Apple to announce 5G phone; a bazillion Apple automatons to rush to store and stand in line for ten hours to pre-order; first deliveries projected August 2014.
Google announces the Nexus Two. Like the Nexus One, it has signal problems like the iPhone, a massively buggy operating system, and a “someday this will be better than iOS4” promise. Anti-Apple fanbois rush to preorder on google.com, buoyed by the fact that they know they will not have to deal with support issues like users of other phones, because Google offers no support for their products.
So barring some major surprise the press conference will go something like this:
– Talk about the incredible, record breaking sales numbers of the iPhone 4
– Talk about the upcoming international releases
– Address the antenna brouhaha as follows:
– Explain (again) that all cell phones can experience reception degredation when held in a way that the hand covers the antenna.
– Explain how the location of antennas at the bottom of phones is due to FCC testing standards and regulations
– Explain (again) that the reason people are seeing a multiple bar drop is not because reception is getting dramatically worse, but because the bars you were seeing in the first place shouldn’t have been there. As has been pointed out in numerous places AND publicly admitted by Apple the display alogrithm was flawed.
– Point out that the phone is getting glowing real world reviews and source after source (including Gizmodo fyi) is pointing out how despite the fact that the bar display drops, the actual call quality and reliability is BETTER than the iPhone 3Gs
– Since people will still complain, and the press will run with this story forever regardless of the details, offer all iPhone 4 users a free bumper.
As the above piece points out, if the bar display had been properly calibrated in the first place this never would have been an issue because no one would have noticed a thing! At this point all the evidence points to the following being true:
If you are in an area of crappy signal AND you hold the phone such that you block the antenna with your hand, THEN you will see the signal drop a few bars. But the actual amount of signal degredation is not out of line with what you’d see with other phones! Short of changing the laws of physics (I canna do it Captain, I need more power!) there is no “fix” beyond properly displaying the signal strength bars.
Again I point out that numerous sources have confirmed that in the worst case scenarios the iPhone 4 is still out performing the 3Gs in call quality and reliability.
David K.
One caveat, there is nothing to say that Apple isn’t working on making reception even better and that if they can do so in the short term they might not modify the iPhone 4 design to silence critics completely, but I still believe based on what i’ve seen (and experienced first hand) that the iPhone 4 outperforms the 3Gs and prior, and that the issues here is cosmetic only.
Brendan Loy
Frankly, David, I think that’s a fanboy conclusion. It isn’t just Consumer Reports, a variety of different sources have run tests showing quite clearly that, when held the “wrong” way, the iPhone 4 suffers substantially more signal loss than other cell phones. Testing aside, this is common sense, since it’s a known fact that antennas get screwed up when exposed to human skin, and the iPhone most definitely has a more exposed antenna than most phones — we know THAT is true, because Steve Jobs made a big deal about it (as a selling point!) when he introduced the darn thing! So, the iPhone 4 suffers more signal loss due to the antenna being “touched” than most phones. That’s an established fact at this point.
BUT… 1) yes, the overall reception of the iPhone 4 is better, except when you’re holding it “wrong”, in which case it’s worse … AND 2) you won’t notice if you’re in a high-reception area (this is why it’s not a problem for me)… BUT 3) the fact that it’s better under non-death-grip conditions, and acceptable even under death-grip conditions if you’re in a high-reception area, doesn’t mean there’s no such thing as the death grip, or that it’s not a problem… AND ALSO 4) it’s true that some people in high-reception areas have “noticed” the problem only because of the “cosmetic” bar-display problem, yet they still have sufficient reception anyway, even with the “death grip”… BUT 5) fixing the “cosmetic” problem doesn’t fix the ACTUAL problem for people who AREN’T in high-reception areas… AND 6) it is dishonest and borderline unethical for Apple to continue to pretend that the ACTUAL reception problem doesn’t exist, which it does, or that it’s identical to an issue that afflicts all cell phones, which it’s not… AND 7) this is true even though Gizmodo has reported it; just because Gizmodo is saying something doesn’t automatically make it wrong.
There’s been so much reporting and testing on this that, really, the facts are uncontroversial at this point, or should be. The only reason they aren’t is because some people are so anti-Apple that they’re blowing it vastly out of proportion, and some people are so pro-Apple that they can’t see what’s right in front of their face. Bottom line, the death grip IS real, and it IS a problem, and to claim it’s NOT a problem is to simply deny reality. At the same time, to pretend it’s OMG THE END OF THE WORLD is also ridiculous. It doesn’t effect every user, maybe not even most, and maybe for SOME it’s just “cosmetic,” but there are still tons of users for whom it is a REAL problem — that is an established fact, both by way of an overwhelming number of anecdotes from real-world users (talking about actual reception, not just the number of visible bars), and also by way of empirical research by numerous sources (not just Gizmodo and Consumer Reports! and again, comparing reception with and without the death grip, not just the number of bars). Saying “lalalalalala” won’t make the problem go away. The only real question now is what Apple will do.
