Readers are reporting they can no longer buy an iPhone 4. Supplies are sold-out, but even more telling the Apple stores can’t even predict when they’ll have product to sell. This strongly suggests Apple has halted production and is going for a hardware fix. Not surprisingly, this unavailability hasn’t been noted yet in the press but I’d expect it to be a major issue at today’s press conference in Cupertino as Steve Jobs attempts to explain his way out of the current PR fiasco.
Update — The Apple event is over and all iPhone 4 users are getting free bumpers. But I stand by my story. Mrs. Cringely has a bumper and still finds her iPhone 4 almost unusable. Apple must be working on a true solution to these problems for future production.
Apple hasn’t handled this issue very well at all. Most companies don’t handle PR / product / service issues very well (see Toyota, BP). Apple would have been smart to:
1. Admit the problem as soon as it was confirmed and provided the work-around to folks who just bought the iPhone 4 (in this case a case) plus gift certificate to the Apple store/iTunes store.
2. Stop production and get a fix implemented ASAP.
As is Apple is probably going to face lawsuits and the legal costs and lost goodwill with consumers will easily outweight the proactive costs of what I suggested above. Really…. telling folks to hold the phone in a certain way so the calls doesn’t drop is a complete joke and insulting to everyone involved.
The counter-intuitive point, is that Apple could have done better with the PR because the problem was so serious. Ironically, the Transportation review board cleared Toyota of at least many of the accelerator incidents saying driver error was at fault (USA today).
Rare acceleration issues (I’ve had one) are hard to clear because they might be driver error (with me it was !) and it is hard to prove a negative (no evidence of a fault… might mean you don’t know how to find it). If you can demonstrate an electrical fault and reproduce it easily (loss of signal intensity with hand position). You can show it there; you can show it gone in the fixed model.
I certainly agree Apple didn’t do PR well at all, but the claims of this as a “major” problem are pretty ridiculous. I know 10 people with iPhone 4’s and none have ever noticed a problem. This is such a simple issue, but fodder for folks who tout anything anti-Apple. I hope they have fun when that first virus hits their plastic Droid phone.
That’s because they have AT&T service and are used to dropped calls and bad reception. 🙂
Greg … you know 10 peoples with Iphone 4 .. but they are certainly right handed … the problem is when people hold Iphone4 with left hand !
I am right handed. I always hold my phone with my left hand when I talk or when I surf. I have never had the signal drop. I don’t know 10 people with iPhone 4s, but I know at least 5. None of them have ever seen it happen. I actually spent almost an hour trying to reproduce the drop with a bunch of Android fanboys watching me do this and giving suggestions what else I might try. It never happened. And I was in an room with a rather spotty AT&T reception.
All I can say – people with signal drop issues should wash their hands more often.
I am left handed and I cannot get my iPhone 4 to drop a bar no matter how I hold it. Maybe Bob can harp on how its beautiful clear screen will eventually cause you to go blind.
Apparently you don’t live in Petaluma, CA where Leo Laporte lives. He’s left handed and dropped so many calls repeatedly he got a Droid X from Verizon.
Since the iPhone 4 has a glass/ceramic back panel, totally transparent to RF, I can believe that Apple did not simply stick a ‘Fractal Pattern’ antenna on the inside surface. It could have been wire or foil or even conductive paint.
However, I’m pretty sure I know the reason they didn’t. There are at least two companies that seem to own every conceivable patent on these antennas, and they prefer to design and license the antennas themselves – for a per unit fee, of course.
Apple’s bezel antenna, an exquisite though fatally flawed design, costs Apple nothing in royalties. A fractal antenna, though more efficient, would cost what – a dollar or two for every iPhone made? It’s hard to guess the cost but Apple just won’t pay. Too bad as the alternative costs may be a lot more!
It’s likely that Apple is holding back Iphone stock to prepare for the next the phase of the rollout to additional countries later this month. Same thing occurred recently with the Ipad rollout.
announcing an 11inch netbook, you know it makes sense.
The press is not reporting on iPhone retail unavailability because it isn’t news. It’s been true since day 2 that you can’t get an iPhone at a retail store. All they will do is put your name on a list and they can’t tell you when you will get one. This started the day after launch and continues till now. I checked at many Apple stores and other retailers for a week after the launch and always got that same answer.
But it’s certainly possible they are halting production to fix the problem. If they are, they JUST halted it. I have had an iPhone 4 on order since day 3 with an estimated ship date of July 20th. It actually shipped on the 12th, and Fedex is delivering it this afternoon. I’m not going to open it until we hear what Steve has to say at the press conference.
