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Coverage of Apple's iPhone 4 Press Conference
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Say WHAT?
What do you think Steve was really saying here?
Q: Why the September 30th deadline for free cases?
A: Steve: It's so we can re-evaluate. We don't know what solutions may come up by then. Maybe Eminem will come out with a band-aid that goes over the corner and everyone will want that.
Q: Any changes to future antenna design?
A: Steve: We're still working on this. We're happy with the design. Maybe our wizards will come up with something better, but we don't think there's a problem here.
What do you think Steve was really saying here?
Q: Why the September 30th deadline for free cases?
A: Steve: It's so we can re-evaluate. We don't know what solutions may come up by then. Maybe Eminem will come out with a band-aid that goes over the corner and everyone will want that.
Q: Any changes to future antenna design?
A: Steve: We're still working on this. We're happy with the design. Maybe our wizards will come up with something better, but we don't think there's a problem here.
Is there a video of the Q&A anywhere, or were the cameras just shut off during that portion. Would be interested in seeing that.
Here's something to think about:
During this press event Apple said to have sold 3,000,000 iPhone's of which 1,700,000 during the first three days only (remember?) so their performance dropped from over 560,000 units per day, to a much lower unit count of only 70,000 per day, and I used 'only' here, because this number also includes the international sales from: Germany, France, UK and Japan. That I tell you must have been a shocker for Apple.
This is also why I believe that Apple's percentage of returned units (1.7%) and calls to AppleCare (0.55%) should have been a little higher. Might not be much, but still.
During this press event Apple said to have sold 3,000,000 iPhone's of which 1,700,000 during the first three days only (remember?) so their performance dropped from over 560,000 units per day, to a much lower unit count of only 70,000 per day, and I used 'only' here, because this number also includes the international sales from: Germany, France, UK and Japan. That I tell you must have been a shocker for Apple.
This is also why I believe that Apple's percentage of returned units (1.7%) and calls to AppleCare (0.55%) should have been a little higher. Might not be much, but still.
Your simplification is valid only in terms of units, not for the values. For example, the c in the denominator of a/c is not the same value as the c in the numerator of c/d, so you can't use the same variable in both places. Let me demonstrate with a conversion of the speed of sound from meters per second to mph:
343 m/s * 3600 s/h * 0.00062137 miles/m = 767 mph.
In the first term, the value of seconds is 1 (the denominator); in the second term, the value of seconds is 3600 (the numerator). You aren't able to use the same variable to express both of these values in the equation.
Apple said that 80% of the 3G
Not to mention that Apple reduced the size of the phone, so that adding a case would be less of an issue, and they even made their own bumper for it. Instantly resolving the antenna attenuation [in weaker reception areas].
Look at it this way: Apple was in need of extra battery capacity – to support the A4 and IPS/retina display – and thus they did something completely new. Something that wasn't done before.
Also. The antenna has to be at the bottom, and the wave length forced them to have it in this spot.
You may not like it, but that's basically it.
Tip: I applied a thin layer of transparent coating, at the specific corner, and that solved it for when I am working from my sailboat, where reception is almost always bad. I hope this helps anyone
But with any other smart phone you're not bridging the antennas, you're muffling the signal.
Steve tried to compare
s to oranges to trick us.I wonder based on the 1.7% return rate if this is a case of one bad batch? I mean if it were an inherent design flaw wouldn't everyone be getting the issue to some degree?
The 'value of seconds' in both cases can be exactly the same. It's irrelevant. 's/h' is a constant. The ratio of seconds to hours never changes. If you increase the number of seconds, you increase the number of hours, but the ratio 's/h' remains constant at 3600.
In your speed conversion formula, there are no unknowns. we know the distance travelled and the time taken, and we're simply doing a unit conversion (from metres to miles, and from seconds to hours). The value of 'm/s' is the one at hand and the only value likely to change (if we later wish to convert the speed of something else — say the speed of light, or the cruise speed of Steve's private jet) so it makes sense to structure the equation this way, with 's/h' and 'miles/m' expressed as constants.
