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iPhone 4 Antenna Issues and Ping Rank Among Top 'Tech Fails' for 2010

H. Flower said:
Even if that were true, how is that a fail?

Iphone 4 profit was still through the roof. Not my nor any business's definition of failure.
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Not to mention they couldn't manufacture enough of them during the first 1-2 months. And that was before they gave away the bumpers and basically killed the "issue".

My guess is that the Gizmodo leak caused much more damage. Since it got such a wide coverage in the media, it must have kept a substantial amount of people from buying the 3GS and made them wait for the iPhone 4, which was much more expensive to manufacture.
 
BriChi said:
and I am sure all the "apple genius'" reported all the complaints that went on in the stores:rolleyes:

again, Someone should make an app that measures and records the loss of signal when you touch the antenna gap, but I will GUARANTEE Apple wouldn't let that in the app store for obvious reasons. Maybe Apple should make it just to so they can be proven wrong.
Again, the number is 1% because Apple most likely lied about the number and probably 75% of the people use a case and dont know the problem exists. Putting a case on it does not fix the problem
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wow. I think your post pretty much defies reason.

While I wouldn't be surprised if some of the numbers were fudged slightly (after the signal strength issue they were 'SHOCKED' to discover), I severely doubt they would fudge by that large of a margin.
 
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3d tv is the biggest fail imo. Who would wana use it? I would pay for not to have it, whether it be a tv or a movie. 3d is just fail.
 
Lennholm said:
So how is Xbox [I suppose you're talking about 360] the most successful game console ever? Let alone "whithout a doubt"?
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Throw in the fact that the Xbox division at MS has only made a tiny amount of money when adding up all quarters since it was formed.

If MS were to exit the gaming console market, the share price wouldn't move anywhere because it has zero effect on their business. There is no apparent long-term strategy either.
 
Small White Car said:
They didn't say that. It does not say the iPhone is the biggest tech fail of the year.
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He didn't say that either. He never called it the "biggest tech fail of the year".

baryon said:
I don't like to follow artists, I'm not a "fan" of anything, I just want to know when any of my 2 favorite artists release a new album.
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Do you realize you just contradicted yourself? ;)
 
blahblah100 said:
While I wouldn't be surprised if some of the numbers were fudged slightly (after the signal strength issue they were 'SHOCKED' to discover), I severely doubt they would fudge by that large of a margin.
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..and when found out (which always happens eventually with these kinds of large scale frauds) it would open the door to multi billion dollar lawsuits. Goodbye cash reserve.

They're never going to take THAT risk. Apple might be just as greedy as every other company, but they're run by smart people who think long term.
 
Speedy2 said:
..and when found out (which always happens eventually with these kinds of large scale frauds) it would open the door to multi billion dollar lawsuits. Goodbye cash reserve.

They're never going to take THAT risk. Apple might be just as greedy as every other company, but they're run by smart people who think long term.
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I completely agree, and seriously doubt that they would materially fudge the numbers. But do you honestly believe they were all 'shocked' to find out the algorithm for calculating signal strength was incorrect (in favor of Apple)?

To play devil's advocate, your statement about being run by smart people who think long term, they were saying the same thing about Enron and its leaders prior to Bethany McLean publishing her article and Sherron Watkins whistleblowing.
 
ChazUK said:
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Sales of the iPhone 4 make up for more than the antenna "issue". I tried Ping and found it worthless for me. Last.fm is a far better social music platform.

I wouldn't say the Nexus One was a total failure either as it's very close cousin, the HTC Desire has done well and it did make Android handset manufacturers raise the bar hardware spec wise.

I think Wave and Google TV should have gotten a mention tbh.

I look forward to 2011 tech fails! :D
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Music social sucks. I didn't get iTunes 10 because of Ping and its retarded interface.
 
rmwebs said:
In addition Microsoft have the Xbox market - with out a doubt the most successful game console ever released, and it's still going strong despite how long it has been since it was launched.
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Most successful console by far was the PS2 at a 147M units.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_game_consoles

Xbox 360 leads PS3 44.6M to 41.6M; hardly a blowout considering the Xbox 360 had a year head start. Maybe the Kinect will buy them some more share.
 
Huh?

