Anyone who thinks there will be an all-out recall is smoking something that I want. The fact is that a minority of people are experiencing antenna problems. Those who do are being vocal.
It'll be something like:
Hey, the iPhone 4 is awesome
We realize some people are having trouble.
We fixed it now. All iPhones being sold from today on have --- on them that resolves the problem. If you're having an issue, we'll trade you for a new one.
The White iPhone 4 is out, too. You can also trade for that one.
If you like your iPhone 4, then please accept this $-- iTunes/Apple Store gift card and buy yourself something nice
I think you may be right bar the last point - Is that just your wishful thinking?
By offering an exchange they will shut everybody up. The huge costs associated with a recall will be minimized as only a hand-full of people will actually bother to have their phone replaced.
1, If you want a bumper, Apple will give you $30 credit to purchase one at Apple Store.
2, Apple will exchange the phone (with a brand new one) if you think you have a defective unit.
3, If you are not satisfied with the phone, you can return it with a full refund.
In addition (or in place) of the exchange (#2), they may offer an in-store replacement of the antenna assembly with one that has a non-conductive coating, though I doubt that this would be a "drop in and leave again in 10 minutes" kind of operation.
"Analyst Mike Abramsky noted that the iPhone 4 now has an availability of 3 weeks, up from a shipping time of 7 to 10 days from a few days ago, which could imply a transition in production."
I've been checking the Apple store every day.......3 weeks has been the norm.
There are Hidden Agendas from every analyst. Be wary.
In some ways this uproar is a huge compliment to Apple. I don't think any other cell phone company would be getting more than a minor complaint about this.
... No analyst has a 100% track record, but it is false to say they're all wrong all the time.
You are correct, but you should also take into account the data that most financial analysts deal with is mostly of the "patently obvious" category. It's fairly easy to get a good prediction record when you are "predicting" the sun will rise in the morning.
So (IMO of course), analysts are not always wrong, but they are almost always completely irrelevant.
Also, I think the previous poster was referring to financial analysts putting their two cents in on technical issues about which they really know nothing at all.
In some ways this uproar is a huge compliment to Apple. I don't think any other cell phone company would be getting more than a minor complaint about this.
It's Apple's sterling reputation for innovation, design, excellence and customer service -- along with the tremendous success of its products -- that is responsible for 95% of this negative publicity. For any other maker, this issue would have gone largely unnoticed.
If they can PROVE beyond a shadow of a doubt that the antenna in the iPhone 4 is superior to anything else out there when the phone is held in a certain way, and is at least the equal of anything out there when the antenna is covered, that will be huge.
I think that they will demonstrate that the software fix is a complete solution.
In addition to offering a free solution, I would be shocked if Apple didn't take the opportunity to remind people how much the smartphone market would suck if not for the iPhone and how even with the sporadic antenna issues the iPhone still outperforms the market.
This plot is a familiar story for Apple:
Step 1: a market gladly swallows crappy products for years (PCs, Windows, MP3 Players, and now smartphones).
Step 2: Apple revolutionizes the market with genius and beauty that confounds and thrills everyone - men, women, children, seniors, humans, cartoons.
Step 3: the market goes into blatant hack-job copy-cat mode; Apple-haters and people with lesser talent/taste use this as an opportunity to boast that "choice" – no matter the substance – is better, and that Apple is some kind of dictator of "anti-choice".
Step 4: the market holds Apple to an even higher standard of revolutionary-ness while actually praising other companies for finally figuring out how to catch up to Apple.
Step 5: the market criticizes Apple for updating their revolutionary product too quickly – making previous purchasers feel left-behind.
Step 6: the market criticizes Apple for not updating their revolutionary product quickly enough and letting competitors catch-up.
Step 7: the market turns to disdain and mockery of Apple for temporary glitches.
Step 8: Apple responds with unprecedented customer service on top of their already glittering support.
Step 9: without the profit-margin or ingenuity to copy-cat Apple's gold-standard of customer support and marketing, the market drops prices to regain the attention of consumers just in time for the holiday rush. Quality also drops, but it gets a pass for being cheaper and coming from companies less excellent than Apple.
Step 10: Apple creates another revolutionary product in a market plagued by ugliness and low-quality.
