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The key point here is that 0.55% is a percent based on the of iPhone 4 users, not the number of calls to Apple Care.

For example, supposing only 1% of iPhone 4 users called Apple Care, then half the calls were about the antenna issue. Now consider that Apple Care handles technical issues with every product Apple produces, not just the iPhone.
I think the AppleCare statistic was of the total amount of iPhone users. (5-10million?)
edit: nevermind
 
Apple is presenting the numbers it has. You can't expect them to post the number of users displeased with the call performance. They gave dropped call numbers, return rates and complaints they received. What else do you want?
 
I think the AppleCare statistic was of the total amount of iPhone users. (5-10million?)

From the presentation, it specifically said iPhone 4 users. Not all affected users are going to call Apple Care.

Furthermore, it doesn't include any users that visited the Genius Bar in an Apple Store instead of calling in.

The figure they gave is just a total joke.
 
I agree, the number is not a true representation of the actually number of people having problems. The problem is that Apple is using that number publicly to convince people there is not an issue.

I am in the group of people who did not call, and did not go to a store choosing instead to wait to see what Apple would do. Same goes for the return rate. If just one person was waiting to see what developed today before returning, the 1.7% number is also flawed.

If the number is flawed, they shouldn't be using it to prop up their story.
 
The 0.55% figure was presented to argue that it's not a major problem, not that it's no problem at all. Nor was it presented as a representation of the exact number of users that had an issue. If you want to suggest it is actually a major problem affecting a large number of users, well you need to do more than say "oh, but people went to the Genius bar aren't counted!"
 
I agree, the number is not a true representation of the actually number of people having problems. The problem is that Apple is using that number publicly to convince people there is not an issue.

I am in the group of people who did not call, and did not go to a store choosing instead to wait to see what Apple would do. Same goes for the return rate. If just one person was waiting to see what developed today before returning, the 1.7% number is also flawed.

If the number is flawed, they shouldn't be using it to prop up their story.

With all due respect, you are an irresponsible consumer. If someone buys something and it doesn't work as you feel that it should, it is your right, and perhaps your responsibility to make it known to the manufacturer that your product is defective.

You are partially responsible for Apple giving out a flawed number if you feel it is flawed.

Consumers generally like to complain. My personal experience is that AppleCare makes it easy for consumers to complain.

The number of individuals who find faults with the iPhone 4 irreconcilably problematic who have not yet contacted Apple has to be infinitesimally small to total number sold, simply based on the way that consumers in the Western world who live on the bleeding edge of Tech act.
 
The fact that people believe Apples figues confuses me. They are lying. This is a problem.
 
The fact that people believe Apples figues confuses me. They are lying. This is a problem.

Prove Apple's numbers are lying. Call 3 million people who purchased iPhones and ask if this affects their daily use of the phone.

Of course they are skewing them in their best interest, but they are probably not far off from reality.

Simply, the burden is now on the doubters to demonstrably prove that Apple, a publicly traded company, has intentionally provided false numbers to the public.
 
People need to take responsibility for themselves. If you don't tell someone at a company you are having a problem, they won't know. If you think this number is way below what people are experiencing, then tell them about it. If you didn't tell them about it, then you only have yourself to blame for this stat.

This is not a public safety hazard. You can't expect any company to track you down or read your forum posts/blogs about your issue because there is something potentially not perfect on your product. No one can expect them to track data they don't have. Call if you have a problem. Very simple. If a great number of people call and report problems, then that stat will go higher. Simple
 
Hubby had the problem where he lost calls, I didn't but could reproduce the bars dropping, he decided to call and get a tracking number just in case there was a hardware fix later even though he knew Apple knew of the problem. Apple can only report numbers they know, as of this morning that return rate and the 0.55% number were probably correct. If you have the problem, call, then it will get recorded as a case number and then that percentage will change. How can you expect Apple to guess at the number of people who have a real problem vs. those who have a minor one vs. those who have no problem? How many of the people who say they are going to return their phone end up not returning it for some reason? Do you really expect them to guess at the number of things that might happen?
 
I'm going to take issue with Steve Jobs saying that since only 0.55% of iPhone users actually called applecare, there is really no problem.

I think the reason more did not call, is they all read all the articles posted endlessly online and knew what the problem was, so there was no reason for them to call. That's how I was, I had read all about the issue online, so when it happened after I got my iPhone, I never called applecare, since there would be no reason to. Also, most people nowadays don't call up places because they can simply go online to the Apple Help webpage and get answers. So this 0.55% called figure is pretty meaningless in my opinion.

I think you're part of the echo chamber and believe any fud on the Internet.
 
Also Steve Jobs says that they have had a 1.7% return rate for the iphone 4 and a 6.0% for the 3gs I find this a alittle shady using percentage since 3 million have been sold and I am sure that alot less were sold for the 3gs which would make it a higher percentage
 
How can you expect Apple to guess at the number of people who have a real problem vs. those who have a minor one vs. those who have no problem? How many of the people who say they are going to return their phone end up not returning it for some reason? Do you really expect them to guess at the number of things that might happen?

That's exactly the point. The number of calls to Apple Care can't demonstrate how widespread the problem is.

Why did they cite 0.55% in their presentation? To try and show that very few users are having problems with reception.

They used the statistic to draw conclusions that it can't support - that's lying.
 
I agree with the OP, but for a different reason.

