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Consumer Reports Still Not Recommending iPhone 4
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It is funny for all who's been saying that they should ignore CR's recommendation. If, in another world, CR actually recommended the iphone 4 because it's an awesome device, those same people would be saying how fair and balanced their review is.
We accept confirming evidence and ignore evidence that goes against what we already decided to believe.
The fact of the matter is, as one poster already noted, that the CR review is the most balanced review up-to-date. They do not receive their products directly from the companies, but rather purchase it themselves so that no one can claim that they are being biased.
They have their own testing laboratories and people who specialize in the product that they are asked to review (e.g. car experts reviewing cars).
Unless someone here knows the minute details that goes into objectively testing whether the iphone 4 reception works then they don't have anything to base their opinions that CR reviews are unbalanced or wrong. In other words, can you do a better testing of the iphone 4 to show that there is no reception problem? That is, besides saying, "well, my iphone 4 works fine".
Actually, CR is very balanced, and that's why they've been around for so long. Their reputation is very good. In fact, other companies that didn't like their recommendations tried to sue them only to lose to them in court.
I understand that this is a macforum, but it's funny that despite everyone else (people other than macrumors people) feeling that the iphone 4 has reception problems, this small subset of people chooses to ignore the majority.
(By the way, I know not everyone feels that way, but you have to admit no other phone had a problem this big that there had to be a press conference about it whether it was an iphone or something else. So something is definitely wrong with the iphone 4.)
I wonder if Apple ever admits that they messed up and does a recall how many of those same people who said that nothing was wrong with their phone would actually return it for a new one.
I don't think Consumer Reports is hurting their rep but it is true about iPhones still selling. I setup the return of mine today and went to the Apple store where they could not help me because I bought it through the online apple store, incredibly stupid for the 2 systems to not be combined. Anyways people were coming in to buy the iPhone 4 which they didn't have any of. Then I had to go to the AT&T store to get a new sim for my old iPhone 3g so i would have a phone while the 4 is being shipped back. While waiting there for 30 minutes everyone that came in except for 2 people asked about buying the iPhone 4. Amazing. Either people live under rocks or people just don't care if they can make a phone call on a phone or not.
Oh and while I was sitting in the AT&T store my signal on my iPhone 4 which was still active was dropping up and down. Got my iPhone 3G reactivated and I've been at full signal ever since. No matter how I hold the 3G I cannot get the signal to drop whereas just touching the bars on the 4 would cause a quick drop. I don't care what Apple said today, this is a design flaw and I won't be buying an iPhone 5 until many months after the release. I still think they are great phones and an awesome OS, this one was flawed pretty badly and for them to basically say "well everyone else is bad too so its not our fault" is a horrible way to treat your customers.
I would look at an android based phone but none of the cool ones come for AT&T.
Consumer Reports is a joke. I remember reading a review of the Porsche Boxster and they criticized it for being too firm of a ride. It's a sports car. Of course it has a firm ride. Maybe their toaster reviews are worth something, but for the most part, I find them to be socialist-leaning morons.
Exactly. Whoever is ok with accepting this as a fix for apples flaw is completely stupid. Guess people don't mind a ****** rig fix (aka bumper) for their phone. Yea I said it.
Pretty stupid to me, people bought cases for the 3G, 3GS, etc. If you bought a third-party case that does not exempt you from getting a free case, they just aren't reimbursing you for that purchase. It's not their product.
It's also true that other phones have this issue, I've adversely affected my Droid's reception holding it "wrong" as well.
I think CR is just riding the waves here and getting free publicity.
It's also true that other phones have this issue, I've adversely affected my Droid's reception holding it "wrong" as well.
I think CR is just riding the waves here and getting free publicity.
Look at all the fanboys in full power today. They kinda see that a case is just a bandaid, and are running out of excuses. If I sold my old iPhone 3GS, to get the new iPhone, and the new iPhone can't make a call, the fanboys blame it on me. Yes, I could have kept my old iPhone, but why would a company as perfect as Apple release a POS anyways? Why should I not be able to trust a company that makes things that just work? Fanboys, think about that? and let me know.
If I sold my old iPhone 3GS, to get the new iPhone, and the new iPhone can't make a call, the fanboys blame it on me. Yes, I could have kept my old iPhone, but why would a company as perfect as Apple release a POS anyways? Why should I not be able to trust a company that makes things that just work? Fanboys, think about that? and let me know.
To the people who scream and yell in anger that they don't have a problem with their iPhone 4 and are so happy with it (yes, a contradiction), but for some odd reason ordered the bumper anyway and now are getting a reimbursement because of our "moaning", can you now just go hover around other topics and avoid threads where you know we are all in.
This is the deal, all iPhone 4 purchasers, prior to the press release, get a significant discount on the iPhone 5. Everyone after the fact goes into it informed of the possible short comings. That's what's going to work, and that is what is fair.
