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

[donny77]

What planet are you from? I absolutely can even in the US and even more so if I were from just about any other country.
...
No that is one recourse, the other is to insist that Apple make their product work properly.
...
And as Ms. Manners would have me say 'How very nice for you' but remind you that has nothing to do with me - you don't decide how I handle problems and from your responses I don't think we handle them in the same way.

Feel free to handle your problems the way you want, allow me to do the same.

Let me re-phrase. It's a free country, you can complain all you want. Apple doesn't have to a thing. If you are dissatisfied with that, you can get your money back, be it by Apple doing the "right" thing, or you suing them for a breech of consumer agreement.

You are not entitled to Apple fixing the phone to your specifications. You can ask them to, you can picket their store, you can picket Cuppertino. They will provide the solution they deem appropriate. If you don't like it, your options are return said item, or sue. Good luck with that.

 

[DMann]

Dishonest, not at all. CNN used "You're holding it wrong" to describe Apple's message.

The world has paraphrased Jobs' quote to the 'message' "You're holding it wrong". I added "1" to the 1.6 million pages already using "You're holding it wrong" .

Even if "the world" were to have paraphrased Job's message, it doesn't make it any less dishonest for you to quote him in the manner in which you did.

Even CNN knew better than to do that.

Stagnation or not, Windows' marketshare across all platforms has been fairly consistent in the 91-92% range for the last several years. Given that it's not going down, I don't think Microsoft is really concerned.

http://marketshare.hitslink.com/operating-system-market-share.aspx?qprid=8

They are concerned, however, that a great majority of XP users are using pirated copies.

The migration rate to W7 is not what they had hoped for.

Hey, when they get it right, they get it right and people will flock to it.

As it stands, ~11% of the Windows market share is running W7.

78% are not.

Perhaps, when they get it right enough, more will adopt.

Still not getting why Mac's OS is still not even getting double digits penetration even after 26 years of its release. Might want to look into that in addition to the antenna issue. You'd think "good design, good execution = high demand"... yet, here we are (for the OS, not the iPhone, which was designed badly and executed just as badly).

Surely, you're aware that the bulk of MS's numbers are due to their long carried-over stranglehold of OS share and licensing garnered by their unethical, illegal monopolistic practices, vendor lock-in, and exclusive OEM deals.

Apple has grown theirs through good design, good execution, and by choice.

MS's large market share was garnered very differently.

 

[Sean4123]

No? It wasn't locked into a glass table, it had the USB port plugged in and a security strip.

A glass table? Lol. Where do they do that? My local o2, Vodafone branches have had wired demo units for all their phones for as long as I can remember.

I also tried my friends iPhone 4G and yup, that too has a good grip. Same as the demo unit.

Your friends iPhone 4G or your friends iPhone 4???

Correction: You have no friends.

 

[LagunaSol]

The Engadget staff can't seem to validate the hysteria being voiced on this forum (and elsewhere) with real-world experience:

http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/13/yes-the-iphone-4-is-broken-no-the-iphone-4-is-not-broken/

 

[Scooterman1]

Dude, you are on some serious crack if you think the Android OS experience is comparable to IOS 4. Not even in the same galaxy...I don't think anyone, even droid lovers would claim that. And as far as apps go....please..you are making yourself look silly if you think the apps on the droid os are of the same quality as the iPhone OS.

Your trolling is getting ridiculous.

I've owned 5 iPhones now. Still have a 3G. Ran iOS 4 on a 3GS, and now OWN and operate an HTC EVO 4G. What do you have that is Android 2.1???? You seem to know more about Crack, than Android. And FROYO is coming.....
Except for the Antenna problem on the iPhone 4, Apple usually made a good product. But the experience IS the issue. You just have it backwards. You should check one out before you bash. I like iPhones, but I love the EVO. The biggest negative press that they've had is the Battery, and that isn't an issue at all if you know how to configure it. I think they may have also fixed a lot of that with their last update. I don't have the battery issue. The OS now handles that pretty well.

MY trolling???

