The man who makes no mistakes does not usually make anything - Edward John Phelps
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Apple abdicates responsibility for its products
BASKING IN THE GLORY of yet another successful product launch, Apple decided to appease its users mired in Iphone reception problems with an admission that something was actually wrong.
Apple has always fiercely defended its products, and the firm is adamant that the Iphone 4 is free of fundamental hardware defects. So it was greeted with collective astonishment when Apple issued a press release admitting that something was awry with its Iphone 4.
It was clear that Steve Jobs and crew were taking the patronising route of admitting to a failure, cleverly blaming others for not mitigating the underlying problem and finally bowing to pressure by releasing a pseudo fix. It's all very clever until you realise that even Apple users are getting fed up of being treated like battery hens.
At the crux of the matter is Apple's admission that reception problems are being caused not by a dodgy antenna design but rather a miscalculation of reception levels. The algorithm used to display the 'bars' on Iphones has been out of whack for years now, apparently going unnoticed until the "radical" new design in antennas showed up the problem, claimed Apple.
The pent up ire that has been unleashed since Apple's admission is not only justified but required. If firms such as Apple can get away with hoodwinking customers into accepting fundamental product faults as merely superficial perceptions then it will pave the way for other companies to do the same.
The idea that what has clearly been demonstrated as a hardware fault is simply a miscalculation not only insults the intelligence of the consumer but represents a flagrant disregard for customer care.
Unlike Google's Android operating system, which is open source, no one can truly verify the threshold for each reception 'bar'. While reverse engineering is always possible, the validity of the results attained can never be guaranteed. The Iphone 4 might indeed have the best reception of all Iphone models, but given that the bar was set so low, claiming that achievement only amounts to saying the Iphone 4 is the best of a bad lot.
Regardless of specific bar threshold levels, the fact is that holding the Iphone 4 in a particular way results in reception being lost. If, as Apple is indirectly claiming, those who demonstrate their Iphone's loss of reception never had any connectivity in the first place, how is it possible to make a call and then lose reception without physically changing location?
The notion that somehow your hand affects a mobile phone's signal is not limited to the Iphone 4. With internal antennas there is always a trade-off between performance and aesthetics. However, Apple's creative implementation of a hybrid antenna has caught the firm out.
Though embarrassing, if Apple were to admit the problem and offer a true fix for it, that might help set it apart from the faceless tin-box floggers of Dell, HP and the like. Instead, taking a hands over ears while singing stance, it chose to get hammered, even by the usually tame mainstream media.
Perhaps it's not surprising that Apple is denying a problem with the design of the Iphone 4. After all, the firm is known for supposedly creating innovative and stylish designs for its products. Admitting its superstar gadget designer Jonathan Ive let a lemon of a design be manufactured would be far worse than claiming its software developers are inept.
This admission of software failure is not without precedent. When Apple made the jump to OS X, the failings of the first release actually led it to give away the next version, Mac OS X 10.1.
Widespread design and functionality failures in Apple's Aperture photo editing software led the firm to slash the price of the 'premium' software by over 50 per cent after it realised that a fancy interface wasn't enough to compete with Adobe's superior software. In both cases Apple made embarrassing indirect admissions that its software division was less than completely up to scratch. So, perhaps in the Iphone 4 saga, it's a case of the software developers taking another for the team.
What Apple's announcement has done, aside from hold the company up for ridicule, is push it into a corner. With its admission that reception figures were inflated in all Iphones, there is every chance that, should an Iphone 4 recall have to be undertaken, the firm would be forced to do similar recalls for its previous models. All of this has made the odds of finding Lord Lucan shorter than Apple announcing a mass recall of the Iphone 4.
Brushing aside the trifling matter that the supposed exaggeration of reception will actually mean a perceived degradation in experience, Apple's sleight of hand is impressive yet immensely worrying. Rather than focusing the spotlight of blame on its product's ill-conceived design, it has tried to deflect its customers' anger toward mobile operators and their implied inability to provide satisfactory coverage.
It's certainly true that mobile operators often try to bathe themselves in glory by claiming meaningless coverage figures that often fail to stand up to real world experience. However in this case, having a go at mobile operators isn't the real issue. No, the real issue is the unwillingness of a major multinational corporation to accept blame for a severe product flaw.
