us how iPhone 4 has broken all sales records, and the vast majority of owners are in love with it. He could have explained how the antenna design actually improves reception for most, and enabled you to make the phone 24% thinner. He then could have told us how a very small percentage of people are experiencing issues — but any percentage is unacceptable to Apple. To address the mistaken perception, Apple is now adopting AT&T’s newest standards for displaying bars in the software. And since the problem disappears entirely with a Bumper or any case, Apple will be giving Bumpers to any customer who requests one. It would be a hell of a lot cheaper than giving out $100 Apple Store certificates.

Done this way, CNN wouldn’t be reporting that Apple has “raised more questions than they answered.” The NY Post wouldn’t be talking about Apple admitting it had been “misleading customers” since 2007. A hundred bloggers wouldn’t be turning Apple’s own words against them. The episode would be behind us, and Apple would once again be praised for “doing the right thing.”

If only.

Oh, and by the way, no need to send me a Bumper. My iPhone 4 is doing just fine, thanks.