Could just be that they are sold out, rather than a stop in production. I reckon today’s press conference will be fairly anti-climatic and mainly to put their side of the story straight rather than all the bull that is propagating out of analysts and rumour sites.
I picked my Iphone 4 yesertday after being the the store waiting list since 6/28
The Consumer Report’s “Not Recommended” statement was the big blow. Before, Apple could say that this was not a big issue and that only a few malcontent geeks who’d hate Apple for whatever they did were complaining. After all, 95% of the people who had iPhone 4s don’t have this problem.
Back in the 1970s, Walter Cronkite, the seminal news anchor at that time, made a statement against the Vietnam war. Before that, there were a lot of people protesting the war, but their complaints could be shunted aside as the mouthings of unpatriotic hippies. After Uncle Walter’s statement, the war became an issue for Middle America.
Fortunately for Apple, the iPhone fix is fairly simple. They simply need to put a non-conductive coating on the antenna. Also fortunately for Apple, Consumer Reports rated the iPhone 4 as the best smart phone, so if Apple fixes the problem, Consumer Reports will turn right around and recommend the iPhone once more.
If Apple takes immediate corrective action, this issue will slowly fade away in memory and both Apple and the iPhone will be able to keep their stelar reputation.
The solution involves three steps. Step #1 is the apology. Admit that this was a problem you didn’t catch. Step #2 will be how you will avoid such problems in the future. Step #3 will be to fix the problem and offer to replace any iPhones of people who are having problems with their phone. Since 95% of the iPhone 4 users are not having this problem, most will simply keep their iPhone rather than take the trouble to replace it.
Cronkite: I think you mean 1968 right after the Tet offensive.
In mid-February 1968, Cronkite journeyed to Vietnam to report on the aftermath of the Tet Offensive.
Upon return, on February 27, 1968, Cronkite closed “Report from Vietnam: Who, What, When, Where, Why?” with an editorial report:[31]
Following Cronkite’s editorial report, President Lyndon Johnson is reported to have said, “If I’ve lost Cronkite, I’ve lost Middle America.”[8][33] This account has been questioned in a recent publication on journalistic accuracy. [34] Several weeks later, Johnson announced he would not seek reelection.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Cronkite
Which is weird because the military swore that the Tet offensive was a major US military victory.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tet_Offensive
My point?
Perception is Reality.
The Tet Offensive was a complete disaster militarily for the NVA.
It shows that you can lose a battle, but yet still win the war.
This antennagate is a mere skirmish in the smart phone wars and the end is no where in sight.
No, the Tet offensive was a total disaster for the Viet Cong, which was effectively destroyed. The U.S. won the war against the Viet Cong. Then the North vietnamese took over the war. Many Viet Cong were executed by the NVA or fled for their lives. This is based on an article I read written by a Viet Cong survivor who fled to Paris.
Some things never change:
Tet Offensive = Warsaw Uprising (1944)
Viet Cong = Polish Home Army
NVA = Russians
No, *What Is* is reality. You can die of a ruptured spleen without having perceived that you possess one.
The tools of Perception evolve to meet Creaturehood’s particular needs and no more; we can’t see UV, but bees can. So “seeing the world as it is” is an inherently limited enterprise; and then there’s the fact that what’s there to be seen in the world can be gamed by one’s fellows to their benefit and/or your detriment.
BTW, Aldous Huxley’s often-quoted-by-druggies “Doors of Perception” notwithstanding, Perception cannot be made significantly less limited by chemicals. Recreational drug use only modifies post-processing.
I think the issue with Apple ‘not responding’ is that relatively few ACTUAL CUSTOMERS are complaining about the iPhone 4…it’s sensationalist media making it out to be far worse a thing than it is. Polls show that the iPhone 4 has the highest owner satisfaction in Apple’s history…if they all can’t make phone calls with the thing, I doubt they’d be that happy.
Oh, and the tests are showing that the thing is actually pretty darned good at pulling a signal…it’s when that gap between the antennae gets bridged that the signal degrades. Notice I said ‘degrades’…the tv folks are making it seem like you WILL absolutely lose your call, be unable to make calls, your children will be kidnapped, there will be 7 years of fire and brimstone and your hair will fall out.
my HAIR?!?
