17th
Demystifying the iPhone 4 Antenna Presser
I felt it’d be a good idea to gather my thoughts about yesterday’s iPhone 4 press conference while I’m not starving, sleep-deprived and scatterbrained — which is the aftermath of covering any Apple event.
Ignoring all the stuff we’d already heard in Apple’s earlier written letter, the most important statistic from the entire presser was that the iPhone 4 is dropping more calls than the iPhone 3GS. Jobs tried to gloss over this factoid by emphasizing the puniness of the rate: the iPhone 4 drops less than 1 call per 100 calls than the iPhone 3GS.
But the fact it’s dropping more than the iPhone 3GS at all is completely ludicrous in that it contradicts* Apple’s claim that the iPhone 4’s new antenna design improves reception.
It’s a clever trick from the CEO, but you can’t just use small numbers to erase a contradiction. Think of it this way: You tell your daughter you bought her a brand new car, and she found out it was actually previously owned. You explain it was only owned by one person for one year. That doesn’t look like a big deal — the car is still relatively new — but the fact remains that this was a mistruth, and the normal psychological reaction from your daughter would be feeling betrayed.
That’s how I think a lot of iPhone 4 customers felt when they experienced the “Death Grip,” compelling a large number of them to document the flaw on YouTube.
Jobs says he doesn’t know what’s causing the iPhone 4 to drop more calls than the 3GS. But he provides his theory, which is that a lot of people with an iPhone 3GS use a protective case that helped prevent attenuation and dropped calls. The iPhone 4 is a brand new design, so not many cases are available yet, which makes it look like it’s dropping more calls. This is a valid theory but unsubstantiated and pretty conveniently self-serving.
So the iPhone 4 antenna has a problem and Apple either 1.) hasn’t figured out what it is yet or 2.) is shying away from owning up to the exact issue.
The second scenario seems more likely in this highly litigious country. If Apple explicitly acknowledged that a hardware issue made the iPhone 4 more susceptible to attenuation than other phones, including the iPhone 3GS, then it would probably pave the way for lawsuits to gain class-action certification.
In closing, I don’t buy it that this was a media-invented problem, as Jobs seemed to illustrate on stage with repeated potshots to Gizmodo, Bloomberg and even The New York Times. In fact, if Apple thought Consumer Reports were full of shit, as Jobs is implying, then why did the company heed CR’s advice of handing out free cases?
The past month’s outrage was the result of an imperfection of a phone everybody wished was perfect. And not only is it imperfect; as a phone the iPhone 4 is even more imperfect than its predecessor. That’s a major Achille’s heel for what is otherwise an outstanding mobile app console, internet browser, camera and so on.
* Update: My colleague Jason Snell points out that testing shows the iPhone 4 does get better reception despite the dropped-call data. I see his point: dropped call data doesn’t fully contradict Apple’s claim about iPhone 4 reception improving, though I do think the ability to hold a call is a very important factor.
