Apple Antenna Engineer and Carrier Partner Expressed Early Concern Over iPhone 4 Design

[LagunaSol]

The iPhone 4 data rates still beat the iPhone 3GS data rates under all grip conditions.

Sorry, that's not a soundbite that is going to generate any page hits or make CNN. Do you have anything juicier for us? How about an inside scoop on the first iPhone 4 user to commit suicide due to dropped calls? Now that's something we can run with!

 

[davidwarren]

Did Apple knew?
What seems weird is Apple pushing the "bumpers" during the presentation of the iPhone 4 and after the release of the phone it is precisely the issue of the antenna what the bumper fixes... Did Apple knew about the reception issue from the beginning, but it was too late to stop shipments and refurb the units or change the design of the antenna. A recall at this point will cost Apple billions of dollars...

There is a growing pandemic of using the wrong tense on macrumors.

 

[CplBadboy]

Awesome. You should get the new Droid X. The smartphone Gizmodo says "almost feels malicious." Sounds perfect for you.

Enjoy the grass on the other side of the fence.

LOL!

Fanboy automatically thinking i will revert to droid!!!!!! Eerr no fella.
Ill simply pop my sim back into my Sony Ericsson K800i and switch on and then happily make calls all day long. Jees i could even hold it like a phone!!!!!!!!

Run along fanboy. Chalk another denier.

 

[OllyW]

The iPhone 4 data rates still beat the iPhone 3GS data rates under all grip conditions.

If you say so.

 

[FreddyMac]

My phone is fine

I have an iPhone 4 with no reception problems. I can weaken the signal by holding it a certain way, but I can do the same thing on my 3GS. The phone is much better than the 3GS in every way, including phone calls.

 

[macus3r]

The fact is this product is faulty simple. Apple will need to recall the device tomorrow or there is going to be an awful lot of people returning this excuse for a phone. i dont want to use my phone with a bumper and its not a requirement for the phone to function. It should perform as advertised regardless of where i hold it.

Do you understand what a product recall is? A product recall is when a company sees a consistent, isolated, LIFE THREATENING problem that affects its product over a certain amount of time and requires the consumer return it, erring on the side of safety vs. engaging in a risky measure by allowing the consumer to continue using said product and possibly putting them in harms way.

The majority of product recalls that have occurred over time have been in response to genuine safety issues due to corporate negligence, NOT inconveniences.

What we have here is not a safety issue. There is no risk of an iPhone exploding in your hand due to faulty antennas.

HOWEVER, yes, we do have faulty antennas, and on top of the standard 1-year warranty that apple provides every product on date of purchase, they have extended their return policy to 30 days for a full refund... if you're having a problem, either get it replaced at the genius bar, or get a refund. and if your replacement doesn't work, go back and ask for another one. yes, its an inconvenience, but it's not like the damn thing is a bomb waiting to go off.

jeeez

 

[jambon]

Left or right?

I still don't understand why holding the iPhone in your left hand causes the problem..?

As shown in the picture in the article, the left hand side of the iPhone is for bluetooth/wifi/gps and the rest, predominantly on the right hand side, is for the signal.

Am I missing something?

 

[Dainin]

If you say so.

View attachment 239165

I'm going to guess you didn't even read the linked report.

 

[ender21]

+1 +1 +1

So glad I waited. Now I will get the silently improved version while Steve smooth talks the idiot early adopters into keeping theirs. Here's your software fix optical illusion!

Of course, without the early adopters.....

 

[applezerg]

I bought a $99 3gs

I waited a week until the lines died down and after seeing signal issues, bought the $99 3gs. I will be uber mad if Apple gives out $100 gift cards and free bumbers! That means I could have gotten a $99 iPhone 4!

Apple sure does know how to piss people off. Remember when they dropped the price of the original iPhone like a month after it came out in 2007?

 

[OllyW]

I still don't understand why holding the iPhone in your left hand causes the problem..?

As shown in the picture in the article, the left hand side of the iPhone is for bluetooth/wifi/gps and the rest, predominantly on the right hand side, is for the signal.

Am I missing something?

The issue occurs when you bridge the gap between the two aerials at the bottom left of the phone.

 

[brewno]

you know, sometimes i wonder what would have happened if gizmodo never published the story about the lost iPhone.

would there be this much scrutiny and subsequent outrage on the phone? or would it have been the same?

the other thing to remember is that the phone was found in a bar with a case on--whether the case was used to camouflage the phone or not, makes you wonder whether or not it was appropriately tested (sans case).

i'm guessing it wasn't

this sucks, and i'm pretty sad to see this happen to a company that, apart from its corporate motive to generate profits, actually has some sort of solid moral intentions when it comes to technology development and product releases. you can question their customer service morals with this whole antenna fiasco, but you can't say that this company doesn't try its best to provide the public with attractive 'lowest common denominator' software that "just works."

