July 2, 2010: Apple opens up about “Antennagate,” addressing iPhone 4 reception issues for the primary time publicly.
In a letter to prospects, Apple admits to being “surprised when we read reports of reception problems, and … immediately began investigating them.” Nevertheless, the corporate’s findings do little to dispel the rising Antennagate controversy.
Antennagate hits iPhone 4
The iPhone 4 was a fantastic handset. When it launched in early June 2010, it turned an enormous hit, smashing data for preorders and opening-weekend gross sales. The Antennagate concern reared its head when some prospects reported dropped calls. The glitch occurred when a consumer held the iPhone 4 of their left hand, with their palm protecting the handset’s tiny antenna hole.
iPhone 4 reception issues: A software program fault?
Apple design chief Jony Ive’s choice to take away the earlier iPhone’s plastic antenna band brought about the issue. In its letter to prospects, nonetheless, Apple positioned the blame on a software program fault.
“Upon investigation, we were stunned to find that the formula we use to calculate how many bars of signal strength to display is totally wrong. Our formula, in many instances, mistakenly displays 2 more bars than it should for a given signal strength. For example, we sometimes display 4 bars when we should be displaying as few as 2 bars. Users observing a drop of several bars when they grip their iPhone in a certain way are most likely in an area with very weak signal strength, but they don’t know it because we are erroneously displaying 4 or 5 bars. Their big drop in bars is because their high bars were never real in the first place.”
Apple mentioned it could repair the issue with a free software program replace that included the corrected components.
“Since this mistake has been present since the original iPhone, this software update will also be available for the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 3G,” Apple mentioned.
The Antennagate aftermath
Sadly for Apple, that didn’t put the problem to relaxation. Just a few weeks later, Antennagate hit essential mass when revered commerce publication Client Studies mentioned it could not suggest the brand new Apple smartphone.
To calm the media firestorm, Apple CEO Steve Jobs flew again early from a household vacation in Hawaii to stage a press convention. He stood by the iPhone 4 (even enjoying a fan-made track defending it). Nevertheless, he addressed Antennagate truthfully — and supplied prospects free iPhone 4 bumper instances that solved the issue. Future variations of the iPhone additionally corrected the gadget’s fault.
In the long run, it took till 2012 (and the decision of a class-action lawsuit) for Apple to lastly deliver the controversy to an in depth.
Do you bear in mind Antennagate? Had been you an iPhone proprietor on the time? Tell us within the feedback beneath.