An Open Letter to Steve Jobs—Here's why we should be thanking the unreasonable CEO of Apple.

I have something to say. Since I don't imagine you'll be strolling through Brooklyn's Sunset Park any time soon, I won't be able to say it to your face.

Under your leadership, Apple (AAPL) has recently committed the following unreasonable acts:

5. Along with AT&T (T), failed to prepare your systems to handle iPhone 4 preorders;

Given your reputation as an obsessive, hands-on leader, I don't doubt for a second that you should bear full responsibility for these actions. Apple employs a lot of talented people, but we all know that nothing happens in Cupertino without your explicit approval and input.

Thanks! Because if it weren't for you, technology would be way too boring to write about.

Well, the answer is simple: The human race wouldn't be flying to outer space, creating wonderful art, and transplanting organs if not for the work of unreasonable people willing to push forward. Critics have their place in the world, and I often act as one myself.

But for the life of me, I can't understand how some people wake up in the morning and expect Apple to follow some arbitrary set of rules that would make the world a better place, if only that damn Jobs would listen to reason.

No one is obligated to use any Apple product, and in fact, few people actually do. Less than 5% of the mobile phones and computers sold each year are from Apple. So if you don't like Apple's behavior, you have an easy way out -- just be part of the 95% that doesn't buy Apple products!

There are plenty of reasonable companies out there. Microsoft (MSFT), Dell (DELL), Nokia (NOK), and Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) will happily take your orders for commodity, lookalike products that won't offend you.

Now, I do a lot of thinking about how Apple comes up with so much great stuff, and it goes way beyond the scope of design and engineering. It's will. Apple is willing to go it's own way, and that starts at the very top with Jobs.

The harsh reality is that most big companies offer ordinary products and services that aren't any different from that of their competitors. So we should celebrate the CEOs that are willing to stand out and go after the completely ridiculous goal of changing the world -- critics be damned. Do you remember Apple's famous Think Different ad?

If not, let me transcribe the voice-over for you: Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do. You can roll your eyes all you want, but Steve Jobs is living that message right now. The moment he stops being unreasonable is the moment Apple ceases to be relevant. He's got a vision, and it's working according to the metrics that matter in the real world: revenues, earnings, profit margins, and unit shipments.

Remember one thing: If it weren't for Apple, we'd all be stuck with lame computers and phones. When Apple hit the big time with groundbreaking products like the iMac and iPhone, it raised the bar for all its competitors. Microsoft hasn't made quality strides out of charity or some sudden stroke of genius; Apple forced its hand by taking market share.

Even if you don't like Apple's behavior, you're benefiting from its innovations.

So if you want to complain, direct your vitriol to the companies that aren't doing anything interesting.

Dear Mr. Jobs:

Tomorrow will be the last day I use my iPhone. It's an outstanding product but unfortunately a $200,000/year client of mine has delivered an edict: either I drop AT&T as my cell phone carrier or he will drop me as his attorney.

It's a shame, given my love for Apple products.

Three years ago, I built all of the PCs in our house. My hobby is computer graphics, including 2D and 3D animation, and video production. I experienced a financial windfall and purchased a MacPro. Although I had recently built a state-of-the-art PC specifically for video and 3D work, your MacPro ran circles around it. I was hooked.

Today, there are two MacPros in my family, three MacBook Pros, and three iMacs.

Almost a year ago, after fourteen wonderful years with Verizon, I switched to AT&T to get the iPhone and was immediately stunned by the number of calls I dropped, the number of dialed calls that never went through, and the number of times I could hear the other party and they couldn't hear me and vice versa.

I don't live in the boonies.

I experience this in metropolitan Atlanta and on my business travels to downtown Chicago, WDC, Boston, and New York, to name a few cities. And San Francisco? At a recent national convention, the moderator told everyone to turn his or her cell phone on mute, then paused and said "unless you have AT&T, in which case you won't have any coverage anyway."

I began to keep a log. Over the last three months, I drop an average of thirteen calls a day, which is more than I would drop in a year with Verizon.

That, and my coverage area with Verizon was perhaps twenty times the size of my coverage with AT&T.

Do you know what it's like to be on a conference call with a half dozen people in a half dozen cities and have your call drop unexpectedly while you're in the heart of Midtown Atlanta? Do you know how frustrated your clients get when they go to the trouble to patch you in again, only to have your phone drop the call again?

AT&T tells me my problem is the iPhone. I've taken it to your Genius Bar where the employees politely test it and tell me it's fine. Then, unlike any retail store I've ever been in, they say "it's not in warranty any longer, but if it would make you feel more comfortable, we'll be happy to swap it for a new phone."

Kudos. They've done that twice. The first time, I called my wife as I drove away from the mall to tell her . . . the first call didn't go through and the second call dropped during the first couple of sentences.

I understand that Verizon turned down the iPhone initially, but, really, AT&T?

Wouldn't it be easier to find a couple of guys who run a cell phone company from their basement using three networked Commodore 64s?

I'll be back someday, but not until you kick AT&T to the curb.

Am I bitter? Well, I've probably chosen not to bill clients for several thousand dollars of time over the past year due to dropped calls and the frustration they experienced.

And AT&T did rank last in the most recent quality study of national cell phone carriers I read.

So, for a quality conscious guy, may I suggest that (and I apologize for the analogy), you've chose to bed down with a $2/night crack whore in AT&T.

I'm ordering some merchandise from the Apple Online store on Monday, but I'll be doing it using a Droid.

I”m not going to debate your reception issues - I have heard nearly the exact same story from Verizon users with similar dropped calls, failed to complete/call failed problems.

The town we use to live in had a band about 2 blocks wide through nearly the entire city - where our then carrier, Alltel (purchased by Verizon), had horrible service. Go two blocks either direction and you would have full signal, but travel in or across that two-block path - and you would drop calls like crazy. Alltel’s answer (because our home was right in the middle of that swath) - buy some $600 device from them that would boost the signal. Hello - we lived within eyesight of the tower. They finally, after sending a tech to town with some devices to measure the signal, found that the aiming of their antennas with a primary focus on covering the interstate, left a “hole” that they “couldn’t” do anything about.

We were no longer under contract so we went to AT&T and have had superior service for the last several years.

I started having troubles when I went to a Samsung Blackjack II smartphone - it would drop calls much the way you describe your issue. AT&T checked it out and said it was fine... When I jumped to an iPhone over a year ago - the problem went away. It does seem a bit slow to recover from a bad signal area (like up in the mountains of North Arkansas where there is NO signal from any company in many valleys). It does sound like the Apple store has tried to help. I agree that your problem sounds like an AT&T issue - though I would be interested to see if the same service problems continued with another kind of phone. If so, it would seem that AT&T could be held to the fire over breach of their contract with you.

AT&T’s new policy on data plans (no more “unlimited”) will have me doing some figures when I decide it is upgrade time. I am eligible and the iPhone 4 is very tempting (though I really don’t have the spare $ for it right now), but when I upgrade, I will lose the old grandfathered “Unlimited” data plan. I use my data quite a bit... so again, will have to really crunch some numbers. I think the whole competition thing would be exciting for us users if the iPhone were available with Verizon... I guess the $$$ flowing to Apple from AT&T make it hard to walk away from the table (can’t blame them for that).

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