A Look Inside Apple's Wireless Testing Facilities

[mentholiptus]

Are you not also pouting in web forums about cell phones? Oh wait, you "just stopped in"... Besides, did you even read what I wrote because I fail to see what your reply has anything to do with my previous comment. I was simply stating the obvious... that apple spent a lot of R&D on reception and still have issues with it. Then completely out of the blue, you start telling me to buy a google phone... What's google got to do with the iphone reception sucking?

You took the punch for everyone who's in here complaining.

Why exactly are you complaining then? Are you effected?

It's not Apple's problem. I can wrap my hands completely around the phone (covering the entire antenna with bone & skin, while also maintaining the "death grip") in an area where I only have 3 bars to start (4.0.1) and still dial up and have a 20 minute conversation without dropping the call. You're perpetuating ************. If it were the antenna, NO ONE would be able to use it as a phone when it's in their hands. Apparently, less than 1% are actually calling Apple about it. If it were faulty, the remaining 99.45% wouldn't be able to use their iPhone to place a call. You're all wrong.

So, it's time everyone moves along. You're all just looking for something to complain about, and it's getting sickening. Sickening because the bulk of you are completely full of ****. If you're in a low coverage area, you might drop your call (as with any other cell phone). The End.

 

[mentholiptus]

What's your point? The video shows the droid incredible has the same reception issue. This does not mean the iphone's reception doesn't suck. It means the reception on the iphone AND droid incredible sucks.

What's with all your anti-google comments anyways? I'm guessing it's because SJ and apple are now anti-google and you're not exactly a free-thinker. Either that, or google somehow killed your family. If that's indeed the case, I stand corrected and i'm sorry for your loss.

My point is, you're wrong. If Apple's design is faulty, then all cellphones are faulty. A child showed you why.

Google is fine. How am I "anti-google"? When I searched "antennagate" on youtube, that's one of the videos the popped up.

 

[Max(IT)]

Except there is no epic antenna failure. No matter how really, really badly you want there to be one, it just does not exist.

Right. But let them try to' repeat that day after day trying hard to make it true

It's really simple. CR ranking does not take reception problems into considerations (because before iPhone 4 no other phone really had it that bad). So while iPhone 4 scores well on conventional set of features it's reception is so bad that nobody should buy it (according to CR). It does not really matter how nice the screen is if you can not make a phone call on it, does it?

Except there is no smartphone with a touchscreen recommended by CR. so they should be ALL flawed ....
Or maybe CR is not the best place to go when you are looking for suggestions ...

 

[Max(IT)]

You're using a 2nd tier obsolete phone running last generation's Android operating system (HTC Droid Eris) to justify the dismal performance of Apple's "Magical" new, "state-of-the-art" flagship product? The "best product that Apple has ever made"? The Eris was selling for $30 even last year, and isn't even listed on the Verizon website today.

We have to have more integrity than that. Admit that Apple screwed up big time, those who want can return theirs, and the rest can pretend that they enjoy redialing.

Except there are several videos showing N1 and Galaxy S with the same behavior ...
And REAL people out there are using iPhone 4 without re-dialing ...

every one that has an iphone4 and is still 'dissatisfied', gear up... the time is coming when you either return the thing or shut-up (since you had your chance...)



I know, must complaining folks won't return the iphone4, because, come on... it is the best phone out there... you know...

but lamentably, they will still not shut-up as they should...


Also, it is evident that apple is trowing pearls to the swines. After they show off their 100 mil facility, most ignorant bloggers (yes, you CR folks are included) and comments in this site, still cannot comprehend an iota of what has been said...

is there any site left out there is actually apple friendly?

Most complaining folks here don't even own an iPhone 4

 

[Apple Knowledge Navigator]

Looks like that room from X-Men, only its Steve Jobs who places on the headset and starts scanning peoples thoughts...

 

[Veri]

But you don’t know that do you? You don’t have any statistics of people that haven’t called Apple (how anybody can factor them in is beyond me).

I have come to understand that it is an American thing in business to put statistics above logical analyses (that wasn't a dig, it just seems to be a clear contrast between American and particularly Eastern European business approaches). In the pathological extreme, US buinesses take the approach that something illogical must be true if (usually flawed) statistics suggest it. Meanwhile something logically true is ignored until statistics prove otherwise.

What we have here is an example of the latter. We know the problem with the antenna positioning on the iPhone 4; we know what you have to do to reproduce that problem; we know what proportion of people are left handed. It doesn't follow that every left-hander's calls are dropping, but it does necessarily follow that their voice and data calls are being deteriorated. To claim that the problem isn't affecting people is illogical.

