Oops - we forgot to talk about the battery on the iPhone

 Here's a great example of getting an inordinate amount of coverage and devoting all your time to making certain the iPhone is absolutely everywhere and then being hit with the downside or the "oops" factor.

So we've all been patiently waiting (some of us in long lines for over 15 hours) to get the iPhone. ( I don't have one yet.) But now that the fervor and coverage is over, turns out journalists are still hot on the trail for another story (journalists always work hard to find new story angles) and as it turns out there's a great angle.

The story angle comes in the form of  the battery on the phone and the fact that Apple neglected to tell folks the battery has to be replaced by Apple and users have to send the phone off for a week or so for replacement, according to this story in InfoWorld . To quote from the story, "To replace the iPhone battery, owners must pay $85.95, then ship the device to Apple."

Oops! Now we've just pissed off all those folks who bought the phone, because quite possibly we weren't transparent in what we were presenting to customers about the phone during all these news releases, interviews, and press flurry.

My advice for Apple - suck it up and give all the initial buyers of the phone free battery replacement. Sure, it's alot of money to do this, but long-term on the PR side it would be a big win.

What do you think?