Antennagate, ye it’s an odd word, but Steve Jobs introduced it to us as the problem that has plagued the iPhone 4 since it’s release. More commonly referred to as the “death grip” when users hold the iPhone 4 in the lower left hand side, they cover up antenna and as a result lose pretty much all their signal.
Now Steve, the proud man that he is, said that this affected all smartphones and demonstrated in on a Blackberry Bold, HTC Drois Eris and the Samsung Omina II. However, these “death grips” wouldn’t be the norm for holding your phone.
So here’s the tale of the iPhone 4 antenna issues, all laid out for you so you can see how it started,when it started, right up to the end conclusion.
June 24th: iPhone 4 Release Date
It was the usual, no different from previous iPhone launch days. People queuing days in advance and some people using their brains and selling positions at the front of the queue for those who forgot to pre-order and stumbled out of bed when the queue was already hundreds long.
Along with this came the first few murmurs on forums and gadget blogs like Macrumors and Gizmodo
Steve Jobs then sent an email to Engadget after being questioned about the iPhone Antenna issue, he simply said it wasn’t an issue.
June 28th: Apple’s Biggest Launch To Date – Sells 1.7 Million iPhones
Apple proudly announced that they had shipped an incredible 1.7 million iPhone 4′s in the 3 days it was available, making it their most successful launch to date.
June 30th: Possible Antenna Fix?
Some users reported on forums that they found a fix to the iPhone Antenna issues by adapting the sim card, the success rate was hit and miss, and it’s turned out that this hasn’t been the problem
July 2nd: Apple Admit Antenna Issue, Say It’s A Display Issue
Apple finally stood up to the fact there was an antenna issue, but blamed it on a fault in the way the iPhone 4 displays signal strength. They promised a software update which would solve the issue. They refused to acknowledge the drop in signal caused by the “death grip”
We also found out that bumpers can solve the whole antenna issue.
July 12th: Apple Get’s Slated By Consumer Reports
After being one of the most recommended smartphone makers by consumer reports for previous years, Apples iPhone 4 was crowned with the degrading title of “Not Recommended” by consumer reports.
Why? Because of the antenna issue, Apple are getting a lot of bad press at this stage, and making all the news headlines.
July 14th/15th: Apple Press Conference And Wild Reports From Analysts:
Apple announced a list minute press conference for July 16th, which was assumed to address the iPhone 4 antenna issue.
iOS 4.0.1 was officially released, and yes it did fix the display issue, but not the “death grip”
This was followed by a wave of rumors from various sources, some claiming the antenna issue could be fixed with a software update, others claiming a full recall was underway with a new design, and others claiming that Steve Jobs was warned about this issue before the iPhone 4 was brought to market.
July 16th: Apple’s D-Day
Steve Jobs appears before the worlds press, declares that 3 million iPhone 4′s have been sold and how it’s such a great success.
Then addresses antenna issue, demonstrates a slightly weird death grip on a Droid Eris, Samsung Omnia II and Blackberry Bold. Say’s the antenna issue, (antennagate) is coming to all smartphones.
Claims users say iPhone 4 has best antenna ever, but it drops more calls than the 3GS. He also claims the issue has been blown out of proportion – Only 0.55 percent of iPhone 4 AppleCare calls complain about antenna or reception problems.
Steve also gave us a nice look at the antenna design and test labs. Gave us a couple more figures,
- iPhone 4 return rates 1.7 percent; iPhone 3GS 6 percent.
- 20 percent of iPhone 4 customers leave store with a case (vs. 80 percent for 3GS),
Then the moment we were all waiting for:
Free Bumper Cases For All iPhone 4 Customers!
You can see a full roundup of the event here
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There’s a lot of reason why apple antennagate woes. Perhaps not only iPhone apps encounter this kind of problem.
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