Doesn’t matter if it’s a “minor” problem or not, the fact is that it’s gone beyond viral and so Apple has to respond in public, eat some humble pie and move forward. I’d bet today’s press briefing will put the issue into perspective, describe some sort of remedial action that will both satisfy owners and encourage future owners, provide official Apple quotes that will be dutifully reported in the media and everyone will go on their merry way. Apple may also announce some new (minor) capability of the iPhone which will further spur demand (and Jobs will announce the sales to date along with various comparators).
None of this will satisfy those who have an inherent hate for all things Apple of course. The world continues to revolve.
Anyone else think that Apple purposely make the antenna like that? Reception being a problem on a grand new iPhone would be sure to hit all the blogs, magazines and other news outlets. Apple would be able to see what public opinion was on actually using the iPhone as a phone (instead of just a web/app device) and for just 2 cents per share they could push their bumper cases on people as a fix until the next “fixed” version comes out in a few months that actually has a real fix on it (non-conductive layer on the antenna). Apple gets more talk about the iPhone the whole time.
Considering that this would be an exceedingly stupid approach, I doubt it.
You can still buy an iPhone4 on the online Apple Store. And they tell you that it ships in 3 weeks. This strongly suggest that they have not stop production of the iPhone4. Unsurprisingly, iCringely.com is taking a few heresays and extrapolating it into a full analysis.
Of course! Who doesn’t want to ride the wave?!
Apple is holding back production so when the white model release date is announced, it will generate another round of long lines media event, which will make those who have said this supposed issue would have any real impact on the Apple brand or earning look like fools.
Interestingly today’s news has Technology Lens (the supplier of the glass on the iPhone 4) reported that the Apple has unapproachable tolerances for the screening of the white paint on the iPhone 4, making the actual per machine rate at 4 per hour.
If you extrapolate that out to 50,000 a day or 2000/hour(say 2/3s of of what appears to be the current run rate 1.3M/3 weeks = 1.3/21=70,000 a day = 3000/hour), if moving from black to white drops you down to 4/hour), do they have 500 lines to paint and cut just the white ones?
I’m curious how many black/hour can be cut? and who is the machine supplier (stock tip;-);-);-) )
[quote=macrumors.com]
“The color specifications for the white on the new iPhones are just crazy. The tolerances they are trying to achieve with the white really is the cause of the delay. As screen printing goes, it is somewhat controllable, doesn’t have the tolerance that Apple is wanting to hold the color specification of the white too. Talk about anal…”
[/quote]
Is the other Geoff, i.e. not you, “Geoff Peterson”?
Not surprisingly, this unavailability hasn’t been noted yet in the press but I’d expect it to be a major issue at today’s press conference in Cupertino as Steve Jobs attempts to explain his way out of the current PR fiasco.
Nope, it wasn’t even mentioned at the very extended Q&A session. The only press question that came close was, “Will you be making changes to the hardware?” to which Jobs replied something like, “We’re gonna watch how this issue plays out, and see what we need to do…”
Let’s keep priorities straight. Where did you get that illustration? Can you publish how it was done? If not, can you tell us who did it so we can worship him?
you plant seeds that come from hybrid crossed fruit, sometimes the original strains comes out 😉
definitely GMO!
Or they could be, you know, ramping up for a major international release later this month. But yeah, let’s speculate a product fix is something they want to keep hush hush.
Lawsuit?!? If you don’t like the iP4, take it back for a FULL REFUND before or even after you get the free case. Take your money and buy a perfect Android, Palm, Nokia or Kin. Problem solved.
“buy a perfect Android, Palm, Nokia or Kin”
Wow, someone is making something perfect, Inconceivable!
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Bob you were wrong EVERY SINGLE TIME WHEN YOU WROTE ABOUT APPLE, INC. – EVERY SINGLE TIME. Your Apple predictions sound like common sense but you just can’t get it right about Apple. All other tech writers do the same. It seems to me the only web site that gets it pretty close is http://www.macrumors.com.
Actually Bob got it exactly right when he recommended buying Apple stock in 2000, which I did. Pity he didn’t also tell me not to sell it in 2003.
Did you also buy Adobe stock when on several occasions he was writing – Adobe will be acquired by Apple – ???
Since the bumper case offer ends in September, they still have to do something long term. Also, according to Bob’s wife and Leo Laporte, a case plus the bar display change reduces the death grip problem but in certain locations there are still numerous dropped calls. If we leap to the conclusion that there will be no hardware fix from Apple, that leaves a better carrier or at least continuing the free case offer for all future iPhone 4 sales.
note the bumper will be free with every iPhone on request… until September 30. not end of the month.
two things.
(1) we now know how long it takes Apple to feverishly redesign something and get product stocked.