Your iPhone equation was:
X ("iPhone with issue"/"users who report issue") * Y ("users who report issue"/"# calls") * Z ("# calls"/"total iPhones") = G ("iPhone with issue"/"total iPhones")
So okay, it might make sense to structure your equation like that if you had each of those three ratios at hand. It would be even simpler if you just knew the ratio of "iPhones with issues"/"# calls", leaving out the unnecessary figures relating to reports through other channels:
A ("iPhones with issues"/"# calls") * B ("# calls"/"total iPhones") = G ("iPhones with issues"/"total iPhones")
But the problem is, you have no way of knowing the value of A because you have no way of knowing the number of "iPhones with issues". That's the great unknown. If we knew that, there would be nothing left to debate about!
EDIT: When I say 'the number of "iPhones with issues"' what I mean of course is the number of users who have thus far experienced the issue with their iPhone (taking into account signal strength in their area) and who consider it a problem. I think it's pretty clear, even by Apple's admissions, that 100% of iPhone 4s have this 'issue'.
Don't be too proud of this technological terror Apple has constructed. The ability to take HD video on a Retina Display is insignificant next to the power of a strong phone signal.
Apple said that 80% of the 3Gowners purchased a case for their iPhone, in the Apple Stores (now only 20%) so why would this be any different for the iPhone 4? It is after all still a pretty expensive phone.
Not to mention that Apple reduced the size of the phone, so that adding a case would be less of an issue, and they even made their own bumper for it. Instantly resolving the antenna attenuation [in weaker reception areas].
Look at it this way: Apple was in need of extra battery capacity – to support the A4 and IPS/retina display – and thus they did something completely new. Something that wasn't done before.
Also. The antenna has to be at the bottom, and the wave length forced them to have it in this spot.
You may not like it, but that's basically it.
Tip: I applied a thin layer of transparent coating, at the specific corner, and that solved it for when I am working from my sailboat, where reception is almost always bad. I hope this helps anyone
I totally agree. Beside, that's what apple's reputations have been built on for quality assurance and customer satisfactions. I was assuming that apple provided iPhone 4's official cases for this specific technical issue as they knew about it before releasing date, but it seems that they already have the concept about death grip issues for smart phones.
Cheers,
where is a video of the Q and A?
Why would the cameras be turned off for the most important part of the "press" conference. Sounds like a press conference in Moscow to me.
Does anybody know where the link is to the press conference or doesn't it exist. Very strange.
Why would the cameras be turned off for the most important part of the "press" conference. Sounds like a press conference in Moscow to me.
Does anybody know where the link is to the press conference or doesn't it exist. Very strange.
You said that if you rearrange my equation, you get two terms where c/c = 1 and d/d = 1, so it's meaningless.
However, if you rearrange the terms in the speed of sound conversion to collect s/s, it's not equal to 1. It's equal to 3600/1. Understand?
In any unit conversion, you can add almost as many terms as you like. In the speed of sound example, you can just use one conversion factor of mph/m/s. You can also convert s to min., min to h, m to ft, and finally ft to miles.
How you set up the problem depends on what you know. If you don't know a direct m/s to mph conversion, you'll have to use more terms. If you only know that 1 inch = 2.54 cm (which I happen to know from memory), for example, you'd have to convert m down to cm, cm to in., in. to ft, and ft to miles.
You seem to think that I just picked three ratios out of the blue. Rather, I started with the statistic Apple provided, which was "# calls"/"total iPhones". In order to find the meaningful ratio of "iPhones with issue"/"total iPhones", you need to do a unit conversion.
At a minimum you would need to know "iPhone with issue"/"#calls". That's impossible to measure and since the two things are not directly related, it's difficult to estimate. You'd have to guess at how many iPhones really have the issue for every one call received about the issue.
Since using one conversion factor isn't very help, we try two. Those would be "iPhone with issue"/"users who report issue" and "users who report issue"/#calls". Why is this better?
First of all, it's actually possible for Apple to measure one of the terms: "users who report issue"/"#calls". They know how many users posted on the forums and how many Genius Bar appointments were booked for the issue.
The other term is the percentage of users with issue that will bother to report it. We'd still have to estimate this, but it's much easier to do so than estimating how many iPhones have issues based on the number of phone calls to Apple Care.