You are trying to state that absence of evidence (the lack of people calling Apple for whatever reason), is evidence of absence (the presence of such people).

That isn't what "absence of evidence is evidence of absence" means at all. The phrase is used to refer to the fallacy: "I can't see [absence] anything indicative [of evidence] of this, therefore [evidence - fallacy!] it does not exist [of absence]". And you're not quite doing that, but you're coming close.

We have to consider Apple’s data valid because otherwise, absent of any solid numbers (which nobody can provide), we are stuck proving a negative.

That is not science at all. Just because you feel you have no good data, you don't have to accept any bad data. And this is very bad data because any informed Apple user would know that the tech world is aware of the problem and that Apple have made various "stay tuned" promises to solve it, leading up to the conference. It is therefore logical for users having problems to not call.

But if they don’t make their voices heard, we cannot consider them any more than people who never contacted Apple without problems. If they never made their voices heard, that’s their fault.

This is just nonsense. Apple know there's a problem, they said they were working on the problem, and, if you call early, you're not going to get a special solution from the AppleCare rep just for you. You're also not paid by Apple to help them gather product quality information. So it'd've been of no benefit to have called Apple about the antenna issue (unless, perhaps, you were a very early purchaser).



But if you want stats anyway: well under 5% of all cellphone calls made with any 'phone in the US are dropped. Even if we assume the 5% figure, a percentage point increase would be a 20% increase in dropped calls. And a percentage point increase was what Steve quoted. This problem is logically and statistically very real.

 

[vaguely]

...a victim of its own hype success.

But it had to happen sooner or later

Fixed that for you.

 

[bkspero]

N-1 another long in the tooth phone

What about the fact that the death-grip issue applies to the "start of the art" Android phones like N-1, Droid Incredible?

I think that you are less aware of the current state of the smartphone market than you think. The N-1 is another last generation phone that is no longer in production, and being sold out for niche use in software development (due to its totally vanilla configuration). So I won't even get into its still-superior performance to the iP4.

The Incredible would have been a more relevant comparison, and I have found it to not be as good as the Motorola phones (it does drop a small amount when enveloped in a real "Death Grip"...as contrasted with the normal handling that kills the iP4 signal). But the Incredible is nowhere near as affected as the iP4. We both know that if Apple could have trumped up an even near comparison with an Incredible, they would have. But not even close.

Sorry

 

[vaguely]

But if you want stats anyway: well under 5% of all cellphone calls made with any 'phone in the US are dropped. Even if we assume the 5% figure, a percentage point increase would be a 20% increase in dropped calls. And a percentage point increase was what Steve quoted. This problem is logically and statistically very real.

A 20% increased from bugger all to *slightly* more than bugger all, is still bugger all.

And:

"Even if we assume"...."statistically very real"

Nice bit of hand waving there, btw. Kudos!

 

[Journojulz]

Even if we assume the 5% figure, a percentage point increase would be a 20% increase in dropped calls. And a percentage point increase was what Steve quoted. This problem is logically and statistically very real.

The larger the average number of dropped calls - the smaller the overall change is by proportion.

The smaller the average number of dropped calls - the smaller the actual problem is.

And now people know about the dead zone, workaround and will shortly have a free bumper, i doubt the actual number of dropped calls is going to increase.

 

[Veri]

A 20% increased from bugger all to *slightly* more than bugger all, is still bugger all.

It indicates that nearly 20% of dropped calls on iPhone 4Gs are due simply to the antenna mistake. If you make so few calls or live in such a strong area that you experience very few dropped calls already, then as an individual user you may not be bothered by a few more. But those in marginal areas will be crossing the threshold between sustainable and dropped call far more often - this'll be where the increase comes from - and your experience will be intolerable.

Whichever group you're in, Apple have failed from an aggregate PoV.

"Even if we assume"...."statistically very real"

Nice bit of hand waving there, btw. Kudos!

I chose the most generous value possible to show Jobs' statement in the best possible light. For AT&T it might be fairly accurate, although for more decent providers it goes down to below 2%. (I think AT&T also claimed around 2% somewhere, but I don't recall the source so you can ignore that if you want.)

Now, if we choose around 2% of calls being dropped, we have a 50% increase in dropped calls. Is that sufficiently un-handwaved for you?

The smaller the average number of dropped calls - the smaller the actual problem is.

Your statement doesn't translate into real life anything. Even if we assume hitherto 1% drops are distributed evenly amongst users: if make/receive, say, 1000 business calls/month (that's only ~35/day, which can be very typical for many business settings), I was being annoyed by around 10 drops each month. Some of those drops might have been during fairly significant conversations from a business PoV, but, hey, I know that radios don't give perfect transmission, and I'm getting the best I can for this tech.