(2) until then, no iPhone 4+ mod II forrrr YOU, you can have it in any color, as long as it’s white or black. designer duct tape $15.95 at the Apple store online.
Does anyone else feel like I do, that perhaps Mr. Jobs (no I’m not an Apple hater) and the people at Apple were happy because generally, THEY controlled most of the media hype…but now, the media has created their own hype which does not favour Apple, and the people at Apple are angry about it.
To me, it seemed likely that the tool Jobs used all along (using the media to your advantage) would eventually backfire and bite you in the behind.
Anyone care to comment?
No
Sent from my iPhone
As I’ve said elsewhere, I can’t grasp the size of this problem. Let’s see: left handed people, holding an uncovered phone in a sweaty palm so that a short circuit is created between the two antennas so that the signal is significantly weakened to the extent a call may or may not be lost…. Tell me that’s a significant percentage of users such that Apple’s response should match the disproportionate screed of the press. Please. What a non-issue. And even money Mrs. Stephenson’s problem is something else — like a lemon phone, or a tendency to use it in areas with crappy coverage. And I’m still curious how Apple’s antenna problem compares to other smartphones. And while we’re at it, how about a little bashing of the FCC for requiring antenna placement where they did, without which requirement we wouldn’t be having this discussion.
It is not a short circuit problem. Try shorting it with wire or any conductor. I saw an explanation on another blog, something about RF impedance. Try it on your iPhone. Uh… you do have one? Short circuit did nothing to my buddies Iphone 4 ( I told him after I tried it!).
You did not short it properly. All it takes is a penny in the right place as shown in the youtube video. If you were right there would be no issue and no “antenna gate” to discuss since a short is a more serious type of impedence mismatch.
Our neighbors first iPhone 4 did not work well. The retailer gave up and sent her to an Apple store. After checking the phone they replaced it. The second phone worked a lot better. While at the Apple store they showed her where not to hold the phone. This was late last week. The folks in the Apple store told her that when the signal is weak, holding the phone wrong causes a big loss of signal. They told her not to buy a cover because they suspected Apple would be giving them away.
Since then our neighbor has been very happy with her iPhone. She’s even let me play with it…
If Mary Alyce’s phone is working poorly, visit an Apple store. They may replace it.
There are actually two issues. One, is the human body absorbing radio waves, thus blocking iPhone reception. This is true of all cellphones. However, the second issue is the change in the antenna due to someone with a sweaty hand bridging the gap between the cell phone antenna with the WiFi/GPS antenna. This is probably unique to the iPhone since all other phones use an internal antenna.
Besides that point, the Apple’s conference went well. Jobs apologized (or about as close as Jobs can get to apologizing) and Apple is offering free cases to all owners which according to Consumer Reports fixes the problem. If you’re not happy with the iPhone, you can return it for a full refund.
That should satisfy most people. Most sites that have mentioned this as an issue stated that the bumper or even a piece of tape solves the problem. My feeling is that AntennaGate has peeked and we’ll all go home and get about complaining about other “kids today”, “The Internet”, and other issues that point to the fall of civilization as we know it.
Consumer Reports still won’t mark the iPhone as “recommended” because Apple announced that this is only until September, and CR wants to know what happens after that date. I think that’s a bit silly since the free bumper does solve the problem. I guess CR is worried what happens after September whether Apple will continue the program or fix the problem in a more permanent way.
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Genius??
The part I find interesting is how Steve Jobs initially apologized for the gaps disrupting the cleanliness of the design… calling it “Genius”. Now was he referring to functionality or appearance – it appears he lost on both counts. Hmm.. and he’s not a PR genius any more either.
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Imagine someone gloating over a minor issue with a device that was so carefully considered and painstakingly evolved as the iPhone4! Apple has nothing to apologize for. Jobs has never dumped half-baked, ugly hardware with inane interfaces on a gullible public; those who did so are hopefully embarrassed by the obvious ambition and vision of this device; everything compared to it looks dated, imitative, banal. How can you care about technology and yet wish for Apple to fail?
Maybe my perception of this issue is truncated, but I just gotta say: Great babbling mother of God, people. it’s just an effing PHONE! This whole uproar is nonsense!
In the 30 some-odd years Apple has been in business, I’ve never once heard Jobs say that he or Apple was perfect, no matter how hard the press has tried to report otherwise. The press has in fact gone after Apple ever since IBM’s heyday of the AT and the XT, and has actually declared it dead TWICE as a business. I’ve learned after all this time not to take anything the pundits squirt out of their pie holes seriously, and if one removes the Y, S and T from the word “analyst”, you get the real source of their information and prognostications.