It's Karma, as Steve Jobs like to say. They went down on the journalists, karma right back to Apple: problematic phones. I love it. So glad it wasn't released in Canada yet.

 

[ChazUK]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 1.6; en-gb; Dell Streak Build/Donut) AppleWebKit/528.5+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.2 Mobile Safari/525.20.1)

Did Apple knew?
What seems weird is Apple pushing the "bumpers" during the presentation of the iPhone 4 and after the release of the phone it is precisely the issue of the antenna what the bumper fixes... Did Apple knew about the reception issue from the beginning, but it was too late to stop shipments and refurb the units or change the design of the antenna. A recall at this point will cost Apple billions of dollars...

There is a growing pandemic of using the wrong tense on macrumors.

I think the same too. I wished people Isn't do that......

(I keed, I keed)

 

[mutant]

I still don't understand why holding the iPhone in your left hand causes the problem..?

As shown in the picture in the article, the left hand side of the iPhone is for bluetooth/wifi/gps and the rest, predominantly on the right hand side, is for the signal.

Am I missing something?

I believe the problem occurs when your palm bridges the gap between the two antennas - that thin black strip.

 

[OllyW]

I'm going to guess you didn't even read the linked report.

Yes I did. The report says 2) The effect of the grips on the iPhone 3G is much smaller. But, the Full-Grip still reduces the data rate on upload..

That screen shot I posted is with my fingers lightly gripping the phone and bridging the aerials. I never had these issues with my 3G.

 

[macus3r]

seriously, people calling for a recall when the product hasn't even been out for a whole month yet are ***** retarded.

a recall is when you've got 10,000 cars on the road for 2 years, and during year 2, 3,000 cars suffer catastrophic damage to their brake system, or their steering alignment goes out and people DIE or are INJURED as a result.

Did you see Toyota? They handled their problem despite the fact that MILLIONS of their cars were produced, and only a some 30 people died, yet they STILL asked everyone to return their affected vehicles.

let's not forget that the 30 deaths (or whatever the # was) happened in separate years.

this damn phone hasn't been out for not even a month and some of you idiots are calling for an entire product recall. jesus christ, get a "grip." when it only affects certain users, it's more of addressing a customer service issue properly than it is a 'recall.'

 

[shakesmonkey]

You wanna bet me on not getting a new phone??????? If tomorrow proves (and it will) that iP4 is hardware defective then guess what????? Thats right cowboy....... a new phone for me. If the white phones get released without the issue guess what?????? Thats right a new phone for me.

Why????

Cause i know my rights as a consumer and just because you think the sun shines outta steves ass doesnt mean Apple is above the trading standards of customers. So when i get my new phone ill let ya know. it will be interesting to see all those saying there isnt anything wrong with their handsets rushing to Apple to get replacements because deep down every single user knows the iP4 is faulty- the men admit it - the boys pretend because tey have this sad sad loyalty to a company who doesnt give a **** about you - only your money and Apple cant man up and admit liability.

well you may "know" your "rights as a consumer" but in the US (I do not know what country your rock is.... you have a right to a product that works as advertised. According to what people claim to be an "unbiased" agency (I don't think they are unbiased)- ip4 is tops in every category tested.. -they didn't say don't buy it (read the article- they don't say dont buy it) they said in their arcane way- they couldn't recommend it..... There have been over 2million phones sold (1.7 1st weekend and at least 300k since then) if there were such a horrible design flaw- the doors at the apple/att stores would be overflowing w/people seeking refunds. There aren't. The product works as designed.



I for one dont believe there will be a recall.....
It is not defective....it works better than my old 3GS and that was the best phone I had ever used (until I got my ip4).

I expect the press conference to be something along the lines- some people have some issues with antenna- we have issued 4.0.1 (that's right not 4.1 but 4.0.1 as promised) which will resolve those problems. If it doesnt then the bumper for those folks is free- if you paid for a bumper we will refund ur money and if that's not acceptable to you you have until (date certain) to get full refund.... end of class actions end of discussion - the end.... and if you buy after (date certain) normal return policy applies.....

 

[ender21]

Do you understand what a product recall is? A product recall is when a company sees a consistent, isolated, LIFE THREATENING problem that affects its product over a certain amount of time and requires the consumer return it, erring on the side of safety vs. engaging in a risky measure by allowing the consumer to continue using said product and possibly putting them in harms way.

The majority of product recalls that have occurred over time have been in response to genuine safety issues due to corporate negligence, NOT inconveniences.

What we have here is not a safety issue. There is no risk of an iPhone exploding in your hand due to faulty antennas.

HOWEVER, yes, we do have faulty antennas, and on top of the standard 1-year warranty that apple provides every product on date of purchase, they have extended their return policy to 30 days for a full refund... if you're having a problem, either get it replaced at the genius bar, or get a refund. and if your replacement doesn't work, go back and ask for another one. yes, its an inconvenience, but it's not like the damn thing is a bomb waiting to go off.

jeeez

While I understand your point,

a. Recalls can occur in instances where a product is a safety hazard OR has a defect. Being a safety hazard is *not* a prerequisite.