Apple is, rightly, held up as the gold standard in the consumer gadget industry. In the past decade Jobs has not only managed to turn the company around but has managed to mould it into a company that has ridden through the recession like a champion jockey on a thoroughbred horse.
So, if its competitors witness Apple being able to flog second rate equipment and pass off faults as figments of customers' imaginations, then the Iphone 4 saga might affect a lot more consumers than the well-heeled Apple demographic.
For Apple the Iphone 4 represented a chance to provide a device that would confirm its lead as the top dog in the smartphone market. Instead the Iphone 4 is turning out to be, quite simply, a dog and a blot on Apple's reputation.
It's not the numerous faults that leave a sour taste in the mouth, however, but Apple's treatment of those loyal customers who have spent small fortunes on a mobile phone that cannot even make calls.
Apple, like any company, should not be allowed to treat its customers with such arrogant disdain. Whether or not it does the right thing and fixes what is clearly a fundamental problem with the Iphone 4 could in no small way shape how other device makers perceive what they will be able get away with in the future. µ
Tags: Apple
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@Xerkon the Great
... poor attempt of fanboism.
The number is not small, and some people don't immediately yell on the forums but instead bite the dust and carry on losing connection. Which doesn't mean problem solved because of the perceived small number of users.
Number so small that the fault would be insignificant would be like a couple of hundred. Anything beyond that is an error in manufacturing or a design fault. And it doesn't matter if you have production of millions or 100K units.
You would be hard pressed to find such serious faults that stop main functions of a product in other manufacturers. It would be a great failure, units would have to be returned, and stock would fall.
And that's why we can laugh even louder at those that condole these embarrassing actions by Apple. To everyone each own :P
Its more like users of the iPhone 4 have abdicated their intelligence. I mean only a small number of users actually have a problem and I blame the user (they are generally American and that explains a lot). This defamatory article is a total exaggeration of the reality and completely blows the whole thing out of proportion. The writer should be ashamed of herself (it's obviously a women, bitching so much). What an appalling piece of drivel.
The reason why some are able to reproduce the problem while others can't absolutely proves the iPhone is perfect. Note that the common variable here is the customer. People have varying levels of skin conductivity. Those with higher conductivity (Stop sweating! Uber-kool people don't sweat.) cause the issue when they hold the phone.
The proper action for Apple is obvious. Recall the defective Apple customers. Problem fixed. Side benefit: those Apple customers left can feel even more special now too.
Where are all the Fanbois? No snotty comments from the Elite? Or just too busy worshiping Jobs?
Is Apple's behavior here a surprise in any way? Hasn't Apple demanded consumers sign NDA's in order to receive refunds for defective products in the past? (This was about the Exploding iPods, if I correctly recall.)
I wonder if this has anything to do with the fact that the iPhone 4 prototype that went walkies earlier this year was apparently "disguised" as a previous model iPhone with some kind of covering/case, which presumably had the effect of mitigating the whole touching the antennas business.
In other words, did their obsession with keeping their new baby a secret lead to them inadvertently making sure that this problem wasn't noticed out in the field?
Let's hope the prices of 3GS's drop so I can grab myself a spare. I'm not going to get an iP4 until the hardware design issue is fixed.
The article at Anandtech actually did a pretty good job of reverse engineering the signal level, bar, and antenna issues. One thing that was very suspicious was Apple removing the utility in the iPhone4 that displayed the signal level. Anand managed to get that app back in to do his tests. I design RF data links, and can verify his methods were valid.
Don't like Apple BS? Get an Android - everything is visible, including RF signal level.
The sequence of events seems to be:
a) (Jun 2007)- Apple pens an exclusive deal with ATT in the US for the Iphone(and is investigated afterwards for this but that is another story).
b) ATT has lousy service, and people complain about low signal and dropped calls with existing Iphone software versions.
c) (Sep. 2008)- All of a sudden, Apple forces out an Iphone software update, which appears to "improve" the reception (update 2.1, on Sep. 9 2008), called the "signal strength placebo update" by CNET:
http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-19512_7-10115756-233.html
(The reviewer compared the displayed number of signal bars to an internal troubleshooting IphoneOS dB display, and found the bars were inaccurate and read too high after updating to V. 2.1).