Brendan Loy
P.S. I still love my iPhone 4.
But I hate Apple’s Palinesque willingness to simply deny established facts. First and foremost, I want them to tell the truth. Thus far, they aren’t doing that. I hope they start tomorrow.
The Consumer Reports thingy is a bit weird, because it the highest rated phone, and yet they don’t recommend it. I think that’s inconsistent.
That said, Apple needs to deal with this.
David K.
Can you point me to a single objective test that has been conducted in a scientific fashion? I have yet to see one.
As I said, I’m not arguing that the “death grip” doesn’t cause signal degradation, nor that its not noticeable. I’m saying that the only reason people are raising a fuss about it is because of the false belief, based on the flawed display of bars, that the phone was getting great reception without the grip, and poor reception after the grip. The truth was they were ALLREADY getting poor reception before the grip, they just didn’t know it because the bars were lying to them.
If the phone is getting as good or better reception in poor signal areas than its predecessor how can that be an issue? Do you want Apple to magically make ATT’s network better in every area possible? This behavior is not even unique to the iPhone 4! People have demonstrated the EXACT SAME TYPE of signal drop on the 3G, the 3Gs, the Nexus One, a crappy Nokia hand held.
I point to Gizmodo not as proof, but as an example, its ridiculous for you to try and spin it as anything other than that. I’m pointing to a source with a known beef against Apple who are even admitting that their real world results demonstrate BETTER reception and MORE RELIABLE reception on this supposedly flawed phone!
There has in fact NOT been controlled scientific testing at this point. The tests have been unscientific and anecdotal. Further there is a confirmation bias when complaining about a problem, the signal to noise ratio will always tend towards the bad than the good. How many users are actually seeing a problem and comlaining? 50%? 10% 1% 0.1% 0.001% WE DON’T KNOW!
I’m not denying the possibility of a problem or being a fanboy, unless your definition of fanboy is “defends something when he finds enough evidence in favor of and problems with evidence against”.
You can point to people who have numbers that show the iPhone 4 is worse, I can point to people who have numbers that show the iPhone 4 is better. For example:
Further I have my own experience. I can only reproduce the bar drop in areas where I KNOW i get terrible reception (and have experienced dropped calls on previous phones). With the iPhone 4, EVEN in death grip mode with the displayed bars dropped from 5 to 1-2 range, i get BETTER call quality!
If fanboyism means demanding strong, definitive proof of a problem that is counter to what I and other are demonstrably experiencing, then sure, fine, i’m being a fanboy. But in my experience and that of many many others, the iPhone 4’s reception is BETTER than previous iPhones, death grip and all.
David K.
I’m open to the possibility that I, and apparently many others are in some sort of weird ideal situation, if presented with substantial evidence to prove me wrong, but I’m more likely to go with the idea that
1) Complaints always bubble to the top
2) The explanation given which jives with my experience is the correct one
That said, if Apple offers up some new and improved model as a free replacement I won’t turn it down or anything. That would be stupid!
I hate to say it but I actually agree with David K in this.
I think what you are missing Brendan is that the *radio* performance seems to be better, so it’s doing more with less. So while the antenna as a component is inferior to most others, the radio is better, yielding a net improvement over other phones.
The anandtech article goes into that phenomenon a bit. While his conclusion is still that Apple should do something about it, I would only concede that in the sense of PR. But in an objective, “if everyone was rational” kind of sense, they needn’t necessarily do anything.
Joe Mama
Isn’t an easy fix to the “death grip” problem just getting one of those protective covers, or am I missing something?
David K.
Yes, any case would partially to completely alleviate the issues, hence why I think Apple might just give out free Bumpers (their case) to iPhone 4 owners. Same reason that Nintendo started giving out Wii condoms because of the few instances of idiots throwing their WiiMote into their tv (or other people)
David K.
One last point for now, kind of like the above, but I’m not sure I was clear about it. It’s definitely going to be true that Apple can/could design the phone in a different manner that might have not presented this issue in the same way. However, its important to note that in engineering there are always tradeoffs, so a different design may have made it more difficult to add the camera, or get as accurate GPS signal, or WiFi, or battery life, etc.
