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iPhone 3G Connectivity Affecting 2% of Customers? Software Fix Soon?
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Do any of you believe what comes out of Steve Job's mouth? Apple does produce great products but they are far from truthful.
Here's just a couple recent "truths" from Apple that affected me.
No problems with the MBP. Yeh right, Apple replaced mine with a brand new one and it had several problems. Sold it and switched to a Macbook.
Iphone half the price. Well all of you know about that lie.
3g problems affect 2%. Baloney, I'm on my 3rd iphone and the only reason that number isn't higher is because the Apple store is about 45 minutes away. If I was closer I'd have them replace it weekly until I either got one that worked as well as my 2g did or until they admitted that there is a problem and they will have a fix shortly.
If it's only 2% then I should just keep getting a new one until I get one of the 98% that work properly.
Here's just a couple recent "truths" from Apple that affected me.
No problems with the MBP. Yeh right, Apple replaced mine with a brand new one and it had several problems. Sold it and switched to a Macbook.
Iphone half the price. Well all of you know about that lie.
3g problems affect 2%. Baloney, I'm on my 3rd iphone and the only reason that number isn't higher is because the Apple store is about 45 minutes away. If I was closer I'd have them replace it weekly until I either got one that worked as well as my 2g did or until they admitted that there is a problem and they will have a fix shortly.
If it's only 2% then I should just keep getting a new one until I get one of the 98% that work properly.
He meant 2% of all iPhones at a given time.
Not the same 2%. Just that, at any given time, 2% of iPhones are being affected. Which, of course, is about the percentage that are being used for calls at any particular moment.
Restated, if it is a hardware issue, a software fix is the only hope for deployed phones. It will be interesting to see if this sort of "glitch" rises to the level of causing substantial warranty returns.
It will also be interesting to see if "later-2008" iPhone 3G's become in high demand assuming a fix is initiated.
Rocketman
Around here It's definately O2 - you can have 5 bars 3G reception and still get connection errors and no servers available... however driving a quarter of a mile in any direction will give a fast smooth connection - whilst doing absolutely nothing to the phone.
When this happens it doesn't matter whether you're on 3G or GPRS - the internet connectivity is dead.
It's really frustrating sometimes when you're in a 'black spot' eg. I needed to check something in a shop on Saturday and guess what.. no internet. I struggled with the phone for about 10 minutes and gave up.
I think the explanation that best fits the observations is that the iphone is holding onto 3G when the signal is too weak in situations where the phone should really be looking for another network. I suspect that Apple did this originally to head-off complaints from people upgraded to new iphones but are still getting edge network speeds.
Really? More posts on this?
Sorry I need to blow off steam. I am so sick of this iPhone crap. Did Apple stop making other products? What's with all the iPhone posts. I know, I know there is a lot going on. However, the amount of discussion for a product, which clearly should not have not released yet is getting way to much coverage; just like Mobile me. Whew sorry for the vent. I feel better.
Sorry I need to blow off steam. I am so sick of this iPhone crap. Did Apple stop making other products? What's with all the iPhone posts. I know, I know there is a lot going on. However, the amount of discussion for a product, which clearly should not have not released yet is getting way to much coverage; just like Mobile me. Whew sorry for the vent. I feel better.
Just musing...
If it is a software "fix", will this fix be in a general iPhone os release or urged by Apple that the software fix be downloaded only by those with 3G issues...
On the other hand, if you download the 3G software fix and didn't have 3G issues, will your 3G be tweaked even more than before, regarding reception? I'm not technically expert to know the answer to my thoughts which may all be rubbish. Any one have an idea about this software 3G fix.
More importantly, any thoughts regarding the input into the iPhone 3G? What with the "cracks" issue, especially visible in some white iPhone models and the 3G issues that some reports say come from the 3g chipset provided to Apple, while other reports talk about a hardware issue of a short antenna, versus the iPhone OS 2.0 itself, does one get the feeling this was a rushed model to get a 3G phone out there in order to put a product in more markets when it appears the product was not ready for release by Apple's standards, as stated by the "devil's in the details" that were mentioned at the beginning of this thought. Steve has come clean, finally, with his MobileMe mea culpa, maybe it's time for Steve to do the same for the iPhone? Clearly, this appears to be a downgrade in user experience all around (hardware, software) from the Original iPhone! Maybe it is time for Apple to stand down, just like the military does when incident after incident happens to take a look at its operating procedures and Apple should do the same and ask itself where it is heading with quality products being released. My .02¢
Actually I met with Steve when I was astral traveling this weekend and he told me something entirely different. What he said was "The radio has been programmed to be as power efficient as possible, and AT&T is also in many cases intentionally limiting the bandwidth on iPhones as well. We're not sure if we're going to do anything at all about it, because we're still selling iPhones faster than we can make them."
You can print that.
You can print that.
Maybe he meant that 2% of the iPhones have no issues whatsoever.
I'll admit that my EDGE is much more trusty than 3G, but I'm used to blaming AT&T before the device. This will be an interesting turn of events.
If the iPhone 3G is manufactured from a number of manufacturers (the original iPhone 2G had multiple LCD makers, etc), and 2% is 60,000, that's a pretty low number of components made for a rollout in the millions. Someone's not using all the buttons on the Calculator app.
I'll admit that my EDGE is much more trusty than 3G, but I'm used to blaming AT&T before the device. This will be an interesting turn of events.
If the iPhone 3G is manufactured from a number of manufacturers (the original iPhone 2G had multiple LCD makers, etc), and 2% is 60,000, that's a pretty low number of components made for a rollout in the millions. Someone's not using all the buttons on the Calculator app.
The 2% is bullcrap. I'll bet 2% are reporting the problem for the rest of us; I've just been living with flaky 3G service without calling Apple.