I’d venture to say that almost none of the people who complain and whine about this “phone-gate” silliness are old enough to remember party lines on the old land line systems, or stability issues with SUVs, or lines in the bank to deposit your pay check on Friday evenings, for that matter.
It’s all noise on the line, creating make-work for sensationalists with nothing better to do to keep idle minds with really messed up priorities occupied with unimportant drek. You want something REAL to complain about? Check out HR 5660, recently introduced in the House of Representatives by Bill Delahunt from Massachusetts, that proposes a national sales tax as a way to circumvent Article 1, Section 1, Line 5 of the Constitution and tax on-line internet sales to generate Federal revenue. That’s not getting much attention from the press either, is it? I wonder why that could be…
Pick your wars wisely, people. The MSM is doing their shell game trick again.
My late father helped develop radar technology during WWII at MIT. Throughout his life he studied antenna design both professionally and later as a hobby. Believe me when I tell you antenna design is as much voodoo as it is science. The number of variables needing consideration are mind boggling and when you optimize one, another drops off the charts. With this in mind, I really do feel for Apple, I have no doubt they thought their antenna design was perfectly adequate. Oops! Live and learn.
Antenna design may be voodoo, but usability testing is not. Apple should have known better than to release this phone, they deserve to take a hit for this. Here’s a great write up on the problems, no reason Apple could not have foreseen this:
https://www.anandtech.com/show/3821/iphone-4-redux-analyzing-apples-ios-41-signal-fix
Thanks for the link. All this publicity should be great for Anand Tech.
What Apple PR whiz came up with naming the iPhone4 issues “Antennagate”?
This implies conspiracy to cover up an legal act ala Watergate. Not a smooth
move to paint yourself with that brush.
It would have been better form for Uncle Steve to go on stage and say “I am stupid and I am lost” vs trying to “brand” their products short comings.
The “antenna-gate” comment was facetious, as in, “the press is equating a minor issue with a consumer product with the Watergate scandal.” You would have to lack a complete sense of irony to think it was reinforcing, rather than mocking, the Watergate allusion.
Remember that lost iPhone4 prototype disected and publicised so widely before launch?
One thing I noticed was that – rather cleverly – Apple had designed and made a mock 3rd-Gen case to disguise it while out on field-trials. Very complete and all-encompassing.
Well that extra insulation would have disguised the antenna problems too, wouldn’t it?
Just thinking out loud …
This is the most transparently false column yet. Bob, I fear that you are slowly morphing into Dvorak. I asked a nice lady at the Apple store yesterday how long I would have to wait for an iPhone 4. She said 1-2 weeks. She also said that they have a bin of spares to replace defective units immediately and that the lead time was shrinking every day. The online Apple store still says that the iPhone 4 ships in 3 weeks. The industry watchers point to the retina display as the bottleneck and the extraordinary sales as the immediate cause of the backlog.
If Apple had an iPhone readme on their site with known issues that included the fact that the signal decreases if the phone has no case and you hold it with sweaty hands in a way that makes contact between the separated parts of the external antenna, and that this can be a problem in an area with a low signal, the antenna would never have been an issue.
Can’t believe how wrong-headed this article is, general consensus is that the Apple press conference was handled very well.
Despite the comments above, this is a minor issue, I don’t think most Americans realise how bad AT&T is – for understandable reasons, it’s a big land mass and the networks aren’t as mature as they are in Europe (for example).
“it’s a big land mass”
Europe is in fact a bigger land mass than the USA, Alaska included. AT&T (and the other US carriers who are just as bad as AT&T compared to the European ones) have no excuses. They are just bad.
As to the iPhone 4 — this whole firestorm is a last, desperate attempt by Apple’s competitors to stop the runaway train. It won’t work.
Fantastic Post! It’s very nice to read this info from someone who actually knows what they are talking about.
Its kinda too bad the had an unfavorable start with the iPhone 4. I personally wouldn’t be satisfied with a free bumper. Love the picture too.
some GPS antennas have very short range compared to the advertised specs”;;
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the best GPS antennas are made up of silver and gold plating on their electrodes`~~
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The new Zune browser is surprisingly good, but not as good as the iPod’s. It works well, but isn’t as fast as Safari, and has a clunkier interface. If you occasionally plan on using the web browser that’s not an issue, but if you’re planning to browse the web alot from your PMP then the iPod’s larger screen and better browser may be important.