Wow. I knew it was hi-rez, but I wasn't really prepared for just how good it looked. I had thought that Apple made a mistake in not increasing the screen size, but compared to many other larger, but lower rez screens, the iP4 screen is truly impressive.
Did you compare it with anything side by side?
Held it next to my 3G and surfed to the same web page.
It's extraordinary all the attention given to this bogus antenna problem, while 3G iPhone owners who upgraded to iOS4 have been hung out to dry by Apple with nary a peep from the press or Apple.
It's worth noting that the difference in dropped calls is not statistically significant. Assuming that the previous survey of iPhone 3Gs owners is of the same size (213 responders), my calculations give me a p-value of about 0.3, nowhere near the usual 0.05 required to conclude that there is a real difference.
The number of Very Satisfied customers, however, is significantly lower for the iPhone 4 (p < 0.01).
Well, antenna-gate was a bit of a damp squib, eh! Was it really an iPhone 4 problem or more of an AT&T problem? I wonder what the anti-Apple forces will dream up now to stem the inevitable march of Apple and its iOS devices all over the 'pretenders' and followers who they champion?
Perhaps you guys ought to start piling pressure on Google, Nokia, RIM, Microsoft etc, to get their short-sighted and fragmented product development strategies sorted out before Apple shakes off it's AT&T chains. Otherwise you will have no option but to buy 'horrible' Apple products because they will be the only ones left in the market.
It's a small sample, but in the last five days, I've run across three different friends who have seen one at the local Apple store or Internationaly and the conversation always goes like this:
"(Optional OMG here), ... you *have* to get one of those, the screen it's just ... " (and here they are literally at a loss for words).
I dunno, maybe my vision is failing me but I can't see that big of a difference. The screen seems brighter to me, and a bit sharper but not to the point where I would be able to say that text is way more clear on iPhone4 then 3GS.
I would say it's more like going from 320p to 480p, then from 720p to 1080p. (metaphorical comparison rather then estimation of actual picture quality)
It also highlights how much a part of the business landscape astroturfing has become, how bloggers who don't know what they are talking about have somehow gained credibility simply by making lots of posts with pictures and videos, how uncritical the tech media are in their thinking, and how some people live not to add something to the world, but to destroy what others create.
And a more apt description of Daniel Eran Dilger I could not hope to express. Congratulations anonymouse. You have distilled everything I have attempted to portray about his actions even better than I.
The source of the survey was disclosed: ChangeWave Research. (See changewave.com.) This group funds and performs surveys like this in order to characterize the dynamics of technology in the market place. They perform surveys, analyze the results, make some predictions and editorialize a bit, then they sell their results and conclusions to their subscribers. Since they are making money from their subscribers, they are not beholden to the companies they cover, and their work is fairly unbiased and independent. They live and die from their ability to predict, or at least characterize, trends. So they need to get it right.
Thompson
I believe you misinterpreted his question. He was asking whocommissioned the research, not who undertook it.
It may be that ChangeWave undertook it and commissioned it on their own behalf, but at present we don't know for sure. So if, for example, Apple commissioned it, then we might all draw a different conclusion than if ChangeWave independently commissioned it.
Although Neilsen conducts research on its own instigation, it also undertakes much more research on behalf of third parties as that's where most of its income derives from.
I saw an iPhone 4 in the flesh for the first time yesterday, and if I hadn't known the screen was higher resolution, I wouldn't have noticed it (and my vision is 20/20).
Yeah, mine was kind of the same reaction. I held it next to my 3GS and thought to myself, "Well I think I see a difference. I guess I was trying to talk myself into seeing a difference. To be honest, I never looked at photos side by side, maybe you can see a difference there. I was mostly looking at the home page icons and a web site.
I still plan to get a iPhone 4 in the future (in a few months), but I'm genuinely happy with my 3GS with iOS 4 for now.
Well if you are the statistics guru, what is the best sample size for a 95% CI of a population of around 2,000,000? (assuming 2/3 of the iPhone4 were US sold)
Depends. If you knew anything about statistics, you'd know that.
