No doubt. But there is a keyboard attached to every PC, and no one is getting rich making keyboards.
Back to the OP, today Consumer Reports retracted its recommendation based on further inhouse testing. They confirmed (via lab testing) that touching the frame of the phone in a certain spot can cause signal loss in weak signal conditions.
They went on to say that a case or something as simple as a piece of thick tape eliminates the problem. They are testing cases for a follow-on report
Countering that are comments from a few of my friends who say that iPhone 4 has better signal performance than any previous iPhone.
I wonder if people would have noticed this problem if they had ignored the signal strength indicator? (or covered it with black tape 
)
Well clearly Apple has made mistakes in the Antenna department on both major devices released this year; the iPad (with it’s wifi issues) and the iPhone. While they’re obviously not about to issue a public “we fucked up”, the fact that they have advertised three Antenna Engineer positions is a big clue that they blame that team for the problems. Frankly, we don’t know what other steps they have taken internally to shake up the design process and the personnel involved to ensure that something like this doesn’t happen again and to help them redesign the products going forward. We can only take a wait-and-see attitude to see if they can solve some of the problems with software changes or what. I strongly doubt there would be a recall of the 3 million iPads they’ve sold, or the however many million iPhone 4’s. More than likely we’ll just see a faster release schedule of the next model of each device.
All anyone can do is isolate the problem with a bumper type of device. Software won’t fix this. They really should give out free or really cheap bumpers to us. $29 is ridiculous.
Other than the antenna thing, it’s a great device and if you hold the phone “correctly” it’s a damn good phone too. Oh well, it’s still by far the best thing that AT&T had to offer. I have a side consulting business that takes me out of the US so I am stuck with an AT&T phone. I’d still buy it again.
Even with the newest and hottest technologies, the answer to so many problems is still duct tape, my friends.
I like the Live Strong Bracelet fix.
http://www.crunchgear.com/2010/06/30/pro-tip-use-a-livestrong-type-bracelet-to-fix-the-iphone-4s-grip-issue/
Apple will be holding a press conference about the iPhone 4 on Friday. Free bumpers for everyone perhaps? Link
They have also released a beta version of iOS4.1 to developers which has the fix to show the true number of bars but almost certainly nothing to fix the reception issue.
Interesting articlein the NYTimes about how Verizon is thriving without the iPhone because of its Android models. At this stage I suspect Apple needs Verizon more than the reverse. Whether it’s smart enough to realize this is another matter. My guess is that by this time next year Android will be a clear winner in global market share though the iPhone will still be very profitable.
Why do you say that? A Verizon version will only work in the US. The AT&T model works in the US and the entire rest of the world.
Verizon is widely considered to have the best cellphone service in the US. I suspect for many that’s more important than the limited international coverage of CDMA. In general I think the AT&T exclusivity gave Android the time to catch up with and now surpass the iPhone as a smartphone platform. If the iPhone had been available everywhere it would have made it harder for Android to gain a foothold. Verizon and Sprint wouldn’t have promoted Android phones so hard if they could have had the iPhone. Even now I think a Verizon iPhone would give the iPhone some momentum and a positive story to take away attention from the antenna issue which has become something of a running sore.
I suspect it won't happen though. My hunch is Apple will make excessive demands and Verizon will simply say no. AT&T may also not be prepared to deal. IIRC their exclusivity deal was for five years in which case I would imagine Apple will need to re-negotiate with them to have an iPhone on Verizon.Tens of millions of devices have been sold in Canada, Mexico, Asia, Europe, South America and Australia. Had they gone with Verizon, they wouldn’t have gotten all of that business or they would have had to get enough resources to make two different versions. The lost business in the US isn’t even close to what they have sold in the rest of the world.
Why would a deal with Verizon preclude selling phones anywhere else?
It’s not that difficult to build a CDMA version along with a GSM version. Obviously no one is suggesting that Apple should have only built a CDMA version.
If they had gone with Verizon instead of AT&T, the phones wouldn’t have worked anywhere else. As Lantern notes, they could have made two versions of the iPhone but I disagree with him on how easy it would be.
If they were to build a CDMA phone, then they have to deal with stupid customers who get angry because they feel that they paid huge mad dough for the phone (don’t ask, I know these people) and it should work on any damned network they want it to work on. So if they want to switch from AT&T to Verizon or vice versa, their blankety-blanking iPhone should support this or Apple should give them another one for free. And if they switch and it doesn’t work out and they want to switch back, then it’s Apple’s fault and Apple should give them yet another free phone.
Yep. That. The original iPhone was crappy, and the 3G and 3GS are pretty good. As soon as I found out they were changing the design of the phone I pretty well knew that there was going to be a problem or two. I’ll wait until the next version.
It is quite common for phones to be built for both GSM and CDMA. For example the Milestone is the GSM version of the Droid. Various Blackberry phones are also available on both networks. In fact it is quite rare for a phone to be built only for CDMA.
Apple’s response:
They’re going to give out free cases to everyone who wants one. Also refunds to people who’ve already bought the case. They can’t make enough bumper cases for everyone, so they’re going to source a couple different cases and give people a choice of models. And if the customer would just prefer to return the phone rather than get a case, they’ll give a full refund instead, for thirty days.
Jobs said that he wants everyone to be happy, and if a refund was what it would take that’s what he’d do.
All in all, pretty much a perfect response. Well done, Apple!
… eventually.
What exactly the fuck do you want, kid? It took them only about 20 days to figure out what the hell was wrong, specifically as opposed to generally. It takes awhile to amass data so that you’re not talking out of your ass.
And I agree. Given what has happened, it was a perfect response.