Apple simply needs to do the right thing. If that's a recall then do it. If it isn't everyone that's having the issue then that fine. It'll be interesting what comes out tomorrow at the press event.
I think the in-store fix with an internal insulator makes most sense for Apple. Not every person will bring their phone in for the fix and a total recall would likely get more people to participate. Also, giving out bumpers seems cheap and cheesy and covers up part of the phone. Apple wants people to show off their phones and not hide them.
You are aware there is a difference between touching a radio or TV antenna and the problem here, which is bridging two different antennas that are supposed to touch.
Next time, try touching the radio antenna or a SW antenna to the TV antenna while both devices are on and see what happens.
Taking two different devices (tv, radio, sw, whatever), with two different power supplies, and touching their antennas, is very different from the problems people are describing... even if an iPhone is four magical devices wrapped into one unbelievable kool-aid-drinking price....
I've had this phone since the day before launch day (thanks, fedex!), with zero dropped calls. This phone gets the best reception of any cell I've ever had (going back to startac, through my recently deceased LGenv on verizon). I've used it in metro stations and on trains, on a plane (shhh!), in steel-reinforced concrete buildings that killed my old at&t phone's signal and hobbled the env... it just works, and it works great.
So I read about people having issues with deathgrips, and I start to wonder if maybe they're licking their palms or shoving pieces of copper into the phones. How is it that I know dozens of people with this phone and none of them can recreate the deathgrip? Is it a batch-related problem, or a problem at a single factory and we're all just very very lucky? ....or maybe, it's like the shark attacks in the US over the summer of 2001, and people just need something to fret and b____ and moan about because they're bored.
If anyone reading this has iphone4 problems... how? Where are you located? Consumer Reports used to try to do this kind of objective testing, but I'm afraid they're all busy crazy-gluing the gas pedals on priuses to the floor.
especially if it meant that current owners simply traded in their defective unit for a new one - and then the returned units got fix with the new parts or whatever - and were then sold for $50 off as refurb units. but even if it is a hardware fix - I and even if it only affects 100,000 units - i don't think that is a likely scenario.
guess I'll have to wait until tomorrow to find out which analyst's dart board was the most accurate this time before making a purchasing decision - would not be happy to find out that there is an iPhone 4 rev b hardware model shipping a couple days after I buy an iPhone 4 rev a.
in fact I am looking to get four iPhone 4s - one each for myself, my wife and my parents - but would prefer to have this issue resolved before I plunk down the $900 or so for a mixture of black and white and 32GB and 16GB units.
"SENIOR ENGINEER WARNED STEVE JOBS ON ANTENNA ISSUE!"
WE WARN THIS " SENIOR ENGINEER " FOR FALSE ACCUSATION AND MAY FILE A LAW-SUIT AGAINST HIM FOR CIRCULATING YET-to-EXIST FLAW CHARGE ON Apple Product!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
DOES HE KNOW HOW MANY i-Phone 4 ALREADY HAVE BEEN SOLD ALL OVER THE WORLD?????????????????
OVER 2 MILLION pcs. IN 5 COUNTRIES, INCLUDING MY COUNTRY, JAPAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
BUT NONE OF THE PEOPLE WHO ALREADY BOUGHT i-Phone 4 AND SO SATISFIED ENJOY USING IT AROUND ME NEVER EVER HAVE ENCOUNTED ANY PROBLEM, OF COURSE INCLUDING RIDICULOUS SUCH ANTENNA ISSUE IN THE U.S. AT ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I HAVE NEVER EVER HEARD SUCH CRAZY MESS ABOUT ANTENNA ISSUE REPORTED IN FRANCE, GB, GERMANY AND OF COURSE IN JAPAN EITHER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
LET THIS HALF-INTELLIGENT " SENIOR ENGINEER " EXPLAIN HOW COME THAT HAPPENS EXACTLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
THE SAME IS TRUE OF FAKE FELLOWS " CONSUMER REPORTS " THAT CLAIMS
" ONE FOUTH OF i-Phone 4 USERS ARE BEING AFFECTED BY ANTENNA FLAW "
WOWWWWWWWWWWWW
IS IT TRUE???????????????????
