You remember Big Pharma. Not long ago we heard a lot about it. This widely used term was once coined about the largest drug companies, often with the biggest direct-to-consumer advertising budgets, malpractice suits, lobbying budgets, fines, political influence and of course, sizable profits. When it newsworthy to talk about it, the Big Pharma image is tarnished by too much negative media attention -- and works harder on maintaining a low-key profile as it continues with business as usual. Big Pharma spends money on public relations and marketing -- $21 billion anticipated in 2016 alone.
Now we have Big Tech – by comparison to Big Pharma, amateurs at managing images. Sometimes known as FANG – Facebook, Apple, Netflix, and Google. Maybe add Amazon and Twitter and call them Fang-and-Friends. The media loves these companies – rarely does a day go by without an update on the wonder and sheer awesomeness of their new product features. Is the Future of Smartphones here. Perhaps there is no such thing as bad publicity for the Fang-and-Friends companies. But what if every other update reveals incompetence and carelessness in the company? Maybe it includes autocorrect of the ‘I’ in iPhone X (seriously, NO testing)? Or Google offering up the wrong answer in its search? It is possible for these firms to shoot themselves in their feet day after day – and still be beloved by investors.
But consumers are rightfully doubtful about Big Tech. Consider Social Media -- mostly Facebook according to Pew, but also Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc. Consider Twitter’s uh, high profile bloopers that make the phrase ‘damage control’ seem a bit lame. “Only 4% of web-using adults have a lot of trust in the information they find on social media.” No wonder, with Mark Zuckerberg touring Puerto Rico as an avatar in a Virtual Reality hangout. And each newly revealed Big Tech trust violation tops the previous. Today’s example: Android phones are tracked by Google when location services are off. Oops, sorry, that little privacy problem will be ‘fixed’ in November. And Chrome will stop auto-playing videos in 2018. And the iOS upgrade that put the “i” back into “iPhone” was ready six days after the release of the iPhone X. Do you find it a bit odd that no one at Apple mistyped ‘iPhone’ and saw the bug prior to the lineup outside stores?
Imagine if the real Big Tech companies released tech updates with so little care. Think about the less tweeted-about Big Tech – the companies that provide much of the backbone of the country – Cisco, IBM, Intel, Verizon, HP, Microsoft, AT&T. Sure, mistakes are made. Sure, bad publicity happens. But not so much bad publicity a Fang-and-Friends highlighting poor release management, misinformation in so-called 'News Feeds.' And top off the tech mishaps with immature executive behavior (did I mention Uber?) and other so-called opportunities for their so-called executives to express regret, issue apologies, and change policies yet again.
from Tips For Aging In Place https://www.ageinplacetech.com/blog/today-s-big-tech-vendors-give-tech-bad-name
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