PR Experts Suggest iPhone 4 Recall 'Inevitable' as Antenna Issue Snowballs

[i.mac]

exactly. iphone owners not happy with their phones still have a few more days to return their phones.

this is WAY too obvious for most folks in this forum or out there in the wild...

you see, what folks want to do is:



1. enjoy a great iphone4 (because at the end, no one cares that you loose a freaking bar)

2. wait for a sue that accommodates you,

(you may want to sue because you could not make a call at a critical moment, because you are missing an arm, and your other arm had an issue that allowed you to ONLY hold the phone one and ONLY ONE specific way, and you always refused to get a case, because you know, you are you... etc)


3. get something for free from apple...

4. get free PR on account of apple...

5. eventually return the phone and get a new one later on...


any thing, but no, you do not want to return the phone that you claim to be faulty at the top of your voice... because at the end, you know that it is way too cool of a phone, better than any thing out there, and you adore the thing, because you know that you do not care about any thing, etc... etc... etc...


All of this anti-apple reminds me of the Lorax. May be the Lorax will go away and no-one will have beautiful phones any more...

Can you imagine technology without apple? Were would we be today?

1. command line terminals...
2. crap-full java-like phone OS from nokia,
3. dell crapware,
4. no pixar movies...
5. obnoxious music players with tape playback...
6. ok... go back to work..

 

[timbloom]

It seems the glass back comes off easily and can be replaced. Seems that Apple could offer a replacement plastic back that has built up sides that snugly wrap around and snap over the antenna. Carefully and exactly constructed and it could even look good.

This post pretty much wins the thread. No issue-denial and a creative and cost-effective fix.

 

[tbrinkma]

i'm sorry i don't normally post derogatory comments, but i feel on this occasion i am left with no alternative.

YOUR AN IDIOT

Apple as said that the only problem is with the way that the signal is displayed

You should be a bit more careful with the derogatory comments when you, yourself, don't quite have your facts right.

Apple has *not* said the *only* problem is the way the signal is displayed. That's simply the only problem they had found the cause of at that point, and therefore the only problem they could tell people they had a solution for. If it turns out that the signal problem cannot, in fact, be fixed with a firmware update, Apple will do a recall, but not until they have a hardware fix implemented and ready for replacement. They aren't doing a recall *now* for two very simple reasons:
1) This is not a *safety* issue.
2) There is a well-known work-around which can be done at virtually no cost to the users while Apple finishes their testing and gets a fix ready.

Having a product you need to pay a small bit of additional attention to while using is still better for the owner than no product at all.

Note: As an aside, you might want to pay attention to your grammar while calling someone an idiot. The word your were looking for is *you're*, not *your*.

 

[Sean4123]

Uh... there's nothing slippery about the iPhone 4. Glass clings every bit as nicely to skin as plastic does. The only slippery iPhone was the original.

If I could, i'd put down big money that just because you said that, you're going to drop your iPhone and it is going to smash into pieces.

 

[i.mac]

I can't believe people are still denying any problems with the phone. Dear god what is it going to take?

...

I do not have a problem with my iphone4, but you want to force me to say that I do...

what is it going to take to admit that some do not have the issue?

enough of this...

 

[timbloom]

If I could, i'd put down big money that just because you said that, you're going to drop your iPhone and it is going to smash into pieces.

He'll only drop it if he's holding it in a way to avoid touching both sides of the black strip on the bottom left side.

 

[Xian Zhu Xuande]

If I could, i'd put down big money that just because you said that, you're going to drop your iPhone and it is going to smash into pieces.

Shh. I was hoping to dodge Murphy on that one!

He'll only drop it if he's holding it in a way to avoid touching both sides of the black strip on the bottom left side.

Good thing I hold it there.
Doubly good that I can still make calls.

 

[pablo7]

This post pretty much wins the thread. No issue-denial and a creative and cost-effective fix.

BOOM...... agree 100%

 

[Tonewheel]

An opinion....

http://mobileanalyst.wordpress.com/...eport-consumer-reports-study-is-full-of-crap/

 

[ast03]

If I could, i'd put down big money that just because you said that, you're going to drop your iPhone and it is going to smash into pieces.

i do agree that the iphone 4 is not as durable. it does feel heavier and "thicker" but that seems misleading because i also feel the after 2 or even one drop it will break, unlike the 3g/3gs which are definitely able to take a few drops and be fine.

 

[tivoboy]

just use the headphones and stop whining

AND, don't hold it of course.

 

[ferrous]

Recall!!!!!

I say RECALL, I'm stuck with AT&T, family plan with four phones, two of them iPhone 4, they both suck at proximity sensor failing and I need to hold the damned phone with two fingers or else calls get dropped. WTF! Paid $700 for them both (Chicago taxes) and for what!

RECALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Tonewheel]

I say RECALL, I'm stuck with AT&T, family plan with four phones, two of them iPhone 4, they both suck at proximity sensor failing and I need to hold the damned phone with two fingers or else calls get dropped. WTF! Paid $700 for them both (Chicago taxes) and for what!

RECALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

RETURN!!!!!! them......

 

[ast03]

He'll only drop it if he's holding it in a way to avoid touching both sides of the black strip on the bottom left side.

exactly!! i was trying to see if i cud get more bars and it slipped right out of my hand. but with normal use it stays right in my hand. maybe apple is telling people who have problems to hold it differently so they drop it.. that should clear out the duds in no time!!

 

[Xian Zhu Xuande]

i do agree that the iphone 4 is not as durable. it does feel heavier and "thicker" but that seems misleading because i also feel the after 2 or even one drop it will break, unlike the 3g/3gs which are definitely able to take a few drops and be fine.

There have been at least a few videos of folks buying one and taking it out to drop it on concrete from above their heads, or about the height of their heads. It actually tends to survive quite well, but a panel does shatter when it takes a fall from that height and hits a corner. Overall, probably less likely to shatter on any given side than the previous phones, but that's a wash because unlike the previous phones, where at least you've got a chance of a less important side hitting the ground first, now you've got two potentially fragile sides.

 

[Scooterman1]

I Jumped Ship

This isn't the first time that Apple has not moved until the public was about to cause a mutiny on the Apple ship. Remember when the first iPhone was released, and they dropped the price shortly after...... And after Apple alienated many buyers when the product was released, finally issued a voucher good for $100 worth of Apple products from the Apple store?

Apple will force every red cent they can from you until their sales are about to suffer. They only care about money. I liked the iPhone until they wouldn't honor a warranty for a 3G GPS receiver because a water detector had 'tripped'. Everything on the phone worked except the GPS. They said it would cost $200 to replace it. I have bought 5 iPhones since their introduction.

Well, I just traded in 3 iPhones (1-3G 8MB, 1-3G 16MB, and 1-3GS 32GB) to Sprint (great trade up prices) for 3 HTC EVO 4G phones. I was loyal to iPhones until this maneuver. This showed me Apples loyalty to it's customers. And I didn't want them to make any more money off of me. AT&T was also good to me but their prices are pretty far above Sprints, and I no longer have dropped calls every day. Also, the 3G is around 2.5 MB/S, and that's not even counting 4G.

Sorry Apple, but I had to jump ship.

And the people on the Android Forums don't blast you every time you have a post. That is sooooooo nice.

Anyway, for the rest that haven't switched to the Android phones, I hope that someone pressures Apple enough to get your new phones fixed.

 

[BobVB]

We've seen videos of iPhone 4s which pretty much drop their signal when you touch them in that magic spot. If you've got one of them then a return or exchange certainly is in order, but what you have is far from standard for the device. I have yet to see one with those sort of problems.

location, location, location. I can go 4 miles north to the center of the city and you can put the phone in a tin can and still get 5 bars. The iPhone radio IS excellent, so much so it doesn't even need a functional external antenna in many, if not most, situations. The antenna expert who made most sense to me said it looks like the radio amp is protecting itself and effectively disconnects itself from the external with a huge change like touching the gap causes. That the drop of 99+% of usable signal strength is not normal attenuation like holding other cell phones have, it's because you are suddenly operating without an external antenna at all.

go to AT&T and point out that your device is defective. Their return policy will have a clause for that.

catch 22 - the official word from Apple is there is no defect other than how the bars report signal strength as was pointed out to me by AT&T. Add in that most of us ordered on the 15th and AT&T starts counting the 30 days from that date, so tomorrow is the last day anyone can return to AT&T and expect the 2 year contract to be rescinded.

All of this mess is because they tried to deny and sweep this problem under the rug. It will be a hard lesson but one that will only help Apple if they learn from it.

 

[PstLMac]

LOL...Halirious...
I hope Apple does recall the iPhone4. Hold big business acountable for the best smartphone on the block with worst reception/signalissue.

I see people still complaining about the darn brown spots on the screen too.
I guess Consumer Reports missed that one...

What about a simple waist high Drop Test Concsumer Reports...will the glass crack or simply chip?

I'm not in no rush to buy, but I'm glad I held off because the hype is over for me.

 

[wesk702]

This post pretty much wins the thread. No issue-denial and a creative and cost-effective fix.

Now on the other hand them declaring that there is something to fix after all that bs earlier even puts them in a worse position.