If the effect you're looking for is large, you need a smaller sample size. If the effect you're looking for is small, you need a larger sample size. If you don't know how big the effect is, then you pick a sample size, but you may not be able to demonstrate the effect if it's too small for your sample size.
Quote:
Originally Posted by BUSHMAN4
213 People is hardly any number of people to base a survey on. My questions are:
1. Why would anyone do a survey of 213 people what kind of cross sampling is that???
2. Why would Apple Insider even bother to post that as news
Why do people insist on babbling about things they don't understand?
There's nothing wrong with the sample size. It's very common to do surveys with small samples. If a result is clear cut enough, the effect may be statistically verifiable even with a small sample size. If it isn't observed, you can always choose a larger sample later.
I haven't seen the raw data, so I don't know if this result is valid or not, but throwing it out simply because the sample is small is not very smart, either.
There is, of course, the fact that it's a self-selecting group (restricted to people who just spent a lot of money on a new phone, for starters. Most people are less likely to criticize something they just spent money on), so it's probably not valid regardless of the sample size.
Depends. If you knew anything about statistics, you'd know that.
I do, but I wasn't the one criticizing everyone that questioned the sample size without providing a reason why.
But since there isn't any information provided regarding the sample, you can assume they have choosen a sample size to get a result they wanted to get.
I'm a diehard fan and in my opinion i think the proximity sensor is the real culprit. I've become so annoyed and have started to become neurotic everytime I go to make or recieve a phone call, I'm always so worried my ear or check will hang up the call, or mute the call if I just hold the phone like normal, like i have with all previous iphones since day 1. It's become such a problem i rarely hold the phone to my ear and if i do i have to hold it at a 45 degree angle just barely touching my head so i can hear the speaker. if for one second i forget about the "problem" and hold phone regularly, it hangs up, 100% of the time, every call i am on is dropped if i hold it that way, the "normal" way. no calls are dropped if i use speaker phone or hold it off my entire body and some neurotic angle. It's made calls no fun, and always a hassle, and i never had this problem with original, 3g or 3gs, and i've been through lots of phones, in fact i even had them replace my new iphone 4, to see if because i was one who got the phone on day 1, maybe they improved this problem with a new batch of phones, and STILL the problem persists and 100% of calls are ended when i hold the phone the normal way, because my face or ear activates the screen. THE PROXIMITY SENSOR is not functioning correctly. I hope this will be resolved this week as i miss my old iphone 3gs, and would rather have one that works. this is no fun, and the worse part is i have 3 friends that all got the new iphone 4 as well and THEY ALL HAVE THE EXACT SAME PROBLEM, they just use their phones on speakerphone mode, or bluetooth car mode, or earbud mode to avoid this flippin problem. What is taking apple so long to update this problem. I think the dropped call thing was really this issue confused as people dont realise the problem isnt the antenna, but the screen/proximity sensor. That's the primary reason APPLE, and other companys can release numbers that say iphone 4 has fewer "dropped calls" that iPhone 3Gs, it's because they do, they do have fewer dropped calls, BUT THEY A DROPPED CALL IS DIFFERENT THAT AN ended call, a USER ENDED CALL, that's just like hanging up your phone and therefore is not considered a DROPPED CALL.
