This phone is cool, very cool. I really want it and when the first reviews started to come out I knew this would be my next phone. Enter the antenna issue.
Shortly after launch reports started to surface that touching the little back band in the lower left corner would significantly reduce cellular reception. Worst case the iPhone would go from five bars to no service. This was concerning. When the 3G came out there were reports of yellow tinted screens but this turned out to be a non issues so I thought I would wait it out to see what happens. Yet the reports continued to roll in.
We all know what happens next and if you are reading this I don’t need to go in to detail so here is the short version.
1) Steve jobs says “don’t hold it that way”
2) Antenna issue continues to explode across web
3) Consumer reports can’t recommend phone
4) Antenna issue hits mainstream news
5) Apple hold press conference regarding antenna issue
Today Apple had their press conference. Going into the conference I was hoping for a miraculous hardware fix but I figured they would offer a free bumper. I thought I would be happy with this and probably get the phone. They did offer free cases to customers but I still can’t bring my self to buy this phone. Here is why.
Apple Doesn’t Get It
People keep referring to this issue as the ‘Death Grip’. This makes it sound like you have to squeeze the life out of this phone to see the problem. In reality it should be called the ‘Pinky Touch of Death’ as it literally takes one finger to cause this problem. See video here. Apple then went on to show the death grip effect the reception on other smart phones. Cool, I don’t disagree with their findings but I’m pretty sure not one of those phones will loose that much signal with the touch of a single finger. I know my iPhone 3G doesn’t.
Ryan Block from gdgt.com specifically asked about this issue and Apple completely beat around the bush not even coming close to answering the question.
Q: How does touching the corner with a single finger seem to cause this issue? It’s not just a grip, it can just happen by touching a single finger.
A: Your body is a pretty effective signal absorber. When you make contact with that phone, its performance in contact with you is less than it’s freespace performance. It’s a way to attenuate the signal by some amount.
Huh? This question is what the entire press conference should have revolved around.
Stats are Wack
Apple says only .55 percent of users called support complaining of reception issues. Most users probably don’t even know about the antenna issue and probably wouldn’t call support if they dropped one or two more calls then normal. They would probably blame AT&T and then go on their merry way.
Apple also says the return rate of the iPhone 4 is much less then that of the 3GS but the 30 day return period is still open. It would be interesting to see how many iPhone 3GS were returned within three weeks. If I was going to return a phone I’m pretty sure I would wait until the last week so that I gave myself enough time to try out all features of the phone. I would guess return rates increase closer to the end of the 30 day return window.
Amount of additional dropped calls of iPhone 4 over 3GS is less than 1 per 100. Ok, I am going to guess this is .999 because if was anything less they would have said less than 0.5 per one hundred. This is a totally useless stat because we don’t know how many calls are being dropped. If the 3GS drops 1 per 100 then the iPhone 4 drops 2 per 100. Uh… this could potentially be a 100% or more increase. As you can see this stat was pure marketing.
September 30th
This date is key. When asked if the free case offer will extend beyond this date Jobs said they “Will evaluate” and “I have no idea what solutions may come up”. He is the CEO of multi-billion dollar company, I’m pretty sure he has some ideas. This response indicates one thing for me. They are working on a hardware fix that may or may not make it out by September 30th. They need to flush out current inventory and that seems about the right amount of time for this to happen.
There is simply to much shady behavior by Apple regarding iPhone 4. They provided a ‘solution’ but didn’t really address the main issue (see Q&A above). It is pretty clear to most people this is a design flaw that was missed in testing due to the 3G-esque cases that were used. The testers never actually touched the phone. This problem was eventually discovered before launch but it was too late for a hardware fix and hence the bumper at launch. Is this a major design flaw, no. Does this design flaw affect everyone, no. Would it affect me, probably not.
In the end I still want this phone, bad, but I just can’t spend thousands of dollars on a phone and a service contract if it doesn’t work as well as a cheap Nokia. Apple’s attitude and response regarding this issue has also sort of rubbed me the wrong way. At the same time I understand they can’t admit a design flaw as this would destroy sales and share price.
This phone will continue to fly of the shelves but I will be eagerly awaiting the 30th of September.