Now, suddenly, the number of drops has doubled. I'm losing an extra 10 calls across the month. (And other calls are deteriorating accordingly.) 120 calls a year. If I'm in a business with several people in similar arrangements, that's thousands more lost contacts with clients/partners per year.

 

[Journojulz]

Now, if we choose around 2% of calls being dropped, we have a 50% increase in dropped calls

It is also 97% of calls that aren't dropped.

So the problem is simply not that big.

And with the workaround/bumper - the problem isn't getting any bigger

 

[i.mac]

I read this...

' The exterior antenna placement is not a mistake, an error, or a glitch; the phone isn't "broken." It was a deliberate design decision to create a thinner phone with improved battery life, made possible by moving the antenna to the outside. In some circumstances, sometimes, that can lead to a dropped call, or lower data rates. But even then, iPhone 4 outperforms the earlier models. '

From:

iPhone 4 FAQ: What exactly did Apple do?
BusinessWeek

 

[Veri]

It is also 97% of calls that aren't dropped.

So the problem is simply not that big.

If you're quoting canon, the correct Jobs line to use is that it's not that big of a deal.

Here are other situations in which that line can be used:

• App not approved without good reason? Not that big of a deal.
• Macs still under Applecare no longer supported? Not that big of a deal.
• Fan whirring like a cow? Not that big of a deal.
• Yellowing on your keyboard? Not that big of a deal.
• Artifacts on your screen? Not that big of a deal.

Incidentally, people selling PCs with Mac OS X pre-installed? Not that big of a deal.

 

[i.mac]

If you're quoting canon, the correct Jobs line to use is that it's not that big of a deal.

Here are other situations in which that line can be used:

• App not approved without good reason? Not that big of a deal.
• Macs still under Applecare no longer supported? Not that big of a deal.
• Fan whirring like a cow? Not that big of a deal.
• Yellowing on your keyboard? Not that big of a deal.
• Artifacts on your screen? Not that big of a deal.

Incidentally, people selling PCs with Mac OS X pre-installed? Not that big of a deal.

Seems that you are not a match for apple products. Should be using any product but apple's

 

[vaguely]

It indicates that nearly 20% of dropped calls on iPhone 4Gs are due simply to the antenna mistake. If you make so few calls or live in such a strong area that you experience very few dropped calls already, then as an individual user you may not be bothered by a few more. But those in marginal areas will be crossing the threshold between sustainable and dropped call far more often - this'll be where the increase comes from - and your experience will be intolerable.

Whichever group you're in, Apple have failed from an aggregate PoV.

Good lord, where to start?

All your analysis suggests is that 4 (there's no such thing as a 4G) reception falls off less steeply (ie has a wider marginal area). This would be entirely consistent with both a) the many, many, anecdotes from people saying they can make calls where previously they could not and b) the dropped call data and the similar number of anecdotes about them.

Curiously only one gets airbrushed out of your analysis.

Again, a trade-off not a fault.

Of course, part of the dropped call data is probably accounted for by the acknowledged proximity sensor issue.

I chose the most generous value possible to show Jobs' statement in the best possible light. For AT&T it might be fairly accurate, although for more decent providers it goes down to below 2%. (I think AT&T also claimed around 2% somewhere, but I don't recall the source so you can ignore that if you want.)

Now, if we choose around 2% of calls being dropped, we have a 50% increase in dropped calls. Is that sufficiently un-handwaved for you?

It is still bugger all (save for the unfortunate few in marginal areas (many of whom couldn't previously get a signal at all)). The correct approach is to use the measure that is appropriate to the scale of the issue.

Now, suddenly, the number of drops has doubled. I'm losing an extra 10 calls across the month. (And other calls are deteriorating accordingly.) 120 calls a year. If I'm in a business with several people in similar arrangements, that's thousands more lost contacts with clients/partners per year.

Self-anecdoting! Class! (sorry but you played the "quoting canon" card and if you can't take it, don't give it).

Idea: if it is such a problem why not take Apple at its word and see if you can get one of its teams of engineers to rock up? Who knows, you my find that you have a faulty unit or even that your local tower has a latent fault, or any one of the myriad things that could account for you anecdotal experience..

 

[Journojulz]

If you're quoting canon....

Nope putting things in context, perspective is a wondrous thing.

 

[Veri]

All your analysis suggests is that 4 (there's no such thing as a 4G)

There's no such thing as an iPhone 2 either. As Slashdotters would say, "whoosh".

reception falls off less steeply (ie has a wider marginal area). This would be entirely consistent with both a) the many, many, anecdotes from people [...]
Curiously only one gets airbrushed out of your analysis.