Apple has the data so they could easily tally the total number of reports about the issue (not just through Apple Care). They certainly have better resources than I to estimate how many people with issues will actually report it. They just didn't do it because they knew they could throw out 0.55% and make it sound like almost no one has a reception issue.
But with any other smart phone you're not bridging the antennas, you're muffling the signal.
Steve tried to compare
The only thing we need to worry about is how much signal loss we are getting when we hold it that way, by that I mean left hand grip, which in addition bridges the antennas.
Whether iPhone 4 has the antenna bridge issue in addition to the muffling is irrelevant unless it gives an extra -100db attenuation in signal, which it doesn't.
The response from RIM
Lawsuits against
lOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOl
That's too funny. I bet we're going to eventually see a throw down using db or some other metric instead of bars.
I thought we were done with this rumor. There is nothing that indicates that the bumper's sole existence is for this issue.
A) Apple didn't produce enough cases to go around at launch.
B) Apple CSRs started handing out free bumpers, then were abruptly told not to.
C) Apple is giving them away for free.
D) Apple is allowing customers to buy other cases at a discount, but they didn't bother to share the design with case designers until the phone's release.
E) The glass on both sides of the iPhone protrude beyond the plastic ridge, which are easily scratched and prone to slickness.
No, no, no. Your choice of 3600 in one instance and 1 in another is arbitrary and inconsistent. You only chose them because it seemed easiest to convert 343 to 343/1, and 3600 to 3600/1.
m/s * s/h * miles/m = miles/h
miles/h * m/m * s/s = miles/h
miles/h = miles/h
miles/h * m/m * s/s = miles/h
miles/h = miles/h
This is pointless, but quite correct. Don't believe me? Fill in the values yourself, with a value for time of one hour (just to keep it simple). The distance will always be the distance it takes sound to travel in one hour not some arbitrary value. Ignoring rounding errors:
343 * 3600 * 0.00062137 = 767/1
1234800/3600 * 3600/1 * 767/1234800 = 767/1
767/1 * 1234800/1234800 * 3600/3600 = 767/1
767/1 = 767/1
1234800/3600 * 3600/1 * 767/1234800 = 767/1
767/1 * 1234800/1234800 * 3600/3600 = 767/1
767/1 = 767/1
This is exactly the same, but with actual values this time. Understand?
Well, it's only a simple unit conversion if you know all of the variables. That was always my contention. However, even before I understood what you were trying to do, I did say:
The 0.55% figure Apple used is a pretty meaningless number unless (as I said before) you know the likely ratio of 'users who report issues via AppleCare'/'users who don't report issues via AppleCare'.
Now instead of acknowledging that we're really saying much the same thing (although you can quibble over which reporters/non-reporters ratio is easiest to estimate), we've somehow gotten into a mathematical pissing contest. Ironic, since that's a bit like Apple's approach to the criticism of its antenna design, wouldn't you say?
Take it easy mate.
I said the same thing in another thread. Apple changes the display of bars (so as to minimise the number of bars lost on the iPhone) right before publishing this page, where they hand pick three other phones and show only the loss of visual bars. Coincidence?
I bet it won't take long now before we see a comprehensive and scientifically rigorous independent report tabulating actual signal strength in dB for all the significant smart phones on the market, including the signal loss when held 'normally', using a large group of test participants with the results averaged out. Whichever company currently has the best antenna performance would be mad not to sponsor such a test. Either that, or some enterprising lab somewhere will try to get on the map by doing the experiment first.
If Apple hoped this issue was going to just go away, picking a fight with the competition was possibly not the best move.
Here's another thing - will holding it for watching video or using apps cause the 3G signal to degrade?
The claim you originally make here is that when you group terms by unit, the term is just equal to 1, so the equation is pointless.
Now, when you group them yourself, you can see that s/s (bolded) is not in fact equal to 1.
Again, you are just wrong. It's not arbitrary at all. The measured speed is 343 meters per 1 second. By definition, there are 3600 seconds in one hour.
You seem to think that I am arguing that if you rearrange the equation to group like-terms you won't get the same answer. Of course you will; I never said you wouldn't.