Anecdotally, out of a sample among 10 iPhones among my friends, 60% have a problem where we often have to turn off 3G because 3G cannot make or receive calls. The other 40% actually don't use their phones that much.
Anecdotally, out of a sample among 10 iPhones among my friends, 60% have a problem where we often have to turn off 3G because 3G cannot make or receive calls. The other 40% actually don't use their phones that much.
I believe Him, I believe the response, I think the simple fact he responds at all is amazing. HE and the Apple products, are the reason I switched in 2008, one of the best moves I ever made. So nice to have a PC that just works!
I was among those very happy with 3G performance until I traveled out of New England last weekend. Somewhere around NYC 3G would show up strong, but nothing connected. It's intermittent, but in DC at least half the time I showed 4-5 bars and 3G and couldn't connect to anything, no email, no safari, just lots of waiting. Rebooting did nothing, but turning off 3G fixed the problem nearly every time (other time was at a Nationals game, I assume there was just too much traffic for any data to work well). I get better data service with 1 bar in rural new england than I did 2 blocks from the white house.
Anyway, it made me wonder if it's something about 850 or 1900mhz, perhaps one works and the other's wonky, or perhaps the network doesn't recognize the 3G connection some places?
No idea what the issue was, but boy was it annoying while trying to show large photos to a group, 3G would have been great but only edge worked. Heck, i'd even be happy if the thing switched to edge automatically if it sensed a junk 3G connection or it's the wrong wavelength or whatever.
Back in Boston now, and 3G is back to working beautifully. Weird.
Anyway, it made me wonder if it's something about 850 or 1900mhz, perhaps one works and the other's wonky, or perhaps the network doesn't recognize the 3G connection some places?
No idea what the issue was, but boy was it annoying while trying to show large photos to a group, 3G would have been great but only edge worked. Heck, i'd even be happy if the thing switched to edge automatically if it sensed a junk 3G connection or it's the wrong wavelength or whatever.
Back in Boston now, and 3G is back to working beautifully. Weird.
Don't believe the figures ....
They probably REALLY mean, 2% of iPhone users have the issue at any given time?
This is just like the 1% of MobileME users who were "still having email issues" a few weeks ago or so.....
Apple has a LONG history of understating the problem when they make a mistake. The important thing is, by admitting the fault exists at all, it means they're officially working on a fix for it.
They probably REALLY mean, 2% of iPhone users have the issue at any given time?
This is just like the 1% of MobileME users who were "still having email issues" a few weeks ago or so.....
Apple has a LONG history of understating the problem when they make a mistake. The important thing is, by admitting the fault exists at all, it means they're officially working on a fix for it.
If it is truly "2%," Steve wouldn't even bother with this. It's obviously much higher than that. I would guess 2-5% of those who buy iPhones probably just complain/bitch/live in the boonies anyways. So the real % is obviously much higher since Steve himself had to address this.
2% really?
I wonder why 2% of iphones shipped would have a bug? Some software component was included in only a certain percent of shipments? I thought all iPhones shipped with the same build?
I wonder why 2% of iphones shipped would have a bug? Some software component was included in only a certain percent of shipments? I thought all iPhones shipped with the same build?
I generally don't believe anything Steve says. He's the king of spin. I can't blame him, he's the face of the company.
When he made the seemingly abrupt 3G announcement and scurried off the stage without providing and further details I knew something was up
The iphone in its current state with poor battery and limited 3G reception and buggy software could have been released the first go round...
I was fortunately only plagued with software and battery issues, but I know many others who have 3G reception issues. What makes matters worse is they had 3G phones prior to the iphone. So this 3G saturation argument pointing the finger at AT&T is difficult to believe.
When he made the seemingly abrupt 3G announcement and scurried off the stage without providing and further details I knew something was up
The iphone in its current state with poor battery and limited 3G reception and buggy software could have been released the first go round...
I was fortunately only plagued with software and battery issues, but I know many others who have 3G reception issues. What makes matters worse is they had 3G phones prior to the iphone. So this 3G saturation argument pointing the finger at AT&T is difficult to believe.
It has to do with the same phones and same software at different distances from 3g towers resulting in different and varied 3g singal strength would be my understanding. My 3g iphone does fine in a major city while someone else's in the florida panhandle may be wonkey due to less 3g coverage and less strength in that part of the country as of today. If the florida iphone were to come to los angeles on vacation. I bet the phone would not drop calls.
Then again, even in big cities if you have too many 3g (all types of 3g ) in the same area of town, that signal (bandwidth) will reduce, and the iphone will drop more since the software does not seem to be tuned for weak or low bandwidth signals.
No problems here in SoCal with my 3 new iPhones.
3G works great, no dropped calls, seamless transition to edge and wifi and great sound quality!
Guess I am just lucky.
Me neither. Also in L.A., IMO this has to do with the lack of 3g coverage in smaller parts (and too many 3g users in a sub area of a metro area) of the country resulting in weaker 3g signals and the software in the iphone does not seem to hand low signals well and drops them.
ditto
i've never had so many dropped calls. all the internet stuff and other apps on the iphone are a hoot, but it's turning out to be the least reliable phone i've had. and that doesn't work for me at all. i don't have a land line, i only have the cell phone. it HAS to work.
edge seems to do ok. the issue seems to be about the 3g. looking at at+t's coverage charts would lead one to believe that you would have no trouble in chicago, but i've noticed a lot of folks here are having trouble in chicago.
at this point, this is my least satisfactory apple experience. i'm practically a "fanboy" with a ton of other apple products, including the original iphone which wasn't problematic for me like this one is. this either has to get fixed or i will be switching to a different phone that actually works for me.
Yeah...Americans always seem to overlook those massive bodies of water called oceans. How would we ever survive without Europeans reminding us about them.