They should have this taken care of this on their own terms instead turning this into PR quicksand.

 

[PerfSeeker]

This isn't the first time that Apple has not moved until the public was about to cause a mutiny on the Apple ship. Remember when the first iPhone was released, and they dropped the price shortly after...... And after Apple alienated many buyers when the product was released, finally issued a voucher good for $100 worth of Apple products from the Apple store?

Apple will force every red cent they can from you until their sales are about to suffer. They only care about money. I liked the iPhone until they wouldn't honor a warranty for a 3G GPS receiver because a water detector had 'tripped'. Everything on the phone worked except the GPS. The said it would cost $200 to replace it.

Well, I just traded in 3 iPhones (1 3G 8MB, 1 3G 16MB, and 1 3GS 32GB) to Sprint (great trade up prices) for 3 HTC EVO 4G phones. I was loyal iPhones until this maneuver. This showed me Apples loyalty to it's customers. And I didn't want them to make any more money off of me. AT&T was also good to me but their prices are pretty far above Sprints, and I no longer have dropped calls every day. Also, the 3G is around 2.5 MB/S, and that's not even counting 4G.

Sorry Apple, but I had to jump ship.

And the people on the Android Forums don't blast you every time you have a post. That is sooooooo nice.

Anyway, for the rest that haven't switched to the Android phones, I hope that someone pressures Apple enough to get your new phones fixed.

Yet will continue to rake in obscene profits without you. is gonna sell 10 million each of iPhone 4 and iPad by the end of 2010.

 

[Johnny2009]

i doubt there is a recall...

I seriously doubt there will be a major iPhone 4 hardware recall, if anything, there will be a software patch fix and if that doesnt solve the problem and people still complain, Apple will just give away their BUMPER cases which does solve the problem totally. You can hold the phone anyway you like and it doesn't lose signal with a bumper case.

PS. I hope if Apple does give away their Bumper Cases, they do it fast, because i already paid for one and it works great, but i wouldn't mind a refund on it. lol

 

[PhilSandifer]

it seems like they didnt even know about this till the public got their hands on it. and if that is true am not as upset but they still must fix a product if it does not perform it's very basic purpose.

For most users, the iPhone 4 will perform its basic purpose most of the time.

You have to be in an area of weak signal strength and hold your phone in a particular way to have a dropped call.

I mean, for me, the issue is this. Yes, this is a significant design flaw. But design flaws happen. I can't think of a piece of electronics I've ever bought that seems to me to have a perfect design. And that includes a ton of Apple products.

But honestly, this isn't even at the top of the list among Apple products. I find it less annoying than the vagaries of the ADC cable, the poor heat dispersion on the MacBook Air, the single USB port on the MacBook Air, the hockey puck mouse, the removal of the numpad or any facsimile thereof from most of their keyboards, the lack of multitasking on the iPad...

But you know what? Stack those against any other company's products, and you get bad design flaws all over the place. Design flaws happen. Apple's are, for me, generally outweighed by the positive aspects of their designs. And going from an iPhone 3G to an iPhone 4, the video, magnetometer, fast-app switching, and retina display are all more than enough to outweigh the occasional dropped call.

It seems like there's a lot of people who agree with my reasoning, and some who don't. But I'm mystified as to why this design flaw is being treated differently than the millions of other design flaws that exist in the tech sector.

 

[dogie678]

RETURN!!!!!! them......

seriously. these people are idiots.

 

[MacPhilosopher]

Apple will have to speak on this matter again. Unsure if a full-scale recall is warranted, however. Absolutely unconvinced it's "inevitable."

Agreed. As of today, I have only met people that love the phone and report better, not worse signal reception. Its obvious from reading posts here, that some people are experiencing problems. However, many of the most vitriolic posts on here come from people that do not have the phone, yet are upset that it has a flaw. While there is a design flaw, it apparently only manifests in certain circumstances for certain users. Since this is not a life and death or injury issue, I just can't see a full recall. As a matter of fact, it is more like the bad battery problem a few years ago where people can choose to have a repair or return. What we have yet to see are real numbers that reflect how wide spread this is for actual users. As for the Toyota recall, I still feel that that situation was blown out of proportion. Did anyone ever see how many cars per million had the problem? Did we ever see how many cars per million in general have had accelerators that get stuck? At least when it comes to something possibly fatal like that there is reason for caution. For a phone? Just take it back if you don't like it.

 

[obxbound]

I'm not sure about the antenna issue, but the proximity issue definitely. This is ridiculous. I've had the 1st Gen & 3GS and am very disappointed about how Apple is handling this. My iPhone 4 is not functional as a phone. I know I shouldn't have, but I thought better of Apple.