 

[boncellis]

The Engadget staff can't seem to validate the hysteria being voiced on this forum (and elsewhere) with real-world experience:

http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/13/yes-the-iphone-4-is-broken-no-the-iphone-4-is-not-broken/

This was a useful article to read. What I gathered is that fewer bars =/= dropped calls necessarily. Too bad all the attention is focused on the number of bars instead of the prevalence of dropped calls, which seems more salient to a debate like this.

And by debate I of course mean ad hominem flame fest. Thanks to all for keeping me entertained at work today!

 

[DMann]

The Engadget staff can't seem to validate the hysteria being voiced on this forum (and elsewhere) with real-world experience:

http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/13/yes-the-iphone-4-is-broken-no-the-iphone-4-is-not-broken/

Now, why would CR ever want to base their assessments on real-world experience?

 

[timbloom]

Err...
1) I can't return something that won't be out for another two weeks in my country.

2) I don't want an "Android", I want to retire my old iPhone 3G and get a new iPhone. My plan was to skip the 3GS and wait for whatever came next. The fact that what came next turned out to be a glass sandwich with no signal wasn't part of the plan.

3) Why respond to, let alone quote in its entirety, a post you didn't read?

Please don't feed the troll.

 

[0098386]

Your friends iPhone 4G or your friends iPhone 4???

Correction: You have no friends.

Sorry, I thought it was called the 4G following the naming scheme of their last 2 models. I automatically assumed they'd use the 4G network like other phones. But no, I just got back off an amazing holiday last night and caught up with a few buddies at the pub next door. One of them bought an iPhone 4.

But just to clarify this because fanboys seem to be deviating from the argument, as what happens when arguments are being lost, that 1) some people don't want cases and 2) they're not slippy unless you have some serious skin problems.

 

[BobVB]

Let me re-phrase. It's a free country, you can complain all you want. Apple doesn't have to a thing.

Yet oddly I bet they will because of people complaining. You can thank me later.

If you are dissatisfied with that, you can get your money back, be it by Apple doing the "right" thing, or you suing them for a breech of consumer agreement.

You aren't paying attention - I didn't get the iPhone 4 from Apple.

You are not entitled to Apple fixing the phone to your specifications.

I'm not, just to that it can be used normally. That's all that's being asked.

You can ask them to, you can picket their store, you can picket Cuppertino. They will provide the solution they deem appropriate. If you don't like it, your options are return said item, or sue. Good luck with that.

There are obviously more options than that. But what you can do is solve your problems your way and let other people solve theirs their own. AGain, that's where the fanboy problems come it - they are telling other people what they can and can't do when they have less right to do that than those that are complaining. Maybe its just the nerd and 'hall monitor' groups Venn diagrams have significant overlap that that seems to happen a lot.

 

[swagi]

The Engadget staff can't seem to validate the hysteria being voiced on this forum (and elsewhere) with real-world experience:

http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/13/yes-the-iphone-4-is-broken-no-the-iphone-4-is-not-broken/

Thanx for the link.

And just on a sidenote: Have any of the 'dropped calls'-people ever considered, how much of a stress these phones are for any network.

If you want to know what I'm talking about, maybe give it a try and call someone on New Year's Eve, let alone send a SMS. This usually brings German wireless networks down for hours.

 

[Arbuthnott]

What a load of hogswash

The truth hurts Apple. You made your own Vista with this device. Now suffer the consequences and alleviate the issue by admitting to your mistake. Also give away free bumpers. You CANNOT fix this hardware issue. I don't believe a full recall is in order at all. The device works for many people and works better for even some. Admitting your mistake is the best you can do at this point.

It's your move Apple...

I have watched this fuss blow up with growing amazement. Ridiculous posts of the nature of (and I jest here):

I have an iPhone 4. Help, when I hold it with my hand over the screen it does not work properly. I can see nothing on the screen and the earpiece is pointing away from me. This must be a fault. Can I slag Apple off please?

To all those who do not actually own or use an iPhone 4 (but who still no doubt have an opinion on this matter), i have to tell you that the iPhone 4 is the best phone I have ever used. The signal sensitivity is generally better - sometimes significantly better - than my 3GS. I can make and receive calls in places whose coverage was previously poor. I can't understand what all this fuss is about, except maybe sour grapes from some folks?

