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« Lets do Bloodbath update, Samsung Bada, Samsung Galaxy, Samsung Beam.. oh and some iPhone, Google, Nokia too | Main | The Son of Death Grip - Antennagate the Sequel: the iPhone 4b, and the 3 month loaner iPhone 4a »

July 16, 2010

Comments

Jody

Maybe you were following a different press conference.

I don't see that Apple admitted to anything. Their answer was that everyone else does it too, so it isn't our problem. But just to take your mind off things here is a free cover.

They were asked directly about the loss of signal with a single finger bridging the antennas and ignored it completely.

Tomi T Ahonen

Hi Jody

They admitted to over 16 thousand complaint calls coming to Apple directly over the past three weeks, explicitly about the death grip. And that Apple have engineers working to fix the problem which they hope is solved by September. What press conference were YOU following?

Tomi Ahonen :-)

Nemus

Sorry Tomi but i think Jody is right.
Lies, damned lies, and statistics. 16k sounds big, but Steve doesn't mention that number anywhere. You know it and i know it but average Joe doesn't do math that well :)
And to quote one comment from ArsTechnica:

"So, Mr. Jobs, you're saying these free bumpers will solve this problem?"

"No, you misunderstand me. We're not admitting there's a problem with the phone, we're just admitting that there's a lot of people who think there's a problem and apparently they want a free bumper that will act as a placebo to help them get over their delusions."

"So...uh, the phone doesn't have any problems."

"Of course not. Now, let me just show you how you need to hold the phone if you decide not to get a bumper..."

btw Mentioned there is that iPhone 4 drops <1 call more per 100 vs 3gs. Meaningless of course if we don't know number for 3gs. Do you have any info regarding that?

./Nemus

kevin

Tomi, I too think Jody is right. About .5% of iPhone users called Apple about this problem. Even if the same number called AT&T, that's still about 1%, which is not a crisis number for any mainstream consumer product. 10%, or even 5% is a very big deal, but not 1%.

Apple cast this hand-attenuation problem (what I referred to as Problem 1 in my previous comment on another post) as an industry-wide problem, not Apple's problem, just as I said they would. You may want to dispute that, but you'll have to bring evidence. And Apple lumped the touching of the gap (what I referred to as Problem 2 and a unique iPhone 4 problem) with this Problem 1, just as I said they would.

Apple's response will be seen by most as more than fair, and even generous, precisely because Apple convinced most that it wasn't just Apple's problem. For those who think it is still Apple's problem, they'll stay away. And those who have chosen already to stay away for whatever reason (including Apple-hate), will choose to see this as Apple's problem, and not an industry-wide problem.

sami

Well none of the tech blogs I read was convinced about Apple's explanations. Neither was Consumer Review. So not a huge win for Apple

Starting a smear campaign rises the risk of nasty retaliation spiral, bad for the industry as a whole. Showing competitor devices in their web pages in such negative context, I don't think I've seen that in this industry so far. RIM, HTC and Samsung have to react accordingly.

Oh and didn't you find the 1 more dropped call per 100 calls huge number? Dropped calls aren't usually measured per 100 calls. How many dropped call there was with Iphone thus far? 2 per 100? 5 per 100? That's a lot!

Ok, 1 more per 100, big deal? This affects people making calls left handed, right? About 10% of US population is reportedly left handed, so if no right handed person experience this, that's 10 more dropped calls per 100 left handed Iphone 4 users. Not a big deal, really?

Ok, how in proportion to the complains, 0.55% complained. If this affects mostly the people who complained, they get problems pretty much on every call. So much so that many of them were unable to call to Apple to complain!

Yeah, win for Apple.

sami

Correction: Consumer Reports is the publication that dropped the final straw and they're still not recommending Iphone after the explanations.

Reda

Jodi is right on this one, sorry. Apple said there is a problem in every phone and in customer heads but they didn't say there is a problem with their apple phone. :-(
It's really getting interesting because customer respond positively to outstanding customer service but here it's deception (and customer can see that too! they are not stupid, you know) under the false pretense of outstanding customer service

mark

So a group of us were together, and we did an unscientific test in one location. Between the four of us, we had an iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, Blackberry Bold, and Nokia E71. With the latter three, if we hold the phone in a normal way (not a death grip) but closer to the bottom than to the top, we could make it drop 2 or 3 bars. If we cover most of the strip on both sides of the iPhone 4 or touch the gap (even with one just one finger), we could make it drop 2 or 3 bars.

So my general conclusion is that many phones have the holding problem. In addition, the iPhone 4 has a unique touch-this-spot problem, which is remedied by the bumper (which we tried with the bumper we have). The bumper doesn't remedy the more general holding problem.

There are phones out there that have less of a problem. I tried this on some of my older non-smartphones - Moto RAZR & PEBL, and LG Vu, and I could only make them lose 0 or 1 bar by holding them in a normal way (top or bottom)

A lot of people will be trying unscientific tests and finding that some phones are better than others, but because so many phones have a holding problem, I think Apple will come out of this just fine for the mainstream consumer.

Manu

Hi Tomi,

I often enjoy reading your views and predictions. And I should say, I seldom found them contradictory with mine set of views.

However, this time I'm not sure if you & readers of this blog were following same press conference.;)

I too feel Apple denied their mistake, infact they followed a strange way to offer clarification. I can understand that Mr.Jobs say take away free bumbers but our product is not having any problem. Is Mr.Jobs offering charity ???

I believe one should accept mistake gracefully but Apple only tried to give counter-arguments out of nothing !!!