AS THEY CHEEKY FELLOWS MENTIONED
25 % OF AMERICAN USERS
25% OF JAPANESE USERS
25% OF BRITISH USERS
25% OF FRENCH USERS
25% OF GERMAN USERS
ARE " BEING AFFECTED " BY ANTENNA FLAW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
BUT THE TRUTH IS AS " ENGADGET " REPORTS INTRODUCING MANY " ORDINARY PEOPLE'S VOICE ",
"I've got a friend who works in an apple retail store, he said he honestly has not had a single person return the phone because of the antenna."
"Agreed. My wife's phone (not an iPhone...and we're on Verizon) drops bars and almost calls when she holds it on her shoulder. I'm not barking at LG about it. My LG doesn't get any signal inside the building where I work but I'm not writing LG about it. No...I'm talking to Verizon.
I don't think Apple caught this in pre-launch testing because there wasn't anything to catch. Wasn't there an article out a while back about new sim cards ATT supplied Apple with, a new style? I'm not looking to pass blame here, but I don't think the whole story is out yet. People in other countries are not having this problem and too many people in this country have a perfectly working phone to have it be a hardware issue. It's not the phone."
"If you don't like your i-phone 4, return it and be refunded the money back. You're entirely entitled to do so by Apple's Sales Regulation within 1 month since your purchase date. And If you want you're even able to put it on Ebay and sell it As-Is, let me know. I might get in on that action. Many people are eager for that! "
"I've got a friend who works in an apple retail store, he said he honestly has not had a single person return the phone because of the antenna. He said when people ask about it he has them call ATT (611) right there and makes the bars drop to nothing and the call still goes through fine. If a recall was actually needed then wouldn't there be a lot of unhappy customers actually returning the phone. All the apple stores are still sold out even though people know about the antenna so clearly it's not a big deal. Certain news organizations and websites are just jumping onto a small issue and blowing it out of proportion."
"Precisely. And the fact that returns are almost non-existent despite weeks of solid propaganda that the iPhone is a piece of crap, sort of demonstrates the whole antenna issue is a tempest in a teapot."
HEY, GUYS, THESE ARE THE ORDINARY PEOPLE'S " NORMAL RESPONSES ", AREN'T THEY????????????????????????
ENGADGET LASTLY COCLUDED,
"This ( Antenna Issue ) affect very small No. of phones
apparently totally over blown by the tech bloggers..
engadget's review unit has never dropped a call or even dropped bars, very few in their survey of testers and units own by employees report any problems at all..
the problem seems to exist in a very small number of units and in certain networks.."
WHAT MAKES ME LAUGH ABOUT SUCH " BOGUS CONSUMER REPORTS' COUNTERFEIT REPORT ", SAYING ONE FOUTH OF USERS ARE BEING AFFECTED IS
" IF i-Phone 4 HAS FUNDAMENTALLY ANTENNA FLAW, WHAT 'S THE LOGIC OF THE REMAINING 75% OF USERS ARE " NOT AFFECTED, HUHHHHHHHHHHHH???????????"
EXPLAIN IT WHY SCIENTIFICALLY, PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
" IF i-Phone 4 HAS FUNDAMENTALLY ANTENNA FLAW, WHAT 'S THE LOGIC OF THE REMAINING 75% OF USERS ARE " NOT AFFECTED, HUHHHHHHHHHHHH???????????"
so much yelling.
25% of people have reported having issues. do you know how HUGE of a number that is?
how many phones do you know of where 500,000 owners report to their provider that there's an issue with the antenna? 75% of consumers are ignorant to the issue, or too lazy to report it.
i've said it before: of the 42 people i know with an iPhone4, ALL OF THEM can replicate the "death-grip signal-loss" issue, all the way to "no service". it's going to be a great phone when it's fixed. i can't wait for that day.
OVER 2 MILLION pcs. IN 5 COUNTRIES, INCLUDING MY COUNTRY, JAPAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
BUT NONE OF THE PEOPLE WHO ALREADY BOUGHT i-Phone 4 AND SO SATISFIED ENJOY USING IT AROUND ME NEVER EVER HAVE ENCOUNTED ANY PROBLEM, OF COURSE INCLUDING RIDICULOUS SUCH ANTENNA ISSUE IN THE U.S. AT ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I HAVE NEVER EVER HEARD SUCH CRAZY MESS ABOUT ANTENNA ISSUE REPORTED IN FRANCE, GB, GERMANY AND OF COURSE IN JAPAN EITHER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Count me in,
Ordered my iPhone4 from ATT web site, got it 4 days later by mail.