 

[Bafflefish]

They are concerned, however, that a great majority of XP users are using pirated copies.

The migration rate to W7 is not what they had hoped.

Link to an article saying it's not what they had expected?

Even then, when you say migration rate, are you referring to user uptake in general, or business migration? Business migration to a new version of Windows rarely occurs before the first service pack is released, and even then can take time. Vista's migration, business-side, was lackluster due to the fact that it took so long to get SP1 out and, by the time it was nearing approach, information about Windows 7 had largely been released.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Windows/Microsoft-Windows-7-Upgrade-Should-Start-in-2010-Says-Gartner-758006/

As it stands, ~11% of the Windows market share is running W7.
78% are not. Perhaps, when they get it right enough, more will adopt.

More like ~14% (13.7) are running Windows 7, but you were fairly close.
http://marketshare.hitslink.com/operating-system-market-share.aspx?qprid=10

Given that it just launched last fall, I'd say that isn't too bad.

Surely, you're aware that the bulk of MS's numbers are due to their long carried-over stranglehold of OS share and licensing garnered by their unethical, illegal monopolistic practices, vendor lock-in, and exclusive OEM deals.

While MS's anti-trust actions of the early-to-mid 90s certainly helped, you're also honestly a little deluded if you truly believe there were any truly viable options to Windows in the 90s. There weren't. I'm sorry, but the Mac OS was really, really bad then. I remember it all too well (memories that I wish, at times, I could excise).

Microsoft helped make computers cheap,and allowed quite a few families to own one who otherwise wouldn't have been able to. Sure, a lot of that hardware wasn't of high quality, but having *a* computer is better than having *no* computer. Only elitists would think otherwise.

Apple has grown theirs through good design, good execution, and by choice.

I laughed. Not to say Apple doesn't have good design and generally good execution, but if Apple could be #1 in marketshare, I'm sure they'd love to be. They made mistakes, both pre-Steve Jobs return and post-Steve Jobs return (albeit less so after). They've contributed as much to the current state of the OS marketshare as anyone else.

MS's large market share was garnered very differently.

At the end of the day, who cares? Businesses, including Apple, are out for profit. Apple does shady things too - Apple fanatics simply gloss over them and brush it off (just as MS fanatics did in the 90s).

 

[Mebsat]

I've never had the problem. My wife hasn't had it with hers, either.

Neither have my six co-workers who have the 4.

Neither have three friends who have it, too. None of these folks have "bumper" cases or other covers. They use it normally.

Honestly? I had reception problems with my Samsung phone I had with Verizon.

Prediction? Apple will sell millions more iPhone 4s, and the pundits can suck it, like they always do. Especially Gizmodo, who comes off these days sounding like a shrieking, spurned, unrequited Justin Beiber fan.

Exactly.
But you may not be factoring in how much people love to be hysterical.

I haven't been able to duplicate it either on 4 different iPhones over the weekend. A design flaw should be fairly easy to find. This still seems like a crowd hysteria effect. That or some subtle manufacturing defect. Macnn had mentioned an exterior varnish may not have been applied, but no one has said anything else definitive about it. Nor have we seen any analysis of serial numbers or lot#s to see if there is any batch-related cause.

But the screaming continues because fanboys and anti-fanboys have the same ability to reason, that is: none.

As far as Gizmodo goes, since the iPhone4 leak and legal action, they have been on an anti-Apple tear. They want to get as much "journalist cred" as they can before they head to court, so they can portray Apple as being vindictive.

 

[Bafflefish]

As far as Gizmodo goes, since the iPhone4 leak and legal action, they have been on an anti-Apple tear. They want to get as much "journalist cred" as they can before they head to court, so they can portray Apple as being vindictive.

Or they're just trying to be the "lone dissenting voice", given that pretty much every other tech site now worships the ground Apple walks on (Engadget being a perfect example).

Either way, meh.

 

[Anuba]

As it stands, ~11% of the Windows market share is running W7.

78% are not.