Steve said that it is the percentage of people who called APPLECARE. Not everyone buys Apple Care so it does not include people like me who do not have their service plan of apple care ... :D
 
That's the problem with unfounded opinions and the Internet. One person relies on his individual experience and uses his blog or a forum to forward his opinion as representing "most" or the "majority" of millions.

I'll take the hard data (as for my experience, I'm unaffected by the death grip issue).

That still doesn't explain the 1.7% return rate, less than a third of the 3GS returns. From reading here, you'd think A LOT of people have returned their iP4s. The distractors of this forum are meaningless because they are vastly overrepresented here compared to all iPhone 4 users.

You're entitled to think what you like but, until you have some data to back your thoughts up, they're worth precisely nothing.

I’m glad there is sanity still on this forum.

The same people that would discount the data provided by Apple today are the same ones that would suggest the online polls mean something (i.e., around 50% of iPhone 4 owners have a reception issue).

Let’s say 3 million is an accurate number of iPhone 4’s sold. That means 16,500 iPhone 4’s have the problem from Apple’s data. Let’s further go ahead and add the poll data from here (totally discounting trolling and the problems with online polling not being scientific) and say another 25,000 have the problem. Rounding up, that gives 50,000, which is still less than 2% with the issue. Also, out of that 2%, who knows how many will be satisfied with a bumper or case. So, yes, we really are talking about a minority.

Note: I’m not saying this minority doesn’t have an issue, but obviously what Apple stated today is all they’re going to do. You can either live with it or return it and get the 3GS, or just leave the iPhone altogether.
 
That's exactly the point. The number of calls to Apple Care can't demonstrate how widespread the problem is.

Why did they cite 0.55% in their presentation? To try and show that very few users are having problems with reception.

They used the statistic to draw conclusions that it can't support - that's lying.

What are the real numbers then? This is akin to telling a blind person that the sky is blue and the blind person saying it's not.

What reputable news agency has done real reporting with sizable numbers of iPhone users over a wide geographic location and ask "Is reception a problem with your iPhone 4?" The number that we have is the number Apple has provided.

I welcome CNN to make 3 million phone calls and ask "What do you think of your iPhone 4?" They aren't going to though, and I suspect neither are you.
 
Let’s say 3 million is an accurate number of iPhone 4’s sold. That means 16,500 iPhone 4’s have the problem from Apple’s data.

Stop right there. You just fell for Apple's game.

The only conclusion you can reach about Apple's data is 0.55% of the number of iPhone 4 users called Apple Care. To determine the number of iPhone 4's that "have the problem", you need to know the percentage of iPhone 4 users that call Apple Care.

Certainly not 100% of users with reception issue will call Apple Care. Some will visit the Genius bar. Some won't bother to do either. Since we don't know how many people with issues call Apple Care, we can't know how many iPhone 4's have the reception problem.
 
I agree with the OP, but for a different reason.

Steve said that it is the percentage of people who called APPLECARE. Not everyone buys Apple Care so it does not include people like me who do not have their service plan of apple care ... :D

As the iPHone 4 has been out for less than 30 days, every iPhone 4 user has access to AppleCare's phone lines.
 
Also Steve Jobs says that they have had a 1.7% return rate for the iphone 4 and a 6.0% for the 3gs I find this a alittle shady using percentage since 3 million have been sold and I am sure that alot less were sold for the 3gs which would make it a higher percentage

You need to re-read what you wrote, because it makes no sense.
 
Let’s say 3 million is an accurate number of iPhone 4’s sold. That means 16,500 iPhone 4’s have the problem from Apple’s data. Let’s further go ahead and add the poll data from here (totally discounting trolling and the problems with online polling not being scientific) and say another 25,000 have the problem. Rounding up, that gives 50,000, which is still less than 2% with the issue. Also, out of that 2%, who knows how many will be satisfied with a bumper or case. So, yes, we really are talking about a minority.

Note: I’m not saying this minority doesn’t have an issue, but obviously what Apple stated today is all they’re going to do. You can either live with it or return it and get the 3GS, or just leave the iPhone altogether.
You're implying that everyone who had a problem had the time and knowledge of calling AppleCare since whenever Apple developed their statistic (yesterday? last week?).

The statistic is also leaving out all of those who directly went to a Genius, which I'm sure is more than those who called. Apple created their data to stretch the proof and cater to their agenda (which I don't have a problem with).
 
I'd consider the dropped call figure misleading as well.. Simply because Att's network has had to have improved over the past 12 months.
 
You're implying that everyone who had a problem had the time and knowledge of calling AppleCare since whenever Apple developed their statistic (yesterday? last week?).

Normal person buys a Phone for $199 and signs up for a 2 year expensive data plan that altogether results in thousands of dollars spent and the phone part doesn't work? And that normal person doesn't contact the company that manufactured the phone? In the United States? In 2010? Really?
 
You're implying that everyone who had a problem had the time and knowledge of calling AppleCare since whenever Apple developed their statistic (yesterday? last week?).

The statistic is also leaving out all of those who directly went to a Genius, which I'm sure is more than those who called. Apple created their data to stretch the proof and cater to their agenda (which I don't have a problem with).

I’m not implying anything. It’s one source of data, which I also threw other BS data into it to give some amount of the ones having this issue. None of the ones saying this is a widespread problem have any data. Anyone thinking you can get credible results from an online forum is fooling themselves (see past issues with the 3GS, for example). If anything, the media reporting this should perform a scientific poll and that would yield the closest results. Until that happens (and it probably won’t because that would shut down the story and headlines), my opinion is that it won’t be too far off from what Apple reported.
 
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