My calls never drop, I don't even have to care about how many bars are displayed... ever...
(I leave in the Bay Area).
Never had to call ATT or Apple support once in 10 years...
This phone is amazing, perfect user experience every single second I use it, OS is brilliant, fast, web browsing experience is close to desktop in term of page loads latency...
Apple's scheduling of a press conference Friday to talk about the iPhone 4 could foreshadow a product recall, a free in-store modification of the device's hardware, or a handout of free bumpers, depending on who you ask.
Or they could do none of them.
Tomorrow they could parade out a dozen independent PhDs in engineering who specialize in cell phone tech, especially antennae and have all of them go on record that there is no design flaw with the iphone 4 and 95% of the other phones on the market have similar issues.
Apple might also report the 'to date' sales numbers with return rates (including bar swaps) which will be revealed to be a very small percent. THey would likely also very very strongly point out Consumer Reports 'areas of weak reception' comment. And finish it off with pointing out the lack of actual evidence by any of these sources who are just trolling for hits on their websites to make money off ads etc.
And then the last comment will be to invite anyone who is not satisfied with their iphone and its service to simply return it -- problem solved.
Quote:
Originally Posted by winst
I think Apple will offer "all of the above"
1, If you want a bumper, Apple will give you $30 credit to purchase one at Apple Store.
2, Apple will exchange the phone (with a brand new one) if you think you have a defective unit.
3, If you are not satisfied with the phone, you can return it with a full refund.
1 is unlikely because the bumper isn't a cure all. Not everyone is having issues the bumper would actually fix. Why? Cause their ATT is shit. Until ATT ponies up they will have problems
2 and 3 are pretty much standard policy for everything. And has been for a while
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dr Millmoss
The only new option would be #1, so I think they clearly need to do more to restore trust.
All they need is to educate folks. Which is likely what they are going to do. They are doing it as a press conference because it was 'the press' (okay more like the blogs) that created this problem by jumping on the hit fodder train and snowballing a few reports with no actual details of what was going on into this huge "The iphone 4 is crap and Apple knew it and tried to con us" nonsense
Quote:
Originally Posted by SixPenceRicher
In addition (or in place) of the exchange (#2), they may offer an in-store replacement of the antenna assembly with one that has a non-conductive coating, though I doubt that this would be a "drop in and leave again in 10 minutes" kind of operation.
IF some kind of coating is the answer, it will be a 10 minute fix. They will swap the phones. that's what they always do for hardware issues other than cracked screen replacement. Anything else takes too long and is too risky for the zit squad to do
Comments
Anyone who thinks there will be an all-out recall is smoking something that I want. The fact is that a minority of people are experiencing antenna problems. Those who do are being vocal.
It'll be something like:
I think you may be right bar the last point - Is that just your wishful thinking?
By offering an exchange they will shut everybody up. The huge costs associated with a recall will be minimized as only a hand-full of people will actually bother to have their phone replaced.
I think Apple will offer "all of the above"
1, If you want a bumper, Apple will give you $30 credit to purchase one at Apple Store.
2, Apple will exchange the phone (with a brand new one) if you think you have a defective unit.
3, If you are not satisfied with the phone, you can return it with a full refund.
In addition (or in place) of the exchange (#2), they may offer an in-store replacement of the antenna assembly with one that has a non-conductive coating, though I doubt that this would be a "drop in and leave again in 10 minutes" kind of operation.
I've been checking the Apple store every day.......3 weeks has been the norm.
There are Hidden Agendas from every analyst. Be wary.
i'm wondering now if i should sell my shares today and repurchase at a point after the announcement...
whatever they do it's bound to affect the bottom line on a short-term basis.
I don't expect a recall.
... No analyst has a 100% track record, but it is false to say they're all wrong all the time.
You are correct, but you should also take into account the data that most financial analysts deal with is mostly of the "patently obvious" category. It's fairly easy to get a good prediction record when you are "predicting" the sun will rise in the morning.
So (IMO of course), analysts are not always wrong, but they are almost always completely irrelevant.
