Alas, how the mighty have fallen! Despite Apple’s claims that the antenna issue was nothing more than a software glitch, it looks like Consumer Report is siding with “our lying eyes” and declaring that iPhone 4 has a serious design flaw that hinders its ability to be used as a mobile phone.
When your finger or hand touches a spot on the phone’s lower left side—an easy thing, especially for lefties—the signal can significantly degrade enough to cause you to lose your connection altogether if you’re in an area with a weak signal. Due to this problem, we can’t recommend the iPhone 4. […]
Our findings call into question the recent claim by Apple that the iPhone 4’s signal-strength issues were largely an optical illusion caused by faulty software that “mistakenly displays 2 more bars than it should for a given signal strength.”
The tests also indicate that AT&T’s network might not be the primary suspect in the iPhone 4’s much-reported signal woes. (Consumer Reports)
Once news of this broke, Apple’s stock took a nose dive, losing about $9 billion as rumors or recalls started echoing the blogosphere.
But what was devastating about this report was not the fact that Consumer Report confirmed what people were already saying about the iPhone 4, but rather their solution to the problem (as you can view in this video below).
Perhaps it’s time Steve Jobs considers releasing those glorious bumpers for free (as well as issuing iTunes credit for those who purchased them earlier), since that probably would be much cheaper (not to mention easier) than an iRecall.
Will the iPhone 4’s Achilles heel stop the masses from buying an iPhone 4? No, as many of people will simply place duct tape (or rather clear masking tape) on the iPhone in order to communicate with the rest of civilization.
But if Apple hesitates too long, they may lose their only chance to dethrone Blackberry as the king of smartphones or (worse) lose out to Microsoft’s upcoming Windows 7 mobile phone.
Originally posted on July 13, 2010 @ 5:55 pm