I've had this phone since day one and used it for the first 5 months with no bumper and no failures. This story is the most overhyped story on electronics I can recall. A record number of these phones have not sold because they CAN'T make a phone call. Where is the record number of returns that go with the top product failure? Truly an idiotic story here.

Contrast for example the XBox 360 RROD (red ring of death). A true failure that caused the worst return/failure rate for a gaming system, and almost any consumer electronics product, in history (failure rate has been estimated at 30 to 54% in surveys, but Microsoft wont give numbers). And forced Microsoft to extend their standard warranty to 3 years on the XBox. It was an actual product failure that rendered the product unusable.

The real "gate" in "antenna gate" is the hype that continues to be perpetuated about a product that has not failed, and is one of the single largest selling smartphones on the market - yes, such a failure.
 
notabadname said:
Huh?

I've had this phone since day one and used it for the first 5 months with no bumper and no failures. This story is the most overhyped story on electronics I can recall. A record number of these phones have not sold because they CAN'T make a phone call. Where is the record number of returns that go with the top product failure? Truly an idiotic story here.

Contrast for example the XBox 360 RROD (red ring of death). A true failure that caused the worst return/failure rate for a gaming system, and almost any consumer electronics product, in history (failure rate has been estimated at 30 to 54% in surveys, but Microsoft wont give numbers). And forced Microsoft to extend their standard warranty to 3 years on the XBox. It was an actual product failure that rendered the product unusable.

The real "gate" in "antenna gate" is the hype that continues to be perpetuated about a product that has not failed, and is one of the single largest selling smartphones on the market - yes, such a failure.
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Agreed, the stories are a fail, not the phone. Seriously, "The iPhone hates left-handers"???:confused: Same with the Prius thing. While I would like the Prius to fail because its so ugly (I won't go into detail also how hybrids suck), it didn't. That was also an overreaction.

Fail. :rolleyes:
 
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Pressure said:
At least nobody died from it, unlike the Toyota gas pedal recall.
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ShiftyPig said:
Didn't it turn out most if not all of the Toyota wrecks were caused by driver error?

Hold/drive it differently does actually apply to a car.
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Well if people actually knew how to drive, like shifting into neutral when the gas pedal sticks or even just turning the key too off, the sticking gas pedal issue wouldn't have been as big of an issue.
 
nitropowered said:
Well if people actually knew how to drive, like shifting into neutral when the gas pedal sticks or even just turning the key too off, the sticking gas pedal issue wouldn't have been as big of an issue.
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That was also pumped up by the news. There were barely any problems, but hey, now Toyota is losing :D
 
KnightWRX said:
Actually, didn't the DOT report that there was no issue with the gas pedal at all and that all the reports ended being plain user error ?

Why yes it was : http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703834604575364871534435744.html

Seems to me in a time where GM, Ford and Chrysler were in serious trouble, this Toyota story hit just in the nick of time. :rolleyes:
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Actually Ford was doing just fine (even without a bail out...). But yes, it was fortuitous that the Toyota "issues" appeared as GM was getting their handout.
 
NKT said:
Actually Ford was doing just fine (even without a bail out...). But yes, it was fortuitous that the Toyota "issues" appeared as GM was getting their handout.
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Ford was not doing just fine. Ford was in trouble, albeit, in less trouble than GM and Chrysler. They managed to reorganize on their own, but they did need to rationalize and change a few structures. Also, they profited from many government incentives and programs overseas even though they did not directly take cash.
 
That list if ful of lies. Ping is one of the only real fails. But really, the antenae issues as the biggest tech fail of 2010? When was the last time anyone even heard about that issue.
 
Yanks.

I and EVERY UK person I have known to own an iPhone 4 has had NO antenna issues.

Apple, Jobs, come to the UK and ditch that POS country please.
 
dpierre said:
Spot on.
Just because it sold great doesn't mean it wasn't a fail for that antenna issue. That being said it's still the greatest phone I've owned, ever. I just wish I didn't have to use a case with it.
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No. It means the product wasn't devoid of any flaws. It's a huge success and the proof is in the growth of Apple's markets.
 
Trakker said:
Yanks.

I and EVERY UK person I have known to own an iPhone 4 has had NO antenna issues.

Apple, Jobs, come to the UK and ditch that POS country please.
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ugh, so clearly the videos of people simply touching the side and the signal drops is a lie right? it only works right in the UK I guess. oh well, lucky you a@sholes
 
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