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

[Scooterman1]

Android phones are not outselling the iPhone yet. And that's with dozens of Androids against 1 iPhone. Don't hold your breath waiting for 1 Android handset to do better then the iPhone.

I hate to tell you, but the HTC EVO 4G is MUCH better than the iPhones that I had. Including the 3GS, even with iOS 4. And it's supposed to be running neck and neck with the iPhone 4 but with the addition of 4G. And it's so configurable when the iPhone is locked to Steve's configuration. I'm not bashing the iPhone because they are great for the KISS principle (keep it simple stupid). My daughter had a big learning curve with the EVO. Really, I could not believe how much more I like the EVO. And I DID like my iPhone. And yes, it's even been on this Forum (if you do a search) about the Android phones (as a whole) now outselling iPhones. It was bound to happen sooner or later, but I didn't expect this soon. It probably won't though, for this 1st quarter of the new iPhone sales (that is, if all the reports don't hurt them bad now).

I'm also very excited about Google's move to let anyone write Apps and make it VERY EASY to do so..... I couldn't do this on the iPhone without a LOT of classes and training. Check it out. http://appinventor.googlelabs.com/about/
I think this alone, is awesome. Now, Apple, your turn........

 

[srxtr]

AT&T's getting better and better

 

[peach23]

Ok, so i've just sat down with my iphone4 and my wife's iphone 3g i held the 3g in one hand and the 4 in the other, the same thing happened, BOTH SIGNALS DROPPED OF THE 3G NETWORK UNTIL THEY FOUND 2G THEN THEY BOTH WENT TO FULL SIGNAL!! i don't see what the fuss is about it is just a phone all phones do it, its not the end of the world, if it bugs you that much go get another phone, simple!!.....

 

[Xian Zhu Xuande]

ok don't know how to respond to that. You do know that decibels are logarithmic and that a -20dBm drop means that the signal strength has dropped 100 fold, right? It's not 'spin' it's a fact like the sky is blue and the ground is down.

Unless I somehow misunderstood you, you said that the iPhone 4 loses ~99% of its usable signal when held in this way. Hogwash. With any sort of decent signal the loss is irrelevant to the signal and doesn't even place the phone into a range where it can begin to threaten a call (it certainly isn't stifling ~99% of its signal). In a bad signal area it can be enough to threaten the signal, but still the thing will maintain its call unless you actually kill service, which takes some deliberate effort or a fair degree of misfortune. And normally '100 fold' means, to someone, that a factor has been increased by itself 100 times. I'm not even sure how you begin to come to that number here.

At best you should find a better way to express yourself to the layman.

 

[shaunymac]

This makes me love my white 32gb 3GS even more. Haha.

I'm so glad I didn't get caught up in all of that hoop la.

Apple, time to check yourself. Now may be the time to really focus on building computers again. Hell, the mac pro and cinema display line is starting to get very stale. I would like to replace my 23" cinema display one day since you no longer support it. If you would have "designed" a functional adapter I would be a.o.k.

There is my rant.

Good luck with your iPhone 4's. I wouldn't expect much of anything out of them. If you get something, you will be doing good.

 

[ast03]

The trouble Apple has is not only its self promotion as 'magical' / 'it just works' / 'revolutionary', but also their handling of a 'crisis' when it does occur. They have always taken the tack of being silent and quietly slipping out a fix later. It is unclear if that will work in this instance.

im sure as more people get their phones and att doesnt have any major problems happen this will die down a bit. but you never know, all it takes is a match set a fire, or reset i guess.

 

[alhedges]

Someone mentioned an ignore button?
I can't find the thing. Can someone point me in the right direction?

Click on the name of the poster you want to ignore.
Click "View Public Profile" from the drop down menu.
When you view their profile, there is an "ignore" option.

 

[ModestForumName]

for the last time, 4G is nothing more than a gimmick sprint uses to lure in uninformed customers. the coverage is severely limited and where you can get it it's only useful if you're exchanging lots of data. other than that, it's just another "i've got an 8 pixel camera on my phone even though it takes poor quality pictures" deal "oh your carrier has 3g? well my carrier has 4G"

 

[ast03]

AT&T's getting better and better

welcome to the 1980's. population: att.

 

[Xian Zhu Xuande]

Click on the name of the poster you want to ignore.
Click "View Public Profile" from the drop down menu.
When you view their profile, there is an "ignore" option.

