Shocker: iPhone 4 Issues Requires More Than A Software Fix

Over the weekend, I Twittered the following as I was trying to catch up on the latest iPhone 4 cellular radio no-you’re-holding-it-wrong PR disaster.

I wrote:

1. NYTimes: Apple Acknowledges Flaw in iPhone Signal Meter http://nyti.ms/ajIgZc 9:50 AM Jul 3rd via NYT Editors’ Choice

2. Why Apple’s iPhone 4 Update Won’t Fix Your Reception Problem http://bit.ly/cpqTNR 10:49 AM Jul 3rd via mobile web

3. Apple says software will fix iPhone 4, others say that this is a hardware problem. What do you think? Me? I think it’s both hard/software. 10:51 AM Jul 3rd via mobile web

Then, over on Jimmie’s GadgetsOnTheGo blog (where I sometimes write articles), this story is posted, in part:

“Apple released that “official statement” about a software update coming in a few weeks to fix the iPhone 4 reception problem. Apple claimed that there really isn’t a problem, it’s more of a psychosomatic issue with the signal bars on the iPhone 4. Apple will release an update to fix the signal bars displayed rather than fix what’s really going on.

Gizmodo is now reporting that when they spoke to AppleCare three different times today AppleCare confirmed the software update will NOT fix the reception issue.

• There is an antenna interference problem when you hold the iPhone 4 in a certain way (the tests by Anandtech and many demonstration videos in the internet show that the signal drop will happen every time when you touch the phone’s dead spot, on the left bottom corner).
  
• One solution is to hold the phone differently, avoiding to touch the left bottom corner of the phone (coincidentally, this is how models hold the iPhone 4 in most of Apple’s promotional material).
• The other other solution is to buy a case or one of Apple’s $30 bumpers
• The incoming software update will not fix this antenna problem, only change the way the phone displays the available signal, make it more accurate.”

Any way you cut it, this is a poor situation to be in for iPhone 4 customers. Apple has stated in an open letter on their website that, “[a]s a reminder, if you are not fully satisfied, you can return your undamaged iPhone to any Apple Retail Store or the online Apple Store within 30 days of purchase for a full refund.”

I don’t have an iPhone 4, but I am in support of the free Apple iPhone bumpers idea being floated around. Apple is sitting on a mountain of cash, and what better way to make lemonade out of lemons than giving away free bumpers until Apple is able to re-engineer the radio dead spot?

So how about it, Apple? Are you guys game? The legions of Apple fans have earned a little kick-back for their fanatical support over the last 10 years.

[Via GadgetsOnTheGo.net…; Gizmodo.com…]