Also, I think the previous poster was referring to financial analysts putting their two cents in on technical issues about which they really know nothing at all.
In some ways this uproar is a huge compliment to Apple. I don't think any other cell phone company would be getting more than a minor complaint about this.
It's Apple's sterling reputation for innovation, design, excellence and customer service -- along with the tremendous success of its products -- that is responsible for 95% of this negative publicity. For any other maker, this issue would have gone largely unnoticed.
If they can PROVE beyond a shadow of a doubt that the antenna in the iPhone 4 is superior to anything else out there when the phone is held in a certain way, and is at least the equal of anything out there when the antenna is covered, that will be huge.
I think that they will demonstrate that the software fix is a complete solution.
This plot is a familiar story for Apple:
Step 1: a market gladly swallows crappy products for years (PCs, Windows, MP3 Players, and now smartphones).
Step 2: Apple revolutionizes the market with genius and beauty that confounds and thrills everyone - men, women, children, seniors, humans, cartoons.
Step 3: the market goes into blatant hack-job copy-cat mode; Apple-haters and people with lesser talent/taste use this as an opportunity to boast that "choice" – no matter the substance – is better, and that Apple is some kind of dictator of "anti-choice".
Step 4: the market holds Apple to an even higher standard of revolutionary-ness while actually praising other companies for finally figuring out how to catch up to Apple.
Step 5: the market criticizes Apple for updating their revolutionary product too quickly – making previous purchasers feel left-behind.
Step 6: the market criticizes Apple for not updating their revolutionary product quickly enough and letting competitors catch-up.
Step 7: the market turns to disdain and mockery of Apple for temporary glitches.
Step 8: Apple responds with unprecedented customer service on top of their already glittering support.
Step 9: without the profit-margin or ingenuity to copy-cat Apple's gold-standard of customer support and marketing, the market drops prices to regain the attention of consumers just in time for the holiday rush. Quality also drops, but it gets a pass for being cheaper and coming from companies less excellent than Apple.
Step 10: Apple creates another revolutionary product in a market plagued by ugliness and low-quality.
i'm wondering now if i should sell my shares today and repurchase at a point after the announcement...
Sell on the rumor and buy on the news? That's an original strategy!
You are aware there is a difference between touching a radio or TV antenna and the problem here, which is bridging two different antennas that are supposed to touch.
Next time, try touching the radio antenna or a SW antenna to the TV antenna while both devices are on and see what happens.
Taking two different devices (tv, radio, sw, whatever), with two different power supplies, and touching their antennas, is very different from the problems people are describing... even if an iPhone is four magical devices wrapped into one unbelievable kool-aid-drinking price....
I've had this phone since the day before launch day (thanks, fedex!), with zero dropped calls. This phone gets the best reception of any cell I've ever had (going back to startac, through my recently deceased LGenv on verizon). I've used it in metro stations and on trains, on a plane (shhh!), in steel-reinforced concrete buildings that killed my old at&t phone's signal and hobbled the env... it just works, and it works great.
So I read about people having issues with deathgrips, and I start to wonder if maybe they're licking their palms or shoving pieces of copper into the phones. How is it that I know dozens of people with this phone and none of them can recreate the deathgrip? Is it a batch-related problem, or a problem at a single factory and we're all just very very lucky? ....or maybe, it's like the shark attacks in the US over the summer of 2001, and people just need something to fret and b____ and moan about because they're bored.
If anyone reading this has iphone4 problems... how? Where are you located? Consumer Reports used to try to do this kind of objective testing, but I'm afraid they're all busy crazy-gluing the gas pedals on priuses to the floor.
guess I'll have to wait until tomorrow to find out which analyst's dart board was the most accurate this time before making a purchasing decision - would not be happy to find out that there is an iPhone 4 rev b hardware model shipping a couple days after I buy an iPhone 4 rev a.
in fact I am looking to get four iPhone 4s - one each for myself, my wife and my parents - but would prefer to have this issue resolved before I plunk down the $900 or so for a mixture of black and white and 32GB and 16GB units.
"SENIOR ENGINEER WARNED STEVE JOBS ON ANTENNA ISSUE!"