Ah, in the blue banner. Thank you.

 

[AldoRay]

PR Experts predict iPhone 4 recall inevitable?

I laughed so hard when I read this..... Was just reading this morning on one of the financial rags, damn if I can't remember which one, that hedge fund managers hire these "PR experts"t to blog and talk about this as much as possible. Why?

Because the hedge fund managers are going long on Apple stock, many predicting $300, and they would love to see the stock take a nose dive, which it did earlier today, and then they come in and buy it at a relative bargain. Don't you love Wall Street!

 

[wytworm]

I hate to tell you, but the HTC EVO 4G is MUCH better than the iPhones that I had. Including the 3GS, even with iOS 4. And it's supposed to be running neck and neck with the iPhone 4 but with the addition of 4G. And it's so configurable when the iPhone is locked to Steve's configuration. I'm not bashing the iPhone because they are great for the KISS principle (keep it simple stupid). My daughter had a big learning curve with the EVO. Really, I could not believe how much more I like the EVO. And I DID like my iPhone. And yes, it's even been on this Forum (if you do a search) about the Android phones (as a whole) now outselling iPhones. It was bound to happen sooner or later, but I didn't expect this soon. It probably won't though, for this 1st quarter of the new iPhone sales (that is, if all the reports don't hurt them bad now).

I'm also very excited about Google's move to let anyone write Apps and make it VERY EASY to do so..... I couldn't do this on the iPhone without a LOT of classes and training. Check it out. http://appinventor.googlelabs.com/about/
I think this alone, is awesome. Now, Apple, your turn........

I am with you on this one...the trouble is for me also one of storage, for all the Wifi hotspot/ 4G and open ecosystem plusses, my iPod touch has 64 G of storage so I am wrestling with that limitation on the Evo...

 

[SeattleMoose]

Corporate Warfare Raging Around Us

"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. "

Because the competition realized that they can't compete with iPhone. So if you can't beat them.....pay out lots of money to have them torn down in the MSM by making a mountain out of a molehill.

Same thing happened with Toyota (#1 in their field also) vs "US Government Motors" (those 3 US zombie auto companies that would have failed if not for our tax money).

Corporate warfare......

 

[wytworm]

for the last time, 4G is nothing more than a gimmick sprint uses to lure in uninformed customers. the coverage is severely limited and where you can get it it's only useful if you're exchanging lots of data. other than that, it's just another "i've got an 8 pixel camera on my phone even though it takes poor quality pictures" deal "oh your carrier has 3g? well my carrier has 4G"

Dont forget the screen size that doesnt count because it isn't retina! lol... Less is more...Buy Apple!

 

[BaldiMac]

I know, I'm only 1 person with 3 phones. But I got rid of my ticket before this voyage.
There were a LOT of people that bought tickets for the Titanic also. But I'm somewhat sure that Apple won't sink. Android is outselling the iPhones now, and I didn't think that would happen anytime soon.

androids are only "outselling the iPhones now" because there are about 10+ different phones running the Android OS whereas there's currently 2 iPhones being actively marketed. And maybe 2 of those "Smartphones" are worth being compared to the iPhone. the rest is just a type of phone known as "smartphone lite" for the people who want to say "i have an android" but don't really know what it really means.

Android phones are not outselling iPhones now.

 

[Scooterman1]

I am with you on this one...the trouble is for me also one of storage, for all the Wifi hotspot/ 4G and open ecosystem plusses, my iPod touch has 64 G of storage so I am wrestling with that limitation on the Evo...

Yes, you are absolutely right on this. It comes with 8GB which holds a LOT of external Apps, & Music, etc. And the 16 GB card is priced not too bad, but 32 GB is still outrageous..... If you have that much (64GB), you can't even get an iPhone to hold it though.

 

[DigitalFirefly]

Ummm... no. Let's be realistic here.

1) The issue is not going to affect 90-93% of consumers significantly, because right-handed people are not going to instinctually hold the phone in the problematic way.

2) Even for lefties, the problem is only going to occur in places where signal strength is weak. The problem is a drop in signal strength, not a complete loss of signal.

3) Again, even for lefties, the problem occurs for one of several comfortable ways to hold the phone. That is to say, there's a really easy work-around.

Yes. The signal loss is a problem. But have some perspective - it's not product-breaking problem.