We know they aren't going to fix this overnight, as it apparently took them 22 days to put together a skewed and arrogant slide show. If they really want to know how many people have the problem they could very easily put a poll up and verify purchasers. This was all for the stockholders, and the letter and software update were strategic in affecting these numbers.
This is the deal, all iPhone 4 purchasers, prior to the press release, get a significant discount on the iPhone 5. Everyone after the fact goes into it informed of the possible short comings. That's what's going to work, and that is what is fair.
We know they aren't going to fix this overnight, as it apparently took them 22 days to put together a skewed and arrogant slide show. If they really want to know how many people have the problem they could very easily put a poll up and verify purchasers. This was all for the stockholders, and the letter and software update were strategic in affecting these numbers.
Yeah it reminded me of their pc vs douchebag ads.
Still liking my iPhone 4 overall. Just need a jailbreak.
I love Consumer Reports...
But make no mistake, they jumped into this fray for their own reasons and one of them was certainly to try to gain a level of relevance in a marketplace that has largely left CR behind. CR is largely irrelevant for the target markets of Apple (and most other consumer tech companies).
CR is great for slow-cycle low/non-tech consumer goods: cars, vacuum cleaners, washers, dryers, etc. But I have found their consumer tech coverage to be uniformly bad. I no longer turn to them for reviews of PCs, cell phones, external hard drives, TVs, stereo equiment, game systems, etc. While their data can be very good for brand satisfaction and customer service ranking, I have found their testing methodology for consumer tech to be very poor.
I like lots of what Apple does, but I'm not an Apple fanboy. I think Apple did a horrendous job responding to this initially and a fair (not great) job today.
BTW, my iPhone 4 works really well - definitely better call performance than my 3G.
But make no mistake, they jumped into this fray for their own reasons and one of them was certainly to try to gain a level of relevance in a marketplace that has largely left CR behind. CR is largely irrelevant for the target markets of Apple (and most other consumer tech companies).
CR is great for slow-cycle low/non-tech consumer goods: cars, vacuum cleaners, washers, dryers, etc. But I have found their consumer tech coverage to be uniformly bad. I no longer turn to them for reviews of PCs, cell phones, external hard drives, TVs, stereo equiment, game systems, etc. While their data can be very good for brand satisfaction and customer service ranking, I have found their testing methodology for consumer tech to be very poor.
I like lots of what Apple does, but I'm not an Apple fanboy. I think Apple did a horrendous job responding to this initially and a fair (not great) job today.
BTW, my iPhone 4 works really well - definitely better call performance than my 3G.
Abso-bloody-exactly. There is a major problem with the iPhone 4, it should not be recommended by anyone. To be the only guys not recommending it, well, that's brilliant.
I really don't understand how people can be so apologetic for Apple. It doesn't make sense to defend a faulty product, would they be so apologetic if Google/insert any rival manufacturer did the same?
I think even Consumer Reports won't recommend Consumer Reports, based on their self-contradictory stance of "We are not recommending our top ranking smartphone because a small percent of people are unhappy. So we say screw the majority of the people that are jubilant and ecstatic with the same phone, we certainly don't want that kind of happy sentiments to spread to anymore naive smartphone shoppers"
So true. The iPad has no wrong way of holding it, and it fits the user. Sadly thats nice the case with the iPhone.
I shouldn't have to wait for a free piece of plastic that retails for $30 to make my $200-300 purchase work.
Antennae with bumper - the apple one is ugly and cheap looking but i saw one on endgadget that looked good.*
Returns - kind of unclear on the information presented. Is he comparing overall 3 gs returns/complaints in the initial 20 days to tje initial 20 days of the iphone 4 or is it the overall return rate of the 3 gs over a year. If it is over a year clearly the 3 gs would have a higher percent complaint/return rate.*
Signal drop comparison - is it me or did it seem like jibs was manipulating the numbers. So he states that there is less than one drop call for every 100 when you compared the 3 gs when it was released to when the iphone 4 when it was released. Well it seems like we are comparing apples to oranges. If att upgraded its network and things have changed why would you not compare the current drop rate of the 3 gs to the current drop rate to the iphone 4. Why compare last years data to this years data. For those that did not pick that up, visit the apple site for a review of the video. Sounds like there is some information bending going on.
Algorithm incorrect. What. You are telling me that a company that produces and sells as many phones as apple made a mistake in the algorithm. Something fishy is going on here. For some reason you algorithm made the bars look like you had stronger reception. Sounds like apple was trying to mislead the customer but it looks like someone caught on very fast. Kind of like what they call the pseudo medicine effect when you give someone a pill despite the fact the pill does nothing and the person say they feel better. I am very sure that a lot of persons would be fooled by the number of bars and think that the iphone 4 was providing them better reception than the 3gs. Also the speculation about the case is wrong. If you look back at the study that showed the reception strength of the 3 gs versus the iphone 4 and nexus one, they clearly state that there was no case section. The iphone 4 performed miserably.*
In conclusion steve jobs is losing respect from many. He could have taken the high road but instead he went the way of so many other tech companies aka decieve your loyal customers. He should have recalled the phone. It will work in good reception areas but if you travel or in a bad reception area, they you will probably be out of luck when you really need your cell phone.