Just like Toyota, Apple is discovering that perception is far more important than actual facts. Except that, Apple should be very familiar with that concept, as it’s the driving principle behind how they attracted a core following in the first place.
^ That first part (not the second! 🙂 ) is actually a pretty relevant observation.
From what I understand the investigation into Toyota’s issues is still ongoing, but just yesterday reports leaked that it’s looking to be a lot of driver error.
David K.
@Jim Kelly
No no, Andrew is completely right, Apple’s success is based completely on perception and showmanship and has absolutely nothing to do with concrete results such as high customer satisfaction, customer support, and product reliability ratings. Its not at all related to lower total cost of ownership. Higher ratings in enjoyability, lower incidents of tech support needs and support costs. Ease of use as revealed in a number of studies and surveys were complete fabrications didn’t you know? No, people didn’t buy Apple products because Apple focused more on making the experience a positive and productive one while its competitors spent time focusing on how many features they could cram in (regardless of whether there was a demand for those features). It was all about simply making people THINK Apple products were cool. In fact, it was the most massive con in the history of the human race (well outside the whole fake moon landing thing of course, right Sandy?)
The whole reason I’m a Mac guy now is because their computers kick the pants off of PCs. Easier to use. More reliable, although PCs have caught up some. And I’m somebody who is a Windows programmer by day. I used to make fun of Macs. I thought their users were paying for prettiness. Me and my friends endlessly made fun of the original iMacs. But then I tried an iPod. And decided to throw in a Mac laptop. I’ve never looked back since.
Heck, my parents got a new PC after only using a Mac laptop for years. The hinge has worn off the Mac laptop (after years of service, let me add. They are well made, not indestructible.). Yet my Mom still uses the Mac, because she can’t stand the new, faster PC laptop. I knew it would go this way, but I also knew I wasn’t going to talk Dad into a new Mac. And the new laptop is serviceable. But I still think the Mac would have been worth the extra money for them.
Apple to announce 5G phone; a bazillion Apple automatons to rush to store and stand in line for ten hours to pre-order; first deliveries projected August 2014.
Google announces the Nexus Two. Like the Nexus One, it has signal problems like the iPhone, a massively buggy operating system, and a “someday this will be better than iOS4” promise. Anti-Apple fanbois rush to preorder on google.com, buoyed by the fact that they know they will not have to deal with support issues like users of other phones, because Google offers no support for their products.
🙂
Nice to have a competitive tech rivalry again.
Hey..did you hear about the iRefrigerator?
It takes pictures and you can surf the web, but it costs twice as much, and you can only put food from one supermarket in it.
Heh.
So barring some major surprise the press conference will go something like this:
– Talk about the incredible, record breaking sales numbers of the iPhone 4
– Talk about the upcoming international releases
– Address the antenna brouhaha as follows:
– Explain (again) that all cell phones can experience reception degredation when held in a way that the hand covers the antenna.
– Explain how the location of antennas at the bottom of phones is due to FCC testing standards and regulations
– Explain (again) that the reason people are seeing a multiple bar drop is not because reception is getting dramatically worse, but because the bars you were seeing in the first place shouldn’t have been there. As has been pointed out in numerous places AND publicly admitted by Apple the display alogrithm was flawed.
– Point out that the phone is getting glowing real world reviews and source after source (including Gizmodo fyi) is pointing out how despite the fact that the bar display drops, the actual call quality and reliability is BETTER than the iPhone 3Gs
– Since people will still complain, and the press will run with this story forever regardless of the details, offer all iPhone 4 users a free bumper.
Regarding the Consumer Reports not-recommended post, there is a good argument to be made that the “study” they conducted was flawed:
http://mobileanalyst.wordpress.com/2010/07/12/iphone-4-report-consumer-reports-study-is-full-of-crap/
As the above piece points out, if the bar display had been properly calibrated in the first place this never would have been an issue because no one would have noticed a thing! At this point all the evidence points to the following being true:
If you are in an area of crappy signal AND you hold the phone such that you block the antenna with your hand, THEN you will see the signal drop a few bars. But the actual amount of signal degredation is not out of line with what you’d see with other phones! Short of changing the laws of physics (I canna do it Captain, I need more power!) there is no “fix” beyond properly displaying the signal strength bars.
Again I point out that numerous sources have confirmed that in the worst case scenarios the iPhone 4 is still out performing the 3Gs in call quality and reliability.
One caveat, there is nothing to say that Apple isn’t working on making reception even better and that if they can do so in the short term they might not modify the iPhone 4 design to silence critics completely, but I still believe based on what i’ve seen (and experienced first hand) that the iPhone 4 outperforms the 3Gs and prior, and that the issues here is cosmetic only.
