Is Steve Jobs Really E-Mailing Apple Customers? Grammatical Analysis Raises Doubts

[Butthead]

Is Steve Jobs Really E-Mailing Apple Customers? Grammatical Analysis Raises Doubts
http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/09/steve-jobs-e-ma.html

MR been punk'd?

Recently, two Apple customers have said they received e-mails from Jobs: A MacRumors reader claimed Jobs replied to his letter concerning iPhone 3G network issues, and a Gizmodo reader said Jobs wrote him an e-mail hinting at plans to offer an iPhone tethering option. For reference purposes, we also looked at a third e-mail purportedly sent by Jobs regarding the iPod touch...

With help from Wired.com's copy editors and Patrick Farrell, head of the UC Davis linguistics department, we observed that the customer-reported e-mails contained elementary grammatical errors, which are absent from Jobs' real e-mails; the CEO has a much stronger command of the English language than recent e-mails suggest.

 

[localoid]

Don't know if I buy this as conclusive proof... Jobs probably doesn't write everything from scratch. He has people to handle the grunt work. Jobs can review their responses and sign off on them after making any needed revisions, additions, etc. I used to draft responses for the state's governor, my division head, state senators, and other officials, and often I was compiling snippets of responses actually written by others within a given response. The writing styles varied greatly, from letter to letter...

 

[swingerofbirch]

I noticed the comma issue before, but plenty of people make mistakes. Also, "that" vs. "which" is a style issue. His (or his surrogate's) use was not incorrect.

 

[zap2]

If I recall MR normal hints at the fact its very possible that it isn't Jobs emailing everyone, merely someone(s) acting for, but everything sent, is I believe, "from Jobs" in that he approves it all

 

[SnowLeopard2008]

Some of those emails Jobs actually wrote, others, he got other workers to address, and then he would verify it.

 

[EricNau]

I would expect there to be significant differences in grammar between an open letter for all the world to see and a terse and informal email sent to one person, even if the two were written by the same person.

I mean, really, would you expect Jobs to reread his one sentence email for grammatical errors? Based on his personality, I would argue that it's far more likely that the curt and grammatically incorrect emails came from Jobs' own hand, while the proper and official letters were written by a professional publicist. ...I'm not proposing that Jobs doesn't have "a strong command of the English language" but rather, that he doesn't care to waste the time.

Besides, the official conclusion of this study by UCD was, "I don't see anything obvious that would lead me to believe that the three questionable emails are fake," he said. "I think one would need more evidence. Longer emails or something."

 

[Butthead]

Some of those emails Jobs actually wrote, others, he got other workers to address, and then he would verify it.

^^^Really? Can you give us a link to an authority for that statement, or is it just speculation?

Unless I see a direct quote from Steve Jobs, verifying those above, I'll not believe SJ actually sent them, or had some one at Apple send them on his behalf.

Kind of like the post MR Admin/mods deleted, when I argued they were speculating that iGary had left MR for good, therefore closing one of his photo threads was warranted, merely because there was the claim by other posters here, think it might have been Dr. Q, that iGary took a job @Apple and therefore would not be able to post on MR. Speculation was my argument, and it got deleted, lol. Heh, I have the last laugh as iGary is obviously back on MR, w00t!


*note* to Admn/mod, not meaning to in anyway insult or attack a decision of any of Team MR, just pointing out I was correct in disagreeing with rampant speculation about iGary, nothing more

 

[rpp3po]

You guys are funny! Have you ever believed for one second, that Steve Jobs is actually answering customer support emails himself??? Haha! He is the CEO of thousands of people and a mulit billion USD corporation. Time is his most limited and valuable ressource!

It's not that Apple is full of retards and nobody but Steve Jobs himself would be able to appraise all your so-important complaints. Did you also know that Lord Steve doesn't even make all your beloved gadgets himself, but delegates a workforce of specialists?

You think all you need to get around these layers 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th level support is write an email to Steve Jobs AND even get a personal answer?? That's so pathetic!

 

[7on]

All I know is that the company i work for has both the CEO and President's signatures in stamp form so they never need to touch their delicate hands to pen.