WE WARN THIS " SENIOR ENGINEER " FOR FALSE ACCUSATION AND MAY FILE A LAW-SUIT AGAINST HIM FOR CIRCULATING YET-to-EXIST FLAW CHARGE ON Apple Product!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
DOES HE KNOW HOW MANY i-Phone 4 ALREADY HAVE BEEN SOLD ALL OVER THE WORLD?????????????????
OVER 2 MILLION pcs. IN 5 COUNTRIES, INCLUDING MY COUNTRY, JAPAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
BUT NONE OF THE PEOPLE WHO ALREADY BOUGHT i-Phone 4 AND SO SATISFIED ENJOY USING IT AROUND ME NEVER EVER HAVE ENCOUNTED ANY PROBLEM, OF COURSE INCLUDING RIDICULOUS SUCH ANTENNA ISSUE IN THE U.S. AT ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I HAVE NEVER EVER HEARD SUCH CRAZY MESS ABOUT ANTENNA ISSUE REPORTED IN FRANCE, GB, GERMANY AND OF COURSE IN JAPAN EITHER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
LET THIS HALF-INTELLIGENT " SENIOR ENGINEER " EXPLAIN HOW COME THAT HAPPENS EXACTLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
THE SAME IS TRUE OF FAKE FELLOWS " CONSUMER REPORTS " THAT CLAIMS
" ONE FOUTH OF i-Phone 4 USERS ARE BEING AFFECTED BY ANTENNA FLAW "
WOWWWWWWWWWWWW
IS IT TRUE???????????????????
AS THEY CHEEKY FELLOWS MENTIONED
25 % OF AMERICAN USERS
25% OF JAPANESE USERS
25% OF BRITISH USERS
25% OF FRENCH USERS
25% OF GERMAN USERS
ARE " BEING AFFECTED " BY ANTENNA FLAW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
BUT THE TRUTH IS AS " ENGADGET " REPORTS INTRODUCING MANY " ORDINARY PEOPLE'S VOICE ",
"I've got a friend who works in an apple retail store, he said he honestly has not had a single person return the phone because of the antenna."
"Agreed. My wife's phone (not an iPhone...and we're on Verizon) drops bars and almost calls when she holds it on her shoulder. I'm not barking at LG about it. My LG doesn't get any signal inside the building where I work but I'm not writing LG about it. No...I'm talking to Verizon.
I don't think Apple caught this in pre-launch testing because there wasn't anything to catch. Wasn't there an article out a while back about new sim cards ATT supplied Apple with, a new style? I'm not looking to pass blame here, but I don't think the whole story is out yet. People in other countries are not having this problem and too many people in this country have a perfectly working phone to have it be a hardware issue. It's not the phone."
"If you don't like your i-phone 4, return it and be refunded the money back. You're entirely entitled to do so by Apple's Sales Regulation within 1 month since your purchase date. And If you want you're even able to put it on Ebay and sell it As-Is, let me know. I might get in on that action. Many people are eager for that! "
"I've got a friend who works in an apple retail store, he said he honestly has not had a single person return the phone because of the antenna. He said when people ask about it he has them call ATT (611) right there and makes the bars drop to nothing and the call still goes through fine. If a recall was actually needed then wouldn't there be a lot of unhappy customers actually returning the phone. All the apple stores are still sold out even though people know about the antenna so clearly it's not a big deal. Certain news organizations and websites are just jumping onto a small issue and blowing it out of proportion."
"Precisely. And the fact that returns are almost non-existent despite weeks of solid propaganda that the iPhone is a piece of crap, sort of demonstrates the whole antenna issue is a tempest in a teapot."
HEY, GUYS, THESE ARE THE ORDINARY PEOPLE'S " NORMAL RESPONSES ", AREN'T THEY????????????????????????
ENGADGET LASTLY COCLUDED,
"This ( Antenna Issue ) affect very small No. of phones
apparently totally over blown by the tech bloggers..
engadget's review unit has never dropped a call or even dropped bars, very few in their survey of testers and units own by employees report any problems at all..
the problem seems to exist in a very small number of units and in certain networks.."
WHAT MAKES ME LAUGH ABOUT SUCH " BOGUS CONSUMER REPORTS' COUNTERFEIT REPORT ", SAYING ONE FOUTH OF USERS ARE BEING AFFECTED IS
" IF i-Phone 4 HAS FUNDAMENTALLY ANTENNA FLAW, WHAT 'S THE LOGIC OF THE REMAINING 75% OF USERS ARE " NOT AFFECTED, HUHHHHHHHHHHHH???????????"