Frankly, David, I think that’s a fanboy conclusion. It isn’t just Consumer Reports, a variety of different sources have run tests showing quite clearly that, when held the “wrong” way, the iPhone 4 suffers substantially more signal loss than other cell phones. Testing aside, this is common sense, since it’s a known fact that antennas get screwed up when exposed to human skin, and the iPhone most definitely has a more exposed antenna than most phones — we know THAT is true, because Steve Jobs made a big deal about it (as a selling point!) when he introduced the darn thing! So, the iPhone 4 suffers more signal loss due to the antenna being “touched” than most phones. That’s an established fact at this point.
BUT… 1) yes, the overall reception of the iPhone 4 is better, except when you’re holding it “wrong”, in which case it’s worse … AND 2) you won’t notice if you’re in a high-reception area (this is why it’s not a problem for me)… BUT 3) the fact that it’s better under non-death-grip conditions, and acceptable even under death-grip conditions if you’re in a high-reception area, doesn’t mean there’s no such thing as the death grip, or that it’s not a problem… AND ALSO 4) it’s true that some people in high-reception areas have “noticed” the problem only because of the “cosmetic” bar-display problem, yet they still have sufficient reception anyway, even with the “death grip”… BUT 5) fixing the “cosmetic” problem doesn’t fix the ACTUAL problem for people who AREN’T in high-reception areas… AND 6) it is dishonest and borderline unethical for Apple to continue to pretend that the ACTUAL reception problem doesn’t exist, which it does, or that it’s identical to an issue that afflicts all cell phones, which it’s not… AND 7) this is true even though Gizmodo has reported it; just because Gizmodo is saying something doesn’t automatically make it wrong.
There’s been so much reporting and testing on this that, really, the facts are uncontroversial at this point, or should be. The only reason they aren’t is because some people are so anti-Apple that they’re blowing it vastly out of proportion, and some people are so pro-Apple that they can’t see what’s right in front of their face. Bottom line, the death grip IS real, and it IS a problem, and to claim it’s NOT a problem is to simply deny reality. At the same time, to pretend it’s OMG THE END OF THE WORLD is also ridiculous. It doesn’t effect every user, maybe not even most, and maybe for SOME it’s just “cosmetic,” but there are still tons of users for whom it is a REAL problem — that is an established fact, both by way of an overwhelming number of anecdotes from real-world users (talking about actual reception, not just the number of visible bars), and also by way of empirical research by numerous sources (not just Gizmodo and Consumer Reports! and again, comparing reception with and without the death grip, not just the number of bars). Saying “lalalalalala” won’t make the problem go away. The only real question now is what Apple will do.
P.S. I still love my iPhone 4.
But I hate Apple’s Palinesque willingness to simply deny established facts. First and foremost, I want them to tell the truth. Thus far, they aren’t doing that. I hope they start tomorrow.
The Consumer Reports thingy is a bit weird, because it the highest rated phone, and yet they don’t recommend it. I think that’s inconsistent.
That said, Apple needs to deal with this.
Can you point me to a single objective test that has been conducted in a scientific fashion? I have yet to see one.
As I said, I’m not arguing that the “death grip” doesn’t cause signal degradation, nor that its not noticeable. I’m saying that the only reason people are raising a fuss about it is because of the false belief, based on the flawed display of bars, that the phone was getting great reception without the grip, and poor reception after the grip. The truth was they were ALLREADY getting poor reception before the grip, they just didn’t know it because the bars were lying to them.
If the phone is getting as good or better reception in poor signal areas than its predecessor how can that be an issue? Do you want Apple to magically make ATT’s network better in every area possible? This behavior is not even unique to the iPhone 4! People have demonstrated the EXACT SAME TYPE of signal drop on the 3G, the 3Gs, the Nexus One, a crappy Nokia hand held.
I point to Gizmodo not as proof, but as an example, its ridiculous for you to try and spin it as anything other than that. I’m pointing to a source with a known beef against Apple who are even admitting that their real world results demonstrate BETTER reception and MORE RELIABLE reception on this supposedly flawed phone!
There has in fact NOT been controlled scientific testing at this point. The tests have been unscientific and anecdotal. Further there is a confirmation bias when complaining about a problem, the signal to noise ratio will always tend towards the bad than the good. How many users are actually seeing a problem and comlaining? 50%? 10% 1% 0.1% 0.001% WE DON’T KNOW!
