Now that we've had some time to reflect and get a feel for our iPhone 4's, do you think 'antennagate' was overblown or accurately depicted a design flaw?
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Was antennagate overblown?
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I would never say 'overblown' in the sense that those who experienced the issue had unsatisfactory results because of what they felt was a design flaw. I was fortunate in that I didn't have a huge issue personally. But if I had, I can assure you that I would have felt that the problem was anything BUT overblown!
And in this day and age, doesn't the media over-hype damned near everything?
Got my iPhone 4 on June 29th when it came out on AT&T. I can still hold my finger over the spot and cripple my phone, but then again that's one of the reasons I put a case on it.
I believe some users were truly affected. Some areas just have worse reception than others and even a slight drop in reception would have very negative consequences. If I hold my phoe without the bumper on at my home I can guarantee you I'll drop the call. I can use it perfectly fine without it in many other areas though.
Everybody is looking to take the iphone down and this real problem gave people some ammunition for their fight. Steve admitted that it happens and I'm sure they won't carry the same problem to the next generation. I can make my 3G bars drop from 4 to 1 right now and, I just made and received a call from another phone. I used speedtest and it froze the app to the point of having to kill it from the multitasking just to reset it.
So, I just think off it as a small trade off for an amazing phone/camera/web/music device that slides in my pocket, free of a clingy bumper. I'm sure if I would have held onto my old nokia antenna it would dropped calls too so, I just didn't hold it that way.
So, I just think off it as a small trade off for an amazing phone/camera/web/music device that slides in my pocket, free of a clingy bumper. I'm sure if I would have held onto my old nokia antenna it would dropped calls too so, I just didn't hold it that way.
I didn't have a prob. I know lots of people who have iPhone 4s now. No probs.
No doubt it was a problem for some but the press got stuck into it for sure.
No doubt it was a problem for some but the press got stuck into it for sure.
When I first got my iPhone 4 I had a lot of reception problems and dropped calls when I was at work but the free bumper fixed it.
Last month two of my bosses upgraded to the iPhone 4 and were soon complaining about how crap the reception was with their new phones. They are now using bumpers and are happy again.
They are on a Orange and I'm on O2 so it isn't a network problem and the iPhone 3G and 3GS don't suffer from the same issues.
Last month two of my bosses upgraded to the iPhone 4 and were soon complaining about how crap the reception was with their new phones. They are now using bumpers and are happy again.
They are on a Orange and I'm on O2 so it isn't a network problem and the iPhone 3G and 3GS don't suffer from the same issues.
I think it was overblown in the fact that a lot of media coverage made it look as if it was a problem that was exclusive to Apple. I think that it's been taken down now (probably due to copyright reasons) but someone put up an amazing site that had scans from loads of mobile phone user guides showing the page of each phone's instruction manual where it said "don't hold it here" or "don't touch here", often complete with diagrams. Apple got wacked so hard because they have such a high profile in the industry.
- Julian
- Julian
Exactly. Antennagate was not just about the antenna design itself. It was about how Apple handled it and other revelations.
1) Act like it's just a user problem ("You're holding it wrong.")
2) Suddenly "discover" in their code that they've been showing extremely bogus signal levels for years in the status bar.
3) Tell everyone they didn't know beforehand about the signal loss, but strangely have a bumper case waiting in their inventory.
4) Hold a very uncomfortable press conference, using numbers carefully selected to minimize the problem: Return numbers only from ATT stores. Applecare complaint rates from days before. Additional dropped call numbers without telling how many users they applied to. Show off an antenna test facility without listing how much the iPhone team got to use it, or if any tests were done while using a human hand.
5) Even though it's "not a problem", put out ads for additional antenna engineers and testers.
Not to mention that it was clear to everyone that the typical Apple fetish for secrecy meant that most field testers used cases that had hid the problem. And even if they did notice, the rules against internal groups talking to each other meant far less chance of the discovery of any problem.
In short, there were a lot of lessons here about how NOT to do things.
Apple owes a lot of their success to the free press coverage they get. This time, they goofed up and it went against them. If you live by the sword...
First of all I must say that I'm not sure if it was "overblown" per se, but I did experience an obvious difference in signal based off of how I held my phone going from a 3G to iPhone 4 which ultimately made me go back to my 3G. But, i'll tell you that the Proximity Sensor issue was far "underblown" if anything.
I truly hope that if anything, this makes Apple place a few more quality control divisions in their process - and it also makes me wonder if the need for increased communication between divisions may lead to a premature leak - again. Just wishful thinking.
here's where i actually 'disagree'. I think Apple just figured out they could make some extra profit by selling 'minimal' cases, that just give the phone a touch of color, for some personalization but without hiding the beautiful glass back.
it wasn't even a 'first' with the iPhone, as apple offered an apple branded iPad case aswell.
Felt really overblown to me (but that's just me here). Honestly, I felt like it was just a number of OCD apple fanboy who would cry about anything. You know how it is, you'll see plenty of threads on the forums here about "omg! i nicked my macbook pro! omfggg! my life is over blah blah effing blah".
I honestly felt that this "the moment i place a FINGER over that spot on my phone, I'd drop the call 100%" idea was ludicrous and definitely exaggerated. Granted, I live in Canada so I don't know how much AT&T blows for you. That being said though, I live near Kitchener Waterloo, and the reception there is just complete trash, with my N1 I'd get EDGE signal almost 24/7, and the same thing goes with my iphone, I'd drop calls on both devices so I never saw it as a hardware specific iphone 4 problem, but rather an issue with the network in that area. Again, I'd drop calls occasionally, it was never consistent to "whenever i touched spot X on my phone".
All in all, I think it was overblown, but again, I'm Canadian, I'm not locked to some BS carrier and from all of my experiences, I felt that the antennagate issue was hugely exaggerated.
whores may flame me.....now.
I honestly felt that this "the moment i place a FINGER over that spot on my phone, I'd drop the call 100%" idea was ludicrous and definitely exaggerated. Granted, I live in Canada so I don't know how much AT&T blows for you. That being said though, I live near Kitchener Waterloo, and the reception there is just complete trash, with my N1 I'd get EDGE signal almost 24/7, and the same thing goes with my iphone, I'd drop calls on both devices so I never saw it as a hardware specific iphone 4 problem, but rather an issue with the network in that area. Again, I'd drop calls occasionally, it was never consistent to "whenever i touched spot X on my phone".
All in all, I think it was overblown, but again, I'm Canadian, I'm not locked to some BS carrier and from all of my experiences, I felt that the antennagate issue was hugely exaggerated.
whores may flame me.....now.
All in all, none of that mattered. People still bought the 4 and most are very happy.
Some peoples experiences were worse than others. I honestly haven't had problems, only because I'm the type to keep a case on my
Phone.
Phone.
appending:
6) forgot one of their dumb nitwits lost a prototype on a beer run and ending up raiding someone's house by their propaganda gestapo police.
7) forgot about the white iphone; don't promise what you can't produce.
I guess there will be a court case reasonably soon, about theft, handling stolen goods, revealing trade secrets, criminal damage and so on.