A large chunk of the customer base are enterprise users and they always take forever to upgrade. First the IT department has to run a gazillion tests and then the company has to be ready to shell out for thousands of licenses. Also, the market share is now affected by those pesky netbooks which shipped with XP to keep the price and system requirements down, long after Vista had been released. In April of 2014, MS will drop XP support in its entirety (can't blame'em... 13 years) for everyone including enterprise users, and whichever version of Windows will be the latest that year will have a gargantuan market share.

Most importantly, the main thing driving adoption of new versions of Windows is OEM licenses sold with new hardware, and Win7 was released in the middle of the aftermath of the worst global financial crisis since the great depression. People haven't been in a hurry to replace their old PCs after October of 2008.

 

[Piggie]

The problem is for many, it's not just like returning a product and getting a refund.

For many, they HAD a phone and a contract which they sold and ended then signed deals to get the new phone with a contract.

It's not the type of thing you can just undo is it.

You old phone and account may be long gone now.

I can't see any recall, if there was anything along these lines they'd not recall, they'd say keep your phone, and then when the iPhone 4.1 comes out, bring your current model back to the store to exchange for the new one.

If it WAS to happen I'm sure it would be something like this.

 

[donny77]

I'm not, just to that it can be used normally. That's all that's being asked.

There are obviously more options than that. But what you can do is solve your problems your way and let other people solve theirs their own. AGain, that's where the fanboy problems come it - they are telling other people what they can and can't do when they have less right to do that than those that are complaining. Maybe its just the nerd and 'hall monitor' groups Venn diagrams have significant overlap that that seems to happen a lot.

It can be used. My point is, "normally" is a subjective term. It has zero meaning. There are 37 pages of people yelling at Apple that their phone doesn't work "normally" and on those 37 pages are people saying it works fine "for them." I am not telling you how to handle your problems, but the truth is you want to be able to use it the "way you have" or "the way you want to." Lets call it what it is. Problem is it doesn't make Apple look bad enough to say that.

I understand your frustration. If it was a design decision, Apple should have put a disclaimer somewhere that it is best to avoid said area of the phone. However, the iPhone 4 is a great PHONE, if you are willing to be a conscientious user. I already said I feel Apple is working on a solution. So why complain daily that they haven't announced it yet? And if you have ANY doubt the solution will be one you accept, think free case, then do yourself a favor and return it to AT&T as defective and refuse to pay a restocking fee for a phone that doesn't work. If you keep it past 30 days, you will make it harder on yourself to get satisfaction in the event Apple fails to solve the issue to your standards. You can always buy it back when Apple fixes it.

 

[timbloom]

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

Good for you, but most of us live outside the Reality Distortion Field™

 

[DMann]

More like ~14% (13.7) are running Windows 7, but you were fairly close.
http://marketshare.hitslink.com/operating-system-market-share.aspx?qprid=10

Given that it just launched last fall, I'd say that isn't too bad.

I stated "~11% of Windows market share, that is, of their own market share, not of universal market share.

I'll post links when I return home.

 

[Preclaro_tipo]

1st grade required

OK, let's get something straight....

This has absolutely nothing to do with frickin' software.

Any first-year electrical engineering student can tell you that if a person grasps an electrically-charged antenna capacitance will result. Translated to English...if you grab an antenna, the signal drops.

Period. No question. It's simple.

$1,000,000 bet says that somewhere in the design process, there was a cover for that "cool" antenna that Jobs opined about during the intro, but it was cut for cost reasons. That cover could have been a simple coating (as we saw for years on the metal antennas of CDMA phones) or something as elaborate as a bumper.

This bloody phone is defective in design. Apple, for once you demand for coolness and low cost of production have jumped up and bitten you.

Recall it. Now.

Luckily any 2nd grade student can tell you to read the phone's return policy, which is 30 days, if you discovered a problem in that amount of time (still in those 30 days as I type this) then return it. done. {why recall during the return period } Good thing you don't run a business. lol.

I find it strange the people have to read an article to know if they like something or not. Waaawaaaa

All too soon Consumer Reports will be criticized for their test. I think they are drumming up readership. Look at the picture in the article LOL, a beaker grasper (metal frame) holding an iPhone with a misdialed number on the iPHone (12345). HMMM real quality testing there. I've had no issues with my iPhone 4 and the reason there aren't lines to return the phone is just b/c this is drummed up press stuff...nothing to see here.