I'm a diehard fan and in my opinion i think the proximity sensor is the real culprit. I've become so annoyed and have started to become neurotic everytime I go to make or recieve a phone call, I'm always so worried my ear or cheek will hang up the call, or mute the call if I just hold the phone like normal, like i have with all previous iphones since day 1. It's become such a problem i rarely hold the phone to my ear and if i do i have to hold it at a 45 degree angle just barely touching my head so i can hear the speaker. if for one second i forget about the "problem" and hold phone regularly, it hangs up, 100% of the time, every call i am on is "hung-up" if i hold it that way, the "normal" way. no calls are hung-up or dropped if i use speaker phone or hold it off my entire body and some neurotic angle. It's made calls no fun, and always a hassle, and i never had this problem with original, 3g or 3gs, and i've been through lots of phones, in fact i even had them replace my new iphone 4, to see if because i was one who got the phone on day 1, maybe they improved the issue with a new batch of phones, and STILL the problem persists and 100% of calls are ended when i hold the phone the normal way, because my face or ear activates the screen. THE PROXIMITY SENSOR or it's corresponding SOFTWARE is not functioning correctly. I hope this will be resolved this week as i miss my old iphone 3gs, and would rather have one that works. this is no fun, and the worse part is i have 3 friends that all got the new iphone 4 as well and THEY ALL HAVE THE EXACT SAME PROBLEM, they just use their phones on speakerphone mode, or bluetooth car mode, or earbud mode to avoid this f*****g problem. What is taking apple so long to update this problem? I think the "dropped call" issue was really this issue confused as people dont realise the problem isn't the antenna, but the screen/proximity sensor. That's the primary reason APPLE, and other companys can release numbers like the charts in this post, that say iphone 4 has fewer "dropped calls" that iPhone 3Gs, it's because they do have fewer "dropped calls" BUT a user ended call, like the ones initiated with this proximity problem, do not count as a dropped call. that's just like hanging up your phone and therefore is not considered a DROPPED CALL. UGGGGG how many of you agree>
A new survey of iPhone 4 users has found that owners of Apple's latest handset have experienced fewer dropped calls than those who own an iPhone 3GS, suggesting the real-world impact of the iPhone 4 antenna issue is a non-factor.
ChangeWave Research on Wednesday released the results of a new survey conducted between July 19 and 28 of new iPhone 4 owners. The company waited until a few weeks after the handset launched to allow the impact of the device's antenna controversy to set in.
The survey of 213 new iPhone 4 owners found that users claimed to experience fewer dropped calls than those who own an iPhone 3GS. A June 2010 survey of iPhone 3GS owners found that 6.3 percent had experienced dropped calls. But in July, just 5.2 percent of iPhone 4 owners said they had dropped a call.
"Despite all of the issues surrounding the antenna, in actuality iPhone 4 owners reported experiencing fewer dropped calls on the average than iPhone 3GS owners," said Paul Carton, vice president of research with ChangeWave.
Those numbers are actually different from the data that Apple reported last month at its iPhone 4 press conference. There, Chief Executive Steve Jobs revealed that the iPhone 4 drops slightly more call, at a rate less than one call per 100 greater. Jobs said he believes this is because there were not many cases that fit the new form factor of the iPhone 4 available when the handset launched in June.
Respondents were also very satisfied with Apple's response to the antenna controversy, in which the company will give away free cases to all customers through Sept. 30. Users can select an Apple branded "Bumper" case, or a number of other third-party options.
The survey found that 35 percent of iPhone 4 owners were "very satisfied" with Apple's response, while 38 percent were "somewhat satisfied." Another 18 percent fell into some degree of "unsatisfied."
Significant media coverage of "antennagate," however, did have an impact on consumer perception of the iPhone 4, the survey found. Despite the fact that iPhone 4 owners experienced fewer dropped calls, the satisfaction rate for Apple's latest smartphone is slightly less than it was with the iPhone 3GS.
"The iPhone 4 comes close, but isn't quite at that level from what we saw a year ago," Carton said.
He said it's not that surprising, given that the reception issues gained a great deal of attention from the mainstream media. In fact, he said he views it as an accomplishment that the satisfaction ratings stayed high for the iPhone 4 in spite of the bad publicity.
In all, 13 percent of respondents said they were disappointed with their iPhone 4. With iPhone 3GS owners, that number was just 6 percent.
Those surveyed liked the high-resolution Retina Display of the iPhone 4 best, with 49 percent of respondents choosing it as one of three things they liked best. In second was the 5 megapixel camera with LED flash, taking 31 percent, followed in third by the touchscreen interface with 30 percent.
Multitasking came in fifth with 22 percent, and FaceTime video conferencing took ninth with 15 percent. Carton noted that the survey did not include teenagers, and he believes FaceTime may have performed better if a younger group were surveyed.