Listed as "Improved accuracy of the 3G signal strength display" on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_iOS_version_history
d) However, about two years later lousy antenna design on the Iphone4 still results in even more dropped calls, WHILE DISPLAYING ADEQUATE SIGNAL (this is in addition to the "normally" high level of dropped calls on other ATT Iphone models over the subsequent years).
e) (Jun 2010)- Suddenly Apple "realizes" that it has been displaying the signal as being too high for the last 21 months, and "updates" the software again to show lower (pre-inflated Sept 2008) signal levels once more. They spin this "just right", to try and muddy the water on the Iphone4 antenna issue while deflecting blame for misrepresenting service quality to all other Iphone users as well.
So perhaps someone could find an Iphone with the "old" low-signal software still on it (V 2.0) and test the signal level display (compared to dB display) as compared to updating it to the latest software in an existing location, under the watchful eye of Consumer Reports?
If they read the same (and lower that an Iphone with the intermediate software on it), this would seem to indicate that Apple purposely misrepresented the signal strength to mislead its customers to be "happy" with their phones and ATT (despite risking dropped calls and other problems related to false confidence in their ability to communicate). And they were called on this ploy by CNET at the time (Sep. 2008), and did not correct it then, so this would suggest that this was a purposeful act.
Next, Apple will recommend holding the phone upside down. This will:
1) Position only the thumb on the defective-antenna side, reducing dropped calls for approved, right-handed users, and
2) Make the new "Bigger bars" on the low side of the signal display appear to be on the high-signal side, "virtually improving" the service similar to what the more blatant earlier software "update" did (before being removed by yet another software update).
Printing new on-line user manuals upside-down could "teach" users to read their phones upside down. A "magical, incredible, fantastic" solution.
I honestly can't understand when events like these unfold people act surprised and shocked by a corporation's arrogance and lack of honesty and sensitivity. Bottom line is is.. all companies are evil... plain and simple... all companies are concerned with making lots of money, even if it means at the expensive of someone's ignorance or loyalty.
I'm also quite surprised that the author of this article did not mention or point out that Apple has begun DELETING all references to the Consumer Reports UN-recommendation of the iPhOnE 4 on all of their forums.
You just can't squeeze everything into a small package, and putting the antenna where it is may well have been a *known* compromise that just wasn't properly weighted for effect on *some* people.
However, Apple has definitely played the PR wrong. The software mis-calc is just laughable, and only admits a *2nd* mistake. At the very least, they should have sent anyone complaining a rubber case to prevent the *actual* problem; that'd cost 'em about a couple bucks each, I figure. Instead, they try to gouge out another $29 for a fix that detracts from the sleek design.
Come on Inq! Consumer report refused to recommend the Iphone because of this - I would have expected you guys to be all over that.
...when you subcontract all your work to other firms thousands of miles away.
Oh that and you do all your testing in total secrecy which severly restricts and limits your actual real-world testing capabilities.
All these faults only come out once the great unwashed get their less than reverential hands on them.
Things have to change at Apple.
The funny thing about the yellow business on the 27-inch iMac screens - which is different from the yellow business on the iPhone 4 - is that the actual panel itself is an IPS unit made by LG that also appears in other products such as the Dell U2711.
In the U2711 it doesn't have the iMac's yellow tinge problem because it uses a CCFL backlight rather than Apple's shitty LED implementation, and yet the iMac continues to draw more admiring glances from blind Apple nutjobs because it has a fruit on the front, a higher price and thus a higher perceived value. AND HURR. IT RUNS UNIX. SCOFF.
High price, bad value, junk quality products will be Apple's undoing over the next year or two.
What about the stinking mac pros ? and the yellowish screens on imacs ?.
That is not the first time Apple's hardware has problems.
The biggest problem is how Apple deal with that, just like a government would deny any problem that would deal with top secret security. The people in repair centers don't have the right to aknowledge any problem unless told so.
"If firms such as Apple can get away with hoodwinking customers into accepting fundamental product faults as merely superficial perceptions then it will pave the way for other companies to do the same.
The idea that what has clearly been demonstrated as a hardware fault is simply a miscalculation not only insults the intelligence of the consumer but represents a flagrant disregard for customer care."
More elegantly stated this issue could not be.
For Apple or anyone to sell over priced hardware that does NOT work is a simple disgrace. I would demand a refund and not buy anymore of there products. The ONLY way to make companies care is when they lose money.