Apple admits iPhone 4 antenna issue and will give free cases

Yesterday at Cupertino, California Apple gathered the press to hold up a conference where Steve Jobs will discuss one of the hottest issue: iPhone 4 Antenna Problem.

The conference begun in Apple way: “We are not perfect” “We want to make all our users happy”, said Steve.

Then Steve admit that antenna issue is real, but this problem is on all smartphones(Nokia, BlackBerry, HTC, Samsung). This thing may be possible, but why is Apple quoting other companies when they should have mind their own problem and solve it !? We think Apple point of view was shameless regarding this issue.

After the conference Nokia released a statement saying that when they build a phone,  they “prioritize antenna performance over physical design“. This is the full statement:

“Antenna design is a complex subject and has been a core competence at Nokia for decades, across hundreds of phone models. Nokia was the pioneer in internal antennas; the Nokia 8810, launched in 1998, was the first commercial phone with this feature.

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.

In general, antenna performance of a mobile device/phone may be affected with a tight grip, depending on how the device is held. That’s why Nokia designs our phones to ensure acceptable performance in all real life cases, for example when the phone is held in either hand. Nokia has invested thousands of man hours in studying how people hold their phones and allows for this in designs, for example by having antennas both at the top and bottom of the phone and by careful selection of materials and their use in the mechanical design.”

After this, we were able to see that iPhone 4 is one of the best smartphone from the market and has been sold in more than 3.000.000 pieces. It has been reviewed by many publications(engadget, consumer reports, etc) and all claimed it’s a wonderful phone.

There has been 22 days since Apple discovered this problem and they start making their own tests about antenna signal on several phones: BlackBerry Bold 9700, HTC Droid Eris and Samsung Omnia II.

Steve claimed that every phone have week spots and admit they made a big mistake when they designed iPhone 4: they marked the spot where the antenna signal could have problems.
Apple posted on their site a new section where we could see their Antenna Design and Test Labs.

Apple never releases a product without thoroughly testing it first. To do this, we built our multimillion-dollar antenna design and test labs. These labs feature 17 different antenna characterization chambers (or anechoic chambers) designed to accurately measure antenna and wireless performance.

Apple engineers tested iPhone 4 in a variety of scenarios, environments, and conditions in order to gauge performance. They spent thousands of hours in cities in the U.S. and throughout the world testing iPhone 4 call quality, dropped-call performance, call origination and termination, and in-service time. They tested iPhone 4 while stationary, at high and low speeds, and in urban, dense urban, and highway environments. In low-coverage areas and good-coverage areas, during peak and off-peak hours — iPhone 4 was field-tested in nearly every possible coverage scenario across different vendor and carrier equipment all over the world.

To calm down all users, Steve presented some data numbers:

-AppleCare recorded 0.55% users complaining about iPhone 4 antenna or reception.

-AT&T had 1.7% return rate for iPhone 4(iPhone 3GS had 6% return rate).

-AT&T recorded less than 1 additional call dropped/100 calls compared to iPhone 3GS.

Reports say that duct tape or bumpers solves the signal strength problem. To prove that Apple cares about all of their customers they will send every iPhone 4 owner a free case(bumper), until September 30. From next week you can apply to get a free case from Apple website. If you already bought one, you will be refunded by Apple. If you’re still unhappy with your iPhone 4 you can return the phone undamaged within 30 days of purchase for a full refund.

In the end will like to finish here and say that we think Apple took the right decision, by offering free bumpers to everybody and we believe that with or without this issue they will continue to sell their products with big success.

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