By now, everyone who pays attention to the cell phone craziness that is going on these days knows the story of the IPhone glitch, you know the one that doesn't exist. Wait, you have not heard of this? Well as the story goes, users of the brand new IPhone 4 discovered a supposed glitch with the new device as is common with new products that hit the market. After all, nothing is perfect and folks always find something not to like or something that does not work like before. In this case, consumers complained on an antenna reception issue.
The difference in this case was that the good folks at Apple at first took the reports that were coming in and said balderdash, not with our device! Ah, but give it a little bit of time, a few thousand more complaining users, and suddenly those same figureheads at Apple saying "no, not us" started to change their tunes. Apple has now come out and admitted that the problem is actually a problem, and there will be a software fix ready to be deployed in a few weeks time. Well, maybe not so much.
You see, Apple admits there is a problem, but for the consumers out there who are actually experiencing the reception problem, the fix Apple are promising may not be what they want. See, by Apple's calculations, or in this case miscalculations, they are saying the problem is a software problem and not really an antenna issue. In their minds, the reception problem is an illusion or perhaps a misconception. Apple claims that an error in calculation on a formula used to displays signal bars on the IPhone is wrong and thus it is showing too many bars in areas with weak signal strength.
Apple puts an interesting spin on it, which makes you believe they genuinely think this is the issue. Here is what they have to say, courtesy of: www.apple.com and http://mashable.com/2010/07/02/apple-admits-iphone-4 -issue/.
“Users observing a drop of several bars when they grip their IPhone in a certain way are most likely in an area with very weak signal strength, but they don’t know it because we are erroneously displaying 4 or 5 bars. Their big drop in bars is because their high bars were never real in the first place.”
So in laymen's terms, Apple is saying that the reception you think you have was never really there, it was a display issue caused by bad programming. Oh, well that explains it! Well, until you look at some of the analysis that has been done by groups like Anandtech. Their analysis shows that the supposed reception problem caused by you gripping the IPhone 4 by its lower-right side is not a figment of imagination but truly a reality! In other words, your reception when held the wrong way will still suck, you will just be able to see it displayed correctly now. As an Apple customer, one cannot think you would be very happy with this.
If you’re interested in the official correspondence that went out from Apple, it is listed below, again courtesy of the above mentioned links:
Official announcement below:
“Dear IPhone 4 Users,
The IPhone 4 has been the most successful product launch in Apple’s history. It has been judged by reviewers around the world to be the best smartphone ever, and users have told us that they love it. So we were surprised when we read reports of reception problems, and we immediately began investigating them. Here is what we have learned.
To start with, gripping almost any mobile phone in certain ways will reduce its reception by 1 or more bars. This is true of IPhone 4, IPhone 3GS, as well as many Droid, Nokia and RIM phones. But some users have reported that IPhone 4 can drop 4 or 5 bars when tightly held in a way which covers the black strip in the lower left corner of the metal band. This is a far bigger drop than normal, and as a result some have accused the IPhone 4 of having a faulty antenna design.
At the same time, we continue to read articles and receive hundreds of emails from users saying that IPhone 4 reception is better than the IPhone 3GS. They are delighted. This matches our own experience and testing. What can explain all of this?
We have discovered the cause of this dramatic drop in bars, and it is both simple and surprising.
Upon investigation, we were stunned to find that the formula we use to calculate how many bars of signal strength to display is totally wrong. Our formula, in many instances, mistakenly displays 2 more bars than it should for a given signal strength. For example, we sometimes display 4 bars when we should be displaying as few as 2 bars. Users observing a drop of several bars when they grip their IPhone in a certain way are most likely in an area with very weak signal strength, but they don’t know it because we are erroneously displaying 4 or 5 bars. Their big drop in bars is because their high bars were never real in the first place.
To fix this, we are adopting AT&T’s recently recommended formula for calculating how many bars to display for a given signal strength. The real signal strength remains the same, but the iPhone’s bars will report it far more accurately, providing users a much better indication of the reception they will get in a given area. We are also making bars 1, 2 and 3 a bit taller so they will be easier to see.
We will issue a free software update within a few weeks that incorporates the corrected formula. Since this mistake has been present since the original IPhone, this software update will also be available for the IPhone 3GS and IPhone 3G.
We have gone back to our labs and retested everything, and the results are the same- the IPhone 4’s wireless performance is the best we have ever shipped. For the vast majority of users who have not been troubled by this issue, this software update will only make your bars more accurate. For those who have had concerns, we apologize for any anxiety we may have caused.
As a reminder, if you are not fully satisfied, you can return your undamaged IPhone to any Apple Retail Store or the online Apple Store within 30 days of purchase for a full refund.
We hope you love the IPhone 4 as much as we do.
Thank you for your patience and support.
Apple”
It will be interesting to see how this turns out for Apple. With data and analysis showing the problem to be real, and Apple saying it is nothing more than a display problem, Apple runs the risk of having more than just egg on their face if it turns out the problems continue and they just tried to gloss it over.