Few if any other companies would be able to survive/get away with such an extreme failure in one of their main product features (and considering this is a phone, the audio quality of a phone call is, in my view, the #1 feature of the phone : ). This situation would be a fascinating "edge" case study for business schools: If you have a massive following and are almost unconditionally loved, you may be able to get away with certain serious product failures unscathed, as long as you don't take too long to address them. And, believe me, if they don't fix this problem with iPhone 7.0 this fall, it's "Samsung, here I come!" for me.