I'm neither Apple hater nor fanboy but it doesn't appears me to be the right way to deal the issue.

Mark

Tomi, I've been reading the comments in tech blogs both in the US and the UK and there's quite a difference in attitudes. In the US there is very much a desire to see this episode closed and move on whereas the UK they're much less forgiving. Perhaps this mirrors the greater choice of handsets in the UK?

Either way, although I agree that this iPhone will sell well, the gloss seems to have come off a bit.

Tomi T Ahonen

ATTENTION ALL WHO LEAVE COMMENTS

THE 'ADMISSION' DISCUSSION ENDS HERE

This blog is very open to discussion and we welcome differing, opposing and even hostile comments - we have over 4,500 comments on this site, you can see we are most tolerant. But we will not waste the time of our readers on fantasyland commentary.

I said already, that I did not attend the Apple press conference. So I can only report on what is in the public domain. It is now Monday 19th June my time here in Hong Kong. I have just checked Google News and there are over 4,500 news stories about Apple's Antennagate. They are overwhelmingly unanimous, that there WAS an official Apple admission of a problem. Here is a small sampling of US major press:

Wall Street Journal "Apple admits"
Blooomberg "Apple admits"
Business Week "Jobs says Apple knew"
ABC News "Apple apologizes"
Voice of America "Apple CEO offers fix"
San Francisco Chronicle "Jobs apologized"

And the international press agree also:

Financial Times "Jobs apologizes"
BBC "Apple deals with problems"
ITN News "Steve Jobs admits"
Economist "Jobs acknowledged"

It is very clear that a) - Jobs admitted iPhone 4 is not perfect. He then admitted B) it has a dropped call problem which is worse than 3GS. He acknowledged that c) Apple has known of this since the phone shipped 3 weeks ago. He admitted d) they are working on a permanent hardware solution 'working their butts off'. He admitted e) iPhone has received over 16,500 calls from iPhone 4 buyers - which is nearly 1,000 per day. This level of complaints is by the way, a huge amount of complaints, completely beyond what has ever happened in this industry, by any phone maker, in any country, with any product release.

It makes NO difference to 'whether Apple admitted or not' that Apple also claimed other phone makers have this problem. Saying others do it too, is not in any way removing Apple's admission.

It makes NO difference at all whether this is considered by you the reader, or by Apple, that it is supposedly a 'small' problem or not - to Apple actually admitting the problem. The size of the problem is not in any way removing the fact, that Apple did admit to having a problem.

That Jobs later says in some Q&A about what is or isn't happening, doesn't remove the fact, that in the press conference arranged by Apple and videotaped by Apple and reported by 4,500 press - that Apple did admit its iPhone 4 has an antenna problem that is worse than 3GS before, and that the problem is that serious, that 16,500 people have called to complain, and it causes 1 in 100 more dropped calls than iPhones before, and that Apple is working to solve the issue. And that the iPhone is not perfect and it has a measured reduction in its reception if held some way.

Anyone who feels after that, that Apple did 'not admit' a problem with the iPhone 4, may freely believe so. I am sure they are happy to believe in Tupolev being the world's bestselling jet airliner, Yugo our most beloved car on the planet, that Betamax won the video recorder wars, and that Apple Macs sit on all desks of the world's PC users. And that Santa Claus truly visits all children at Christmas, and the Easter Bunny lives, and that Americans will be greeted as liberators, etc. You are fully entitled to hold any belief system you want.

But the children who can't deal with reality will have to play with the other children on some fantasyland blogsite. This blog deals with reality.

ALL DEBATE ABOUT 'WAS THERE AN ADMISSION' ENDS NOW

As of today, any more silly comments that mention 'Apple did not admit' will be instantly removed no matter what other valid comments they may contain. If thousands of real professional journalists came to the conclusion there was an admission, why am I wasting my Monday morning answering some readers like Nemus, kevin and Reda? I will let their comments stay here, forever as evidence of the hilarious level of denial that some people can live in, if these readers really believe like Jody before, that there 'was no admission'. Good luck with your delusions, please return to this site if you grow up some day.

They will of course get no further reply from me to their original postings here, and if they return to talk of other things - like mature adults, on issues based on realtiy - I will of course reply to those, but this blog will not waste any more time on 'was there an admission.'

Case is closed.

I will return later to reply to the others who had valid comments that were based on reality.

Tomi Ahonen :-)

Call Middle East

as in this world of communication people like to communicate with each other so free calling is very important for all the user nice blog i really like it.

Raleigh North Carolina Med

i very interesting stuff for all the readers i really like it and also share it with my friends.

Adam Horwitz Mobile Monopoly Bonus

Free iPhone cases? That’s a good deal! Who wouldn’t want a free item these days? And I do hope that it could really fix reception problems..

Buraq

If you pick that one given as an example here, you’d better have your cell on vibrate at work or anywhere around children. Denver Skater Graffiti Lifestyle Resource

MACIASSally

I would like to propose not to hold off until you earn enough cash to buy different goods! You should just take the home loans or just auto loan and feel yourself comfortable

pass4sure cissp

Free iPhone cases pass4sure ccsp
? That’s a good deal! Who wouldn’t want a free item these days

Baseball Hats

I gave my site a few examples below. If you appreciate my comments in you enter.Baseball Hats

Polly

Il ya certainement beaucoup de détails comme celui de prendre en considération.

Henry Peise

The Christmas time is comming, and the most desire present i want to get, is the latest white iphone 4, can i get one? Tell you after Xmas.

The comments to this entry are closed.

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