 

[BobVB]

I haven't been able to duplicate it either on 4 different iPhones over the weekend. A design flaw should be fairly easy to find.

::sigh:: in many urban areas the signal strength is 10,000x the 5 bar level. The flaw reduces the signal to about 1% of what it is before holding. That means that if you are in a strong signal area you could activate the flaw and still have 100 times the signal strength you would need to see 5 bars on the phone.

Just because you live in a high signal area doesn't mean you don't have the flaw, it just means it doesn't make a difference practically.

Again, the iP4 radio is very good, maybe the electronics themselves, maybe because of the radio transparent glass covers - regardless of why, in high signal areas the phone doesn't even seem to need an external antenna to get good reception. Ironically though when you are in areas that you do need the external working, its was designed to be easily rendered useless just by holding it normally.

 

[LagunaSol]

While MS's anti-trust actions of the early-to-mid 90s certainly helped, you're also honestly a little deluded if you truly believe there were any truly viable options to Windows in the 90s. There weren't. I'm sorry, but the Mac OS was really, really bad then. I remember it all too well (memories that I wish, at times, I could excise).

You're going to call Mac OS "really, really bad" compared to Windows 3.1? Seriously???

I had a friend convince me to buy a PC after having a Mac Classic. "It's just like the Mac," he claimed. Gullible, I bought one. What an utter POS. Windows 3.1 blew chunks, and anyone who disagrees is in denial. DOS with an ugly paint job. Nothing more. I sold that pile of crap (the hardware and the OS) 6 months later and went back to using my Mac Classic. I've owned one PC since then - a homebuilt rig constructed specifically for Half-Life 2. I suspect it will have been my last. Though I have been using Windows at work (and hating every minute of it) since 1991.

Windows 95 was the first Microsoft OS to copy the Mac sufficiently to become a viable alternative to the semi-sane and rational. The current growth of Mac sales prove that people are finally (slowly) coming to their senses.

 

[cmaier]

[\

Luckily any 2nd grade student can tell you to read the phone's return policy, which is 30 days, if you discovered a problem in that amount of time (still in those 30 days as I type this) then return it. done. {why recall during the return period } Good thing you don't run a business. lol.

I find it strange the people have to read an article to know if they like something or not. Waaawaaaa

All too soon Consumer Reports will be criticized for their test. I think they are drumming up readership. Look at the picture in the article LOL, a beaker grasper (metal frame) holding an iPhone with a misdialed number on the iPHone (12345). HMMM real quality testing there. I've had no issues with my iPhone 4 and the reason there aren't lines to return the phone is just b/c this is drummed up press stuff...nothing to see here.

FIrst of all, it's not misdialed. they were using test equipment to isolate variables. They weren't trying to make a call on at&t's network.

Second, Consumer Reports has a very long history of fair and neutral reporting. Many companies that have failed CR's tests have whined and complained, but no one has ever proven that CR puts their thumbs on the scales to "drum up readership."

 

[timbloom]

You're going to call Mac OS "really, really bad" compared to Windows 3.1? Seriously???

I had a friend convince me to buy a PC after having a Mac Classic. "It's just like the Mac," he claimed. Gullible, I bought one. What an utter POS. Windows 3.1 blew chunks, and anyone who disagrees is in denial. DOS with an ugly paint job. Nothing more. I sold that pile of crap (the hardware and the OS) 6 months later and went back to using my Mac Classic. I've owned one PC since then - a homebuilt rig constructed specifically for Half-Life 2. I suspect it will have been my last. Though I have been using Windows at work (and hating every minute of it) since 1991.

Windows 95 was the first Microsoft OS to copy the Mac sufficiently to become a viable alternative to the semi-sane and rational. The current growth of Mac sales prove that people are finally (slowly) coming to their senses.

Looking back, Macs back then were horrible compared to today. But if you compare it to options available at the time they still smashed the competition. Software availability was the big selling point of Windows. It was very difficult to find Mac software, and dissuaded most people. Not much different than today really.