EXPLAIN IT WHY SCIENTIFICALLY, PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
" IF i-Phone 4 HAS FUNDAMENTALLY ANTENNA FLAW, WHAT 'S THE LOGIC OF THE REMAINING 75% OF USERS ARE " NOT AFFECTED, HUHHHHHHHHHHHH???????????"
so much yelling.
25% of people have reported having issues. do you know how HUGE of a number that is?
how many phones do you know of where 500,000 owners report to their provider that there's an issue with the antenna? 75% of consumers are ignorant to the issue, or too lazy to report it.
i've said it before: of the 42 people i know with an iPhone4, ALL OF THEM can replicate the "death-grip signal-loss" issue, all the way to "no service". it's going to be a great phone when it's fixed. i can't wait for that day.
SOME ARTICLE SAYS,
OVER 2 MILLION pcs. IN 5 COUNTRIES, INCLUDING MY COUNTRY, JAPAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
BUT NONE OF THE PEOPLE WHO ALREADY BOUGHT i-Phone 4 AND SO SATISFIED ENJOY USING IT AROUND ME NEVER EVER HAVE ENCOUNTED ANY PROBLEM, OF COURSE INCLUDING RIDICULOUS SUCH ANTENNA ISSUE IN THE U.S. AT ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I HAVE NEVER EVER HEARD SUCH CRAZY MESS ABOUT ANTENNA ISSUE REPORTED IN FRANCE, GB, GERMANY AND OF COURSE IN JAPAN EITHER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Count me in,
Ordered my iPhone4 from ATT web site, got it 4 days later by mail.
My calls never drop, I don't even have to care about how many bars are displayed... ever...
(I leave in the Bay Area).
Never had to call ATT or Apple support once in 10 years...
This phone is amazing, perfect user experience every single second I use it, OS is brilliant, fast, web browsing experience is close to desktop in term of page loads latency...
Love it !
Best thing I ever bought.
Much more likely they will do an in-store fix for those having reception problems.
Apple's scheduling of a press conference Friday to talk about the iPhone 4 could foreshadow a product recall, a free in-store modification of the device's hardware, or a handout of free bumpers, depending on who you ask.
Or they could do none of them.
Tomorrow they could parade out a dozen independent PhDs in engineering who specialize in cell phone tech, especially antennae and have all of them go on record that there is no design flaw with the iphone 4 and 95% of the other phones on the market have similar issues.
Apple might also report the 'to date' sales numbers with return rates (including bar swaps) which will be revealed to be a very small percent. THey would likely also very very strongly point out Consumer Reports 'areas of weak reception' comment. And finish it off with pointing out the lack of actual evidence by any of these sources who are just trolling for hits on their websites to make money off ads etc.
And then the last comment will be to invite anyone who is not satisfied with their iphone and its service to simply return it -- problem solved.
I think Apple will offer "all of the above"
1, If you want a bumper, Apple will give you $30 credit to purchase one at Apple Store.
2, Apple will exchange the phone (with a brand new one) if you think you have a defective unit.
3, If you are not satisfied with the phone, you can return it with a full refund.
1 is unlikely because the bumper isn't a cure all. Not everyone is having issues the bumper would actually fix. Why? Cause their ATT is shit. Until ATT ponies up they will have problems
2 and 3 are pretty much standard policy for everything. And has been for a while
The only new option would be #1, so I think they clearly need to do more to restore trust.
All they need is to educate folks. Which is likely what they are going to do. They are doing it as a press conference because it was 'the press' (okay more like the blogs) that created this problem by jumping on the hit fodder train and snowballing a few reports with no actual details of what was going on into this huge "The iphone 4 is crap and Apple knew it and tried to con us" nonsense
In addition (or in place) of the exchange (#2), they may offer an in-store replacement of the antenna assembly with one that has a non-conductive coating, though I doubt that this would be a "drop in and leave again in 10 minutes" kind of operation.
IF some kind of coating is the answer, it will be a 10 minute fix. They will swap the phones. that's what they always do for hardware issues other than cracked screen replacement. Anything else takes too long and is too risky for the zit squad to do