The current analysis is based on Jobs' statistic, not anecdotes.

Again, a trade-off not a fault.

External vs internal antenna is a well understood trade-off. There is no trade-off involved in choosing two adjacent unshielded antennas on a handgrip. That is a fault of design.

Of course, part of the dropped call data is probably accounted for by the acknowledged proximity sensor issue.

Probably, yes. I mustn't concentrate so much on just one of the faults!

It is still bugger all (save for the unfortunate few in marginal areas

Now it's bugger all except when it isn't. I guess that's progress. I hope Apple make similar progress.

The correct approach is to use the measure that is appropriate to the scale of the issue.

"I'm getting 50% more dropped calls than I did with my previous 'phone," is entirely appropriate. I'm going to compare my current dropped calls with my previous dropped calls. I'm not going to say, "Oh wow, that's not bad, last month x% of my calls completely successfully but now only y<x% do, but y and x are both over 90 so it's not that big of a deal."

Self-anecdoting! Class!

Again, applying an average statistic (supplied by Apple with context delivered by mobile survey firms) to an average scenario to illustrate some effect is not an anecdote. Check your dictionary!

 

[ppnkg]

Whether they spend $100 million or $500 million on antenna test facilities, if they don't test their products the right way, then they will release a defective product. I bet not a single one of their anechoic chamber tests involved even a human dummy holding an iphone. They probably just tested the iPhone 4 in total isolation.

Ok you can't read, we got that. But there's photos too, have a look.

 

[Journojulz]

"I'm getting 50% more dropped calls than I did with my previous 'phone," is entirely appropriate.

what proportion of your calls are dropped?

 

[Veri]

what proportion of your calls are dropped?

Back to anecdotes . But to give you an idea of the variation in the UK. No, I haven't done scientific testing using a selection of 'phones, so you're going to have to take this post with a pinch of iSalt.

If I'm in the centre of London, I'd be annoyed if more than 1 in 50 calls failed thanks to my end.

If I'm taking a train across the south of England, stretches along the Downs and similar features can attenuate the signal significantly and there's always the odd tunnel. So I'd not be surprised with a 5-10% loss (I'M ON THE TRAIN). The choice of 'phone makes a small difference, but more significant is that some carriers have better coverage between built-up areas than others.

If I'm moving around the highlands of Scotland I would be lucky to enjoy a signal 50% of the time and an initiated call completed 70% of the time. The 'phone I use and how/whether I hold it can make a good difference.

 

[chadley_chad]

Thats all very well and all very lovely ... but the physical use of the phone is still *****!!!!

 

[rsocal]

It's really simple. CR ranking does not take reception problems into considerations (because before iPhone 4 no other phone really had it that bad). So while iPhone 4 scores well on conventional set of features it's reception is so bad that nobody should buy it (according to CR). It does not really matter how nice the screen is if you can not make a phone call on it, does it?

Most people are making calls just fine on iPhone 4’s, CR had already rated it the best under their normal real world testing, then they came up with a specific test to exploit how u can make the signal drop down and now say we don’t recommend it. Ok, now lets make a test specific to each phones week spot and look at the results? I think S.J is right that all phones do suffer from attenuation, there is videos all over Youtube showing this, it’s just a fact. The iPhone 4 may be more sensitive then some but even when I’m touching the ’sweet spot” it does not drop calls or data! I’ve said this many times it’s only when you have a week signal and when have a good signal I can’t get it to drop at all!!!

 

[Journojulz]

Thats all very well and all very lovely ... but the physical use of the phone is still *****!!!!

3 million people seem to disagree...

 

[jerry333]

If you make so few calls or live in such a strong area that you experience very few dropped calls already, then as an individual user you may not be bothered by a few more.

So far I have 2259 minutes on the iPhone4 without a single dropped call. This is from various locations so I really doubt I have only traveled in "strong areas". (Note: although the upgrade has been out for only a couple of days the new bars for me show between 1 and 3 so this indicates that I'm not in a "strong area".)

While there are likely people who have racked up more minutes on the iPhone4 than I have, I don't think you can put me in the "so few calls" category either. And yes, since I'm right handed, I always hold the phone in my left hand.

While I don't doubt there are some people with problems, I don't believe they are in the majority. To me the answer appears to be simple: If you don't like it call AppleCare to complain (and perhaps get a phone replacement because it's always possible to have a "bad phone" and then return it.

It's just a phone--a very good phone IMHO but still only a phone.