I’m not denying the possibility of a problem or being a fanboy, unless your definition of fanboy is “defends something when he finds enough evidence in favor of and problems with evidence against”.
You can point to people who have numbers that show the iPhone 4 is worse, I can point to people who have numbers that show the iPhone 4 is better. For example:
http://daringfireball.net/2010/07/iphone_4_3g_performance
The link I posted in my comment above is from an engineer who points to the flaws in the Consumer Reports test.
Here’s a link to someone who can reproduce call drops on a variety of devices EXCEPT the iPhone 4 in “death grip” mode:
http://www.eddale.co/general/on-reception-the-iphone-4-hysteria-the-real-lifelab-test-conundrum
Further I have my own experience. I can only reproduce the bar drop in areas where I KNOW i get terrible reception (and have experienced dropped calls on previous phones). With the iPhone 4, EVEN in death grip mode with the displayed bars dropped from 5 to 1-2 range, i get BETTER call quality!
If fanboyism means demanding strong, definitive proof of a problem that is counter to what I and other are demonstrably experiencing, then sure, fine, i’m being a fanboy. But in my experience and that of many many others, the iPhone 4’s reception is BETTER than previous iPhones, death grip and all.
I’m open to the possibility that I, and apparently many others are in some sort of weird ideal situation, if presented with substantial evidence to prove me wrong, but I’m more likely to go with the idea that
1) Complaints always bubble to the top
2) The explanation given which jives with my experience is the correct one
That said, if Apple offers up some new and improved model as a free replacement I won’t turn it down or anything. That would be stupid!
I hate to say it but I actually agree with David K in this.
I think what you are missing Brendan is that the *radio* performance seems to be better, so it’s doing more with less. So while the antenna as a component is inferior to most others, the radio is better, yielding a net improvement over other phones.
The anandtech article goes into that phenomenon a bit. While his conclusion is still that Apple should do something about it, I would only concede that in the sense of PR. But in an objective, “if everyone was rational” kind of sense, they needn’t necessarily do anything.
Isn’t an easy fix to the “death grip” problem just getting one of those protective covers, or am I missing something?
Yes, any case would partially to completely alleviate the issues, hence why I think Apple might just give out free Bumpers (their case) to iPhone 4 owners. Same reason that Nintendo started giving out Wii condoms because of the few instances of idiots throwing their WiiMote into their tv (or other people)
One last point for now, kind of like the above, but I’m not sure I was clear about it. It’s definitely going to be true that Apple can/could design the phone in a different manner that might have not presented this issue in the same way. However, its important to note that in engineering there are always tradeoffs, so a different design may have made it more difficult to add the camera, or get as accurate GPS signal, or WiFi, or battery life, etc.
Just like Toyota, Apple is discovering that perception is far more important than actual facts. Except that, Apple should be very familiar with that concept, as it’s the driving principle behind how they attracted a core following in the first place.
^ That first part (not the second! 🙂 ) is actually a pretty relevant observation.
From what I understand the investigation into Toyota’s issues is still ongoing, but just yesterday reports leaked that it’s looking to be a lot of driver error.
@Jim Kelly
No no, Andrew is completely right, Apple’s success is based completely on perception and showmanship and has absolutely nothing to do with concrete results such as high customer satisfaction, customer support, and product reliability ratings. Its not at all related to lower total cost of ownership. Higher ratings in enjoyability, lower incidents of tech support needs and support costs. Ease of use as revealed in a number of studies and surveys were complete fabrications didn’t you know? No, people didn’t buy Apple products because Apple focused more on making the experience a positive and productive one while its competitors spent time focusing on how many features they could cram in (regardless of whether there was a demand for those features). It was all about simply making people THINK Apple products were cool. In fact, it was the most massive con in the history of the human race (well outside the whole fake moon landing thing of course, right Sandy?)
Indeed David.
The whole reason I’m a Mac guy now is because their computers kick the pants off of PCs. Easier to use. More reliable, although PCs have caught up some. And I’m somebody who is a Windows programmer by day. I used to make fun of Macs. I thought their users were paying for prettiness. Me and my friends endlessly made fun of the original iMacs. But then I tried an iPod. And decided to throw in a Mac laptop. I’ve never looked back since.
Heck, my parents got a new PC after only using a Mac laptop for years. The hinge has worn off the Mac laptop (after years of service, let me add. They are well made, not indestructible.). Yet my Mom still uses the Mac, because she can’t stand the new, faster PC laptop. I knew it would go this way, but I also knew I wasn’t going to talk Dad into a new Mac. And the new laptop is serviceable. But I still think the Mac would have been worth the extra money for them.