As for the most disliked features, tops was the restriction to AT&T's network. And second was the coverage, speed and quality of AT&T's 3G network. Together, close to half of all users had a problem with AT&T in some capacity. That's the same complaint users have had for years with Apple's handset.
The notorious "antennagate" controversy played a part in this category as well, with antenna issues coming in third as the most disliked feature of iPhone 4. A total of 24 percent said the antenna issues were something they disliked -- something, Carton said, that was to be expected.
"It would have been astonishing to us to ask about dislikes and not have the antenna issue or have the dropped call issue appear in the grouping," he said.
I too have the iPhone 4 and I wish I could say I don't have a significant number of dropped calls... I drive a set route every day from my apartment to work, work to fiancee's house and fiancee's house to my apartment ... occasionally I go straight from work back to my apartment... With the iPhone 3GS there were at TOTAL of 2-3 spots where I might lose a call... I can break this down to number of drop spots before and after... they were solid like clockwork...
......from my apartment to work.........................1 .........................6
......work to fiancee's house ..............................1 .........................5
......fiancee's house to my apartment.................0 .........................2
......work to my apartment..................................1 .........................5
As you can see I now have a whole host of drop spots... Ironcially, there is one less drop spot on my way from work to my apartment vs. my apartment to work... AND even more curious, they are not in the same spot... They drop spots are not on both sides of the same highway... my ride to work is mostly on the highway here in CT...
I also notice a lot more area's where I have 0 or 1 bar of signal vs. the 3 & 4 bars of signal I used to have, seemingly, everywhere... but I chalk that up to the idea that the iPhone used a different calculation for signal strength that has been changed...
I also notice that with the new screen, my cheek hits buttons on the touchscreen often times activating either the facetime or mute buttons (in that order). Thinking back on the issue, I never had a problem before so I am assuming that THIS is the proximity sensor issue at play... the screen doesn't shut off as it used to do...
I LOVE the iPhone franchise... so I am not saying I am going to bail for something else; I believe the iPhone is still far superior to anything else...
David
PS Sorry for the cheesy 'home-made' table above...
Comments
Wow. I knew it was hi-rez, but I wasn't really prepared for just how good it looked. I had thought that Apple made a mistake in not increasing the screen size, but compared to many other larger, but lower rez screens, the iP4 screen is truly impressive.
Did you compare it with anything side by side?
Held it next to my 3G and surfed to the same web page.
The number of Very Satisfied customers, however, is significantly lower for the iPhone 4 (p < 0.01).
Perhaps you guys ought to start piling pressure on Google, Nokia, RIM, Microsoft etc, to get their short-sighted and fragmented product development strategies sorted out before Apple shakes off it's AT&T chains. Otherwise you will have no option but to buy 'horrible' Apple products because they will be the only ones left in the market.
1. Why would anyone do a survey of 213 people what kind of cross sampling is that???
2. Why would Apple Insider even bother to post that as news
It's a small sample, but in the last five days, I've run across three different friends who have seen one at the local Apple store or Internationaly and the conversation always goes like this:
"(Optional OMG here), ... you *have* to get one of those, the screen it's just ... " (and here they are literally at a loss for words).
I dunno, maybe my vision is failing me but I can't see that big of a difference. The screen seems brighter to me, and a bit sharper but not to the point where I would be able to say that text is way more clear on iPhone4 then 3GS.
I would say it's more like going from 320p to 480p, then from 720p to 1080p. (metaphorical comparison rather then estimation of actual picture quality)
Infact when I hold my iPhone 4 with the soo called death grip I see an increase in the number of bars...
In some countries that's known as alcoholism.
Just kidding. "Bars", geddit? "Bars"?
No?
Hmmm... tough forum...
It also highlights how much a part of the business landscape astroturfing has become, how bloggers who don't know what they are talking about have somehow gained credibility simply by making lots of posts with pictures and videos, how uncritical the tech media are in their thinking, and how some people live not to add something to the world, but to destroy what others create.
And a more apt description of Daniel Eran Dilger I could not hope to express. Congratulations anonymouse. You have distilled everything I have attempted to portray about his actions even better than I.
