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Steve Jobs pwns Consumer Reports and Media.
Yesterday we brought out an all you need to know about iPhone 4 antenna issue. Apple went out in a big way to settle the issue once and for all. They brought Steve Jobs on deck to personally do the short presentation.
Even as Jobs stated, “Apple isn’t perfect,” it seems Jobs and his legion have been personally hurt by this matter. In classic Apple move, they applied the full force of their engineering team to discover what’s wrong—if any.
It may appear like Antennagate has been around forever but Jobs made it a point to say that it has been 22 days since iPhone launched and it took 22 days for Apple’s staff to try to understand what the real issues are.
So what are the facts?
Apple facilities
Apple is an engineering company and using the vast array of equipment and science, their engineers and scientists (they have 18 PhD scientists and engineers at Apple), worked on this. They tested not just iPhone 4, but other smartphones.
Steve Jobs made a big deal showing pictures of Apple’s laboratories. They have 17 anechoic chambers and invested over 100 million dollars over the years to build up their facility.
The test
Jobs was explicit that he wasn’t bad mouthing these other phones during their testing that in fact they are decent phones and are some of the best in the world. What phones did Apple test? Apple tested the Blackberry Bold 9700, the HTC Droid Eris and the Samsung Ommia II. Like iPhone 3GS, like iPhone 4, these phones experience the same death grip problem that iPhone 4 does. Apple posted “Smartphone Antenna Performance” page on their website, with videos and to help clarify the matter. A conclusion could be drawn that all phones have weak spots.
Each of these phones have a non-industry standard way of calculating the number of bars with regard to signal strength a phone gets. Some are more liberal than others, and as demonstrated by Apple, some even take a bit more before dropping the signal just to make sure that it is indeed getting the right strength. So, there is no correct algorithm to display signal strength.
Again: all phones suffer some death grip problem. All phones have their own unique way to calculate signal strength, and there is no industry standard with regard to that algorithm. “We haven’t figured out a way around the laws of physics. Yet,” Jobs said.
Steve Jobs then concluded that Phones aren’t perfect. That it is in fact a challenge for the whole industry. He believes iPhone 4’s advanced antenna design is a step in the right direction because people are reporting better reception with iPhone 4 antennas.
What else has Apple done?
Hard data
Apple keeps internal metrics. For example, AppleCare data revealed that only 0.55% of the 3 million users who have bought iPhone 4 have called about an antenna or reception problem.
Apple asked AT&T for return rates. They measured it against iPhone 3GS. The number is surprisingly small. iPhone 3GS return rate was 6 percent. iPhone 4 return rate was 1.7 percent. that’s 1/3 of 3GS’ return rate.
Apple asked AT&T about call drop rates. While, Apple concluded that some it is proprietary data of AT&T and the latter couldn’t reveal that, what they were able to conclude is that drop calls between iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS is a bit more drop calls and than the previous version.
The conclusion is that there is no antennagate and that this and it affects only a small percentage of users was completely blown out of proportion.
The Fix
What Apple has done is to send out a software update to fix how iPhone computes signal strength.
Apple is giving out free bumper case and a refund if you already bought a bumper at least until September 30. Apple is willing to send owners a free case and though they can’t make enough of them in a short period of time, they are outsourcing it. By end of next week iPhone 4 users will be able to apply for this option at Apple’s website.
If for some other reason that a user isn’t happy with this, they can return the phone, undamaged within 30 days of purchase.
Updates
Before moving to the Question and Answer portion, Jobs reported that they would have a software update for proximity sensor some users are reporting to be an issue. The white iPhone will be available by the end of July. iPhone 4 will be available in 17 countries, including Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore were some readers of this site reside in.
“We want every user to be happy,” Jobs often repeated in his presentation. iPhone 4 is a non-issue because it only affects an insignificant number of users. Even though that is the case, Apple is going out of its way to demonstrate that customer satisfaction is their number one concern. At the core of Apple is this delight, this satisfaction to surprise their users with breakthrough products. Clearly, Consumer Reports is wrong about this issue even when iPhone 4 scored the best in all the phones they surveyed. At the end of Antennagate is a realization; yes, iPhone 4 is still the best phone in the world.
iPhone 4 image, Courtesy Apple
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