July 19th, 2010 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Platforms: iOS | No Comments »
Last Friday, Apple held a press conference about the antenna issues surrounding their iPhone 4. As it turns out, Apple isn’t perfect as are phones in general… An update of what happened following the press conference.
During the press conference, Apple showed some competitive phones and their vulnerability to any form of a ‘death grip’ in the hope to downplay the issue. Both RIM and Nokia responded to the claims from Apple (though Nokia’s phones weren’t compared);
“Nokia has invested thousands of man hours in studying human behavior, including how people hold their phones for calls, music playing, web browsing and so on. As you would expect from a company focused on connecting people, we prioritize antenna performance over physical design if they are ever in conflict.”
“Apple’s attempt to draw RIM into Apple’s self-made debacle is unacceptable. Apple’s claims about RIM products appear to be deliberate attempts to distort the public’s understanding of an antenna design issue and to deflect attention from Apple’s difficult situation. RIM is a global leader in antenna design and has been successfully designing industry-leading wireless data products with efficient and effective radio performance for over 20 years.”
As a solution to the problem, Apple is not only applying a software fix that changes the number of reception bars shown, but will also be handing out free rubber condoms bumpers and other cases if consumers don’t like theirs. With about 3 million iPhone 4 models in the market, it means big business for case vendors that are selected by Apple. Other vendors might have to start dumping their stocks since most consumers don’t purchase more than one case for their phones.
Still Consumer Reports, the US consumer authority, is not satisfied with this offer from Apple. The organization will uphold their negative buy advice as Apple will only be handing out free cases until September thirtieth. Consumer Reports expects a more definitive solution to the hardware fail. Another reason for the organization to be dissatisfied is because the free cases are limited to Apple’s selected vendors and though consumers get a refund if they already bought a case to solve their issues, that only applies to cases sold through Apple.
While the whole world is trying to remove the antenna issue, a smart decal manufacturer created a new product that turns the design error into a new feature. Consumers who are interested can buy an ‘End Call’ decal to apply on their iPhone 4’s.