Well done.
Didn't you read the story?
The source of the survey was disclosed: ChangeWave Research. (See changewave.com.) This group funds and performs surveys like this in order to characterize the dynamics of technology in the market place. They perform surveys, analyze the results, make some predictions and editorialize a bit, then they sell their results and conclusions to their subscribers. Since they are making money from their subscribers, they are not beholden to the companies they cover, and their work is fairly unbiased and independent. They live and die from their ability to predict, or at least characterize, trends. So they need to get it right.
Thompson
I believe you misinterpreted his question. He was asking who commissioned the research, not who undertook it.
It may be that ChangeWave undertook it and commissioned it on their own behalf, but at present we don't know for sure. So if, for example, Apple commissioned it, then we might all draw a different conclusion than if ChangeWave independently commissioned it.
Although Neilsen conducts research on its own instigation, it also undertakes much more research on behalf of third parties as that's where most of its income derives from.
I hope that clears the issue up?
Personally, I'd hold more store in the significance of thousands of call records logged by a telecoms provider... but that's just me.
You crazy rational beast you!
I saw an iPhone 4 in the flesh for the first time yesterday, and if I hadn't known the screen was higher resolution, I wouldn't have noticed it (and my vision is 20/20).
Yeah, mine was kind of the same reaction. I held it next to my 3GS and thought to myself, "Well I think I see a difference. I guess I was trying to talk myself into seeing a difference. To be honest, I never looked at photos side by side, maybe you can see a difference there. I was mostly looking at the home page icons and a web site.
I still plan to get a iPhone 4 in the future (in a few months), but I'm genuinely happy with my 3GS with iOS 4 for now.
Well if you are the statistics guru, what is the best sample size for a 95% CI of a population of around 2,000,000? (assuming 2/3 of the iPhone4 were US sold)
Depends. If you knew anything about statistics, you'd know that.
If the effect you're looking for is large, you need a smaller sample size. If the effect you're looking for is small, you need a larger sample size. If you don't know how big the effect is, then you pick a sample size, but you may not be able to demonstrate the effect if it's too small for your sample size.
213 People is hardly any number of people to base a survey on. My questions are:
1. Why would anyone do a survey of 213 people what kind of cross sampling is that???
2. Why would Apple Insider even bother to post that as news
Why do people insist on babbling about things they don't understand?
There's nothing wrong with the sample size. It's very common to do surveys with small samples. If a result is clear cut enough, the effect may be statistically verifiable even with a small sample size. If it isn't observed, you can always choose a larger sample later.
I haven't seen the raw data, so I don't know if this result is valid or not, but throwing it out simply because the sample is small is not very smart, either.
There is, of course, the fact that it's a self-selecting group (restricted to people who just spent a lot of money on a new phone, for starters. Most people are less likely to criticize something they just spent money on), so it's probably not valid regardless of the sample size.
Depends. If you knew anything about statistics, you'd know that.
I do, but I wasn't the one criticizing everyone that questioned the sample size without providing a reason why.
But since there isn't any information provided regarding the sample, you can assume they have choosen a sample size to get a result they wanted to get.
A new survey of iPhone 4 users has found that owners of Apple's latest handset have experienced fewer dropped calls than those who own an iPhone 3GS, suggesting the real-world impact of the iPhone 4 antenna issue is a non-factor.
ChangeWave Research on Wednesday released the results of a new survey conducted between July 19 and 28 of new iPhone 4 owners. The company waited until a few weeks after the handset launched to allow the impact of the device's antenna controversy to set in.
The survey of 213 new iPhone 4 owners found that users claimed to experience fewer dropped calls than those who own an iPhone 3GS. A June 2010 survey of iPhone 3GS owners found that 6.3 percent had experienced dropped calls. But in July, just 5.2 percent of iPhone 4 owners said they had dropped a call.
"Despite all of the issues surrounding the antenna, in actuality iPhone 4 owners reported experiencing fewer dropped calls on the average than iPhone 3GS owners," said Paul Carton, vice president of research with ChangeWave.
