Andy Lockett

Somewhat of a follow up from my previous post ‘What’s the frequency, Steve?‘, this post is a conclusion of Apple’s press conference held yesterday regarding the iPhone 4 antenna issues.

iPhone 4 – it’s not perfect

Steve Jobs – Apple’s CEO – immediately admitted at Apple’s press conference on July 16^th 2010 at 6:04pm GMT, that neither Apple or the iPhone 4 are perfect. To generalise this, Steve actually said “…phones aren’t perfect either”.

All phones suffer signal drops

Jobs then went on to provide statistics that ‘proved’ the Blackberry Bold 9700, the HTC Droid Eris and the Samsung Omnia II all suffered the same issue. However, on the photos provided, all of these phones were retaining 3G signal. Yes, bars were dropping when they were wrapped up in one’s hand, but the signal drop wasn’t even close to that of the iPhone 4′s. The iPhone 4 can go from full 3G signal to almost no service with the light touch of one’s little finger. The only conclusion that can be drawn from these photos is what the public already know – there’s a serious design flaw. Comparing it to other phones makes this even clearer.

0.55% iPhone 4 users complaining to Apple Care, 1.7% returning to AT&T

Ignoring the obvious, “You can’t call Apple Care without signal…” joke, the almost immediate letter from Apple promising a fix will have kept these numbers to a minimum. These statistics were backed up with no gross figures and no dates. They were just percentages on the screen making the iPhone 4 look more successful than the 3GS. No contradiction, just simple irrelevancy.

A ‘Bumper’ fixes the signal issue

This is the most prominent contradiction of the whole show. After attempting to prove that the issue occurs on all mobile phones to date; Jobs then agrees that an Apple Bumper fixes the signal problem in its entirety. Now, if a rubber band around the perimeter of the phone fixes this outrageous issue – the design is flawed. End of disucssion. Jobs has tried to convince us that there’s nothing wrong with the iPhone 4 – claiming it’s as perfect as a phone can be – only to follow up with the conclusion that a rubber band will significantly enhance the device.

Impossible to avoid signal attenuation

Jobs claimed no-one in the entire industry has solved this problem (src.) – but hang on, what about the magical Bumpers? Does that mean the absolute state-of-the-art technology for avoidance of signal degradation is in the form of rubber bands? Well, not far off – insulation specifically. A naked antenna does -not- work.

Contradictory Conference Conclusion

Percentage only statistics, inadvertently proving the signal issue, admitting to a design flaw, handing out free bumpers, telling us that the iPhone 4 drops more calls than its predecessor – it wasn’t Steve’s best show and this signal issue isn’t going to fade away.

If you’re an iPhone 4 user suffering from the, apparently rare, antenna issue – these are the choices you now have:

• Request a free case* from Apple in a few days
• Take your phone back to where you purchased it for a full refund

That is it. No recall, no changes. If you can live with the phone – enjoy it and get a Bumper if you experience signal issues; if you can’t – get your money back now and perhaps take a look at the HTC EVO. I’m personally undecided.

*Apple informed us that they cannot produce enough Bumpers so they will have to source some cases. Apparently there will be a choice of ‘free case’ on Apple.com in the near future.

Please note: O2 are currently deciding how they are going to handle any attempts to return your iPhone 4, I will update with the information they promise to release on Monday.