I had an iPhone 4. Not matter how I held it, left handed, right handed, two handed, top, bottom, sides, it dropped signal and calls. This made the phone unusable for phone calls and internet usage.

The phone was fantastic when it worked. The screen was amazing. The camera was great. Being able to shoot video was awesome. It didn't smudge like my 3G did. The battery lasted me longer. It was so much faster than my 3G.

My iPhone 3G gets 5 bars all the time, and I can hold it any way I want. The iPhone 4 had 5 bars until I touched it. Holding the bottom half (which is how I usually use apps and web surfing) killed all reception in about 10-20 seconds. Holding it any other way would usually not show a signal loss, but I'd still get connection errors and dropped calls.

After Apple announced their software "fix" I took advantage of their full refund and sent my phone back to Apple.com. I'm back to using my 3G for now.

Bottom line, if I can't make calls and use the internet on it, that's a product-breaking problem. If they release a new version of the phone I'll gladly buy one, but they better hurry because I'm very close to switching to Verizon and getting a Droid.

 

[ast03]

for the last time, 4G is nothing more than a gimmick sprint uses to lure in uninformed customers. the coverage is severely limited and where you can get it it's only useful if you're exchanging lots of data. other than that, it's just another "i've got an 8 pixel camera on my phone even though it takes poor quality pictures" deal "oh your carrier has 3g? well my carrier has 4G"

my level 6 makes your 3g look like a 2g.. or! dare i say 1g.

 

[Xian Zhu Xuande]

Dont forget the screen size that doesnt count because it isn't retina! lol... Less is more...Buy Apple!

If you want a bigger, less crisp screen, and don't care that it makes the phone bigger too, great. There are people who can legitimately like this sort of thing, as evidenced by some recent Android phones. Similarly, if you don't care about battery life, or don't mind lugging a few spare batteries around, in exchange for things like that hotspot feature, the EVO might be right for you. If you like customization more than the typical Apple walled garden, then Android may be right for you. What I don't get is why people will take a personal preference and lecture it to others as a definition of what makes their choice better.

Time for me to sign off and get some real work done. I shouldn't be here.

 

[wytworm]

Yes, you are absolutely right on this. It comes with 8GB which holds a LOT of external Apps, & Music, etc. And the 16 GB card is priced not too bad, but 32 GB is still outrageous..... If you have that much (64GB), you can't even get an iPhone to hold it though.

Yep. It was killer to 'downgrade' to an ipod touch when my 80GB ipod classic died....I am looking into apps that let me stream it from home rather than carrying it around with me.

 

[nxent]

you know what!! I'm calling bullshlt!!! We see a million videos from people demonstrating the drop when held.. I have NEVER seen a video of someone showing it in a death grip outside without it dropping!!!

For all those who claim it isn't a problem prove yourselves, show it both not drop indoors when holding and outdoors when holding then maybe we will believe there are some that work out there

clown, why would someone post a video of an iphone that works fine? for the most part, the folks who's phones are working fine keep to themselves; i'm just saying the data may be a bit biased which would point to manufacturing issues.
that being said, if you want a video, send me your email address. otherwise, keep quiet and find something productive to do-

 

[marksman]

To be fair i.mac, digital MP3 players existed a long time before Apple made an iPod. Otherwise I agree with the rest of what you said.

 

[nxent]

Could be. He’s not looking to take it back as all he does is move, or hold it differently and “It works” as he says.

no, i actually tried it myself

 

[BobVB]

Unless I somehow misunderstood you, you said that the iPhone 4 loses ~99% of its usable signal when held in this way. Hogwash.

See, how can i respond to that? - you yourself mentioned the 20 dB signal drop, that is a 100 fold drop in usable signal strength, e.g. If it had a signal strength of 100 power on the table it now was a power of 1 in your hand. How is that NOT a loss of 99+% of signal strength?

And that is the issue - using the anandtech data the Nexus went to 1/10th of the unhelded signal strength when held normally, the iPhone 3GS lost a mere 1/3rd.

Again, losing that much usable power, yes 99%, just from picking up a phone is not normal. Doing the same with just a finger tip is even less normal. It is most likely something different than normal signal attenuation is going on that's why the idea the amp is protecting itself makes sense and That might be tweekable with a software fix (though it might put the amp at risk too)

 

[Poll Smoker]

I have NO issues with my iPhone 4. its the best damn phone in the WORLD.