Apple finally fesses up, says iPhone 4 signal problems are hardware related
Gizmodo has finally managed to get Apple to own up to the real cause behind all the signal static users have experienced since the iPhone 4 hit stores last month, and it appears software fixes will only tell you how borked your phone is.
Since the iPhone 4 was released to much fanfare, a growing number of users have complained that the phone was difficult to hold a signal with, particularly left-handed. Apple blew off the complaints, suggesting customers who dropped hundreds of bucks on a phone that doesn’t make phone calls spend an additional thirty bucks on rubber “bumpers” to correct the issue. Users surprisingly took umbrage to this response, but Apple was not very forthcoming with an admission that the hardware was at fault.
Gizmodo finally managed to wring an answer out of Applecare today, and confirmed that all the software updates in the world won’t correct the talking-on-the-phone issues. Applecare said:
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 dropwill 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 (we are hosting a petition to ask Apple for free cases. You can sign it here).
• The incoming software update will not fix this antenna problem, only change the way the phone displays the available signal, make it more accurate.
Has the antenna debacle changed your view of Apple in light of their handling of the issue? What should Apple do to correct the issue with the scads of unhappy customers stuck with a phone that doesn’t make phone calls?