Returns - kind of unclear on the information presented. Is he comparing overall 3 gs returns/complaints in the initial 20 days to tje initial 20 days of the iphone 4 or is it the overall return rate of the 3 gs over a year. If it is over a year clearly the 3 gs would have a higher percent complaint/return rate.*
Signal drop comparison - is it me or did it seem like jibs was manipulating the numbers. So he states that there is less than one drop call for every 100 when you compared the 3 gs when it was released to when the iphone 4 when it was released. Well it seems like we are comparing apples to oranges. If att upgraded its network and things have changed why would you not compare the current drop rate of the 3 gs to the current drop rate to the iphone 4. Why compare last years data to this years data. For those that did not pick that up, visit the apple site for a review of the video. Sounds like there is some information bending going on.
Algorithm incorrect. What. You are telling me that a company that produces and sells as many phones as apple made a mistake in the algorithm. Something fishy is going on here. For some reason you algorithm made the bars look like you had stronger reception. Sounds like apple was trying to mislead the customer but it looks like someone caught on very fast. Kind of like what they call the pseudo medicine effect when you give someone a pill despite the fact the pill does nothing and the person say they feel better. I am very sure that a lot of persons would be fooled by the number of bars and think that the iphone 4 was providing them better reception than the 3gs. Also the speculation about the case is wrong. If you look back at the study that showed the reception strength of the 3 gs versus the iphone 4 and nexus one, they clearly state that there was no case section. The iphone 4 performed miserably.*
In conclusion steve jobs is losing respect from many. He could have taken the high road but instead he went the way of so many other tech companies aka decieve your loyal customers. He should have recalled the phone. It will work in good reception areas but if you travel or in a bad reception area, they you will probably be out of luck when you really need your cell phone.
Ignorant comments are ignorant.
Consumer Reports is held in high regard because they don't accept "review samples" of products. They buy what they review anonymously through third parties. They also don't accept industry perks. This is exactly why you have to be a subscriber to view most reviews of their website. They have to find a way to make the money required to do all this. They aren't industry brown-nosers like Macworld, and since they are a general product-review company (not Apple or even computing-focused) they wouldn't be at an Apple event to begin with.
Guys/gals we may not care about this report, but the average consumer will! Like I said before, I love my iPhone 4 and I'm not returning it. I already had a bumper... so I really wasn't effected.
With that said, I think Apple handled themselves poorly today. The event started off good, then it went downhill! Saying all smartphones have this problem felt like a cop out imho.
I tried to make my wife's Blackberry lose bars (by holding it how they were in the video) and I couldn't. It was silly and unprofessional trying to throw the other companies under the bus with them.
I love Apple and their products, but I refuse to defend them! They screwed up and their event today was pure fail! Some of these comments really make me ashamed to be an Apple fan. Some of you guys/gals remarks are making everyone think we're all nuts and will defend Apple to the death! Idk...
With that said, I think Apple handled themselves poorly today. The event started off good, then it went downhill! Saying all smartphones have this problem felt like a cop out imho.
I tried to make my wife's Blackberry lose bars (by holding it how they were in the video) and I couldn't. It was silly and unprofessional trying to throw the other companies under the bus with them.
I love Apple and their products, but I refuse to defend them! They screwed up and their event today was pure fail! Some of these comments really make me ashamed to be an Apple fan. Some of you guys/gals remarks are making everyone think we're all nuts and will defend Apple to the death! Idk...
What I find most interesting of all, is that even tho Apple provided ACTUAL HARD DATA backing up their claims that it is MOSTLY a non-issue, people keep spouting off WITHOUT BACKUP DATA about how "Faulty" the iP4 is.
Consumer Reports' analysis makes sense. The press has MADE Consumer Reports out to be saying more than they are. Saying the iPhone is not on its "recommended list" is not saying that its not a great device (as its scoring shows), its saying that they're trying to protect consumers by not RECOMMENDING products shown to give consumers problems (no matter how good it otherwise may or may not be). People on either side who can't see this are willfully blind. I can't blame consumer reports for identifying Apple's announcement as a SHORT TERM fix.
~ CB
~ CB
Apple is investing 100million dollar for echiong chambers and mess the iphone4 up? Come on CR, Apple is not stupid!
Apple would never bring a phone to the market if there where an issue, i think the main problem is that like jobs said x-marks the spot. and every tech blog crys.
sorry for the spelling, i am a stupid german...
Apple would never bring a phone to the market if there where an issue, i think the main problem is that like jobs said x-marks the spot. and every tech blog crys.
sorry for the spelling, i am a stupid german...
Who actually makes their decision to buy a product based on Consumer Reports? It's a good tool in knowing the features/specifications of a product, but I would never let someone with inferior knowledge compared to me make a decision for me.