However,

b. While this is an extreme circumstance, if I needed emergency services and my phone failed to function due to a design defect reducing an already weak signal to "No Service", that could result in a safety hazard.

 

[andiwm2003]

Its people like you that the forums dont need. Now if you choose to be a fanboy then thats all well and good.

It doesnt take the brains of an archbishop to work out that the iP4 is not fit for purpose and all those saying stick a bumper on it should sit in the corner and ****. I dont get this whole defence of Apple and SJ.

The fact is this product is faulty simple. Apple will need to recall the device tomorrow or there is going to be an awful lot of people returning this excuse for a phone. i dont want to use my phone with a bumper and its not a requirement for the phone to function. It should perform as advertised regardless of where i hold it.

if SJ doesnt man up tomorrow then Apple can have this POS back. i dont give a **** about having an app to wipe my ass, make the tea, playing stupid games. i want a phone that make calls and then everything else is second to that not vice versa.

actually if you read his post he does not say there is no problem. he says there is a non critical problem that can be avoided by the user and therefore it doesn't warrant a full scale recall.

I have to agree with Irrational there. it's unlikely that a company (esp. a company like apple) would start a costly recall and cause a PR desaster over a non critical issue that many people with iPhone 4's do not experience or do not care about. This may be morally wrong or not. But I don't believe Apple will do a recall.
Apple can offer customers a replacement, free bumpers or a voucher.

Apple did not do a recall for:
-Nvidea GPU failure
-Faulty capacitors in Macs
-Yellow tint
-Fraying power cords
-Moo-ing MacBooks
-Plastic cracks in Macbooks
-easy to scratch iPods
-plastic discoloration in various products
............

they handled those through Apple Care

 

[Iphtashu Fitz]

a recall is when you've got 10,000 cars on the road for 2 years, and during year 2, 3,000 cars suffer catastrophic damage to their brake system, or their steering alignment goes out and people DIE or are INJURED as a result.

So if Honda released a new model of car and within 3 months and only 1,000 sales they realized that one of their parts suppliers had provided defective tie rods that could fail under certain conditions they shouldn't bother with a recall because the car hasn't been out very long and hasn't sold very many? They should instead wait a few years and wait for actual accidents and deaths to occur?

What utter nonsense.

this damn phone hasn't been out for not even a month and some of you idiots are calling for an entire product recall. jesus christ, get a "grip." when it only affects certain users, it's more of addressing a customer service issue properly than it is a 'recall.'

An "entire product recall" is appropriate only if the problem exists in the entire inventory of products. When the CPSC issues a recall of baby cribs due to a defective design it typically involves the entire inventory of that particular model of crib. But if there's a manufacturing problem that only affects certain lots of a product then a partial recall is in order. In fact this is how the vast majority of recalls in automobiles occur. Recalls happen regularly in the automotive industry. A company like Ford determines that they got a potentially defective batch of fuel pumps from one of their suppliers, so they identify the cars that those pumps were installed in. They then issue a recall of the pumps in those specific cars based on VIN number. They don't go and recall every Ford car and replace every single fuel pump, only the ones likely to be affected.

If the antenna issue is a manufacturing problem as reports seem to indicate then Apple most definitely should recall ALL the phones that they determine have the problem. Since many phones reportedly work fine but many reportedly have problems then it's a good indication that a partial recall may be in order.

 

[MacTheSpoon]

Yeah, I imagine Jobs liked the iPhone's increased thinness so much that he didn't care if the antenna on the outside caused reception problems. Probably expected that people really would just hold the phone differently if they had to, without a fuss. He has a pattern of sacrificing performance and ergonomics in the name of thinness and other aesthetic considerations.

 

[tigres]

Wow a press conference.... its like a movie.

BTW... There will be NO RECALL... so don't start posting about how there will be one!!!!!!!!!!

Its a freakening signal issue that is 100% avoidable and fixable by the user. Recall is just stupid for such a non-critical issue.

Your post resembles your new user name

 

[Padraig]

seriously, people calling for a recall when the product hasn't even been out for a whole month yet are ***** retarded.

Common sense should tell you that the earlier the recall, the cheaper and easier it will be.

 

[tazdevl]

So is Ruben looking for a new job yet?

 

[Gizmotoy]

I have iOS4.1, I can long make my phone go to zero bars. When I have one bar I can make calls, I would say that fixes the issue.

This doesn't make sense, and these two sentences directly contradict one another.

To paraphrase:
"I can make my phone go down to zero bars" (I assume by bridging the antennas), "If I have 1 bar I can make a call", "Problem is fixed".

Huh? Your very first sentence proves that the problem is NOT fixed. It sounds like they fixed the display issue, which is all they ever promised. Fixing a symptom does not fix the problem.