Those numbers are actually different from the data that Apple reported last month at its iPhone 4 press conference. There, Chief Executive Steve Jobs revealed that the iPhone 4 drops slightly more call, at a rate less than one call per 100 greater. Jobs said he believes this is because there were not many cases that fit the new form factor of the iPhone 4 available when the handset launched in June.
Respondents were also very satisfied with Apple's response to the antenna controversy, in which the company will give away free cases to all customers through Sept. 30. Users can select an Apple branded "Bumper" case, or a number of other third-party options.
The survey found that 35 percent of iPhone 4 owners were "very satisfied" with Apple's response, while 38 percent were "somewhat satisfied." Another 18 percent fell into some degree of "unsatisfied."
Significant media coverage of "antennagate," however, did have an impact on consumer perception of the iPhone 4, the survey found. Despite the fact that iPhone 4 owners experienced fewer dropped calls, the satisfaction rate for Apple's latest smartphone is slightly less than it was with the iPhone 3GS.
"The iPhone 4 comes close, but isn't quite at that level from what we saw a year ago," Carton said.
He said it's not that surprising, given that the reception issues gained a great deal of attention from the mainstream media. In fact, he said he views it as an accomplishment that the satisfaction ratings stayed high for the iPhone 4 in spite of the bad publicity.
In all, 13 percent of respondents said they were disappointed with their iPhone 4. With iPhone 3GS owners, that number was just 6 percent.
Those surveyed liked the high-resolution Retina Display of the iPhone 4 best, with 49 percent of respondents choosing it as one of three things they liked best. In second was the 5 megapixel camera with LED flash, taking 31 percent, followed in third by the touchscreen interface with 30 percent.
Multitasking came in fifth with 22 percent, and FaceTime video conferencing took ninth with 15 percent. Carton noted that the survey did not include teenagers, and he believes FaceTime may have performed better if a younger group were surveyed.
As for the most disliked features, tops was the restriction to AT&T's network. And second was the coverage, speed and quality of AT&T's 3G network. Together, close to half of all users had a problem with AT&T in some capacity. That's the same complaint users have had for years with Apple's handset.
The notorious "antennagate" controversy played a part in this category as well, with antenna issues coming in third as the most disliked feature of iPhone 4. A total of 24 percent said the antenna issues were something they disliked -- something, Carton said, that was to be expected.
"It would have been astonishing to us to ask about dislikes and not have the antenna issue or have the dropped call issue appear in the grouping," he said.
[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]
I too have the iPhone 4 and I wish I could say I don't have a significant number of dropped calls... I drive a set route every day from my apartment to work, work to fiancee's house and fiancee's house to my apartment ... occasionally I go straight from work back to my apartment... With the iPhone 3GS there were at TOTAL of 2-3 spots where I might lose a call... I can break this down to number of drop spots before and after... they were solid like clockwork...
.................................................. ..............................Drop spots
.................................................. ...................iPhone 3GS...........iPhone 4
......from my apartment to work.........................1 .........................6
......work to fiancee's house ..............................1 .........................5
......fiancee's house to my apartment.................0 .........................2
......work to my apartment..................................1 .........................5
As you can see I now have a whole host of drop spots... Ironcially, there is one less drop spot on my way from work to my apartment vs. my apartment to work... AND even more curious, they are not in the same spot... They drop spots are not on both sides of the same highway... my ride to work is mostly on the highway here in CT...
I also notice a lot more area's where I have 0 or 1 bar of signal vs. the 3 & 4 bars of signal I used to have, seemingly, everywhere... but I chalk that up to the idea that the iPhone used a different calculation for signal strength that has been changed...
I also notice that with the new screen, my cheek hits buttons on the touchscreen often times activating either the facetime or mute buttons (in that order). Thinking back on the issue, I never had a problem before so I am assuming that THIS is the proximity sensor issue at play... the screen doesn't shut off as it used to do...
I LOVE the iPhone franchise... so I am not saying I am going to bail for something else; I believe the iPhone is still far superior to anything else...
David
PS Sorry for the cheesy 'home-made' table above...