iPhone 4: great launch but problems still
It is difficult to take issue with a new (or upgraded) product launch that nears 2 million sales in three days, but there are a lot of reports concerning problems with the iPhone 4, regardless of the number of sales.
There is no denying that selling 1.7 million phones on launch weekend is impressive. For those of you doing the math, that’s almost 400 phones a minute, 24 hours a day. That is certainly a record for Apple and the iPhone and may be close to an absolute record for an electronic gizmo. There are, however, persistent reports that there were a few flies in the iPhone 4 ointment, according to an ABC news Story. Some of these problems break down as follows:
Reception Problems- This is the big one, of course, with that little gap in the wrap-around built-in antenna. If you get your hand, or even a finger, across that gap the reception of the phone plummets. This is obviously a design problem exacerbated by a quality assurance problem. How did the Phone get through even early testing without this being noticed? Still, any problem that you can solve with a bit of sticky tape is not that big a deal for users.
Proximity Sensor Problems- This one only happens if you did not set up your iPhone 4 as a new phone in iTunes. If you didn’t, the sensor apparently gets a bit wonky and it is possible to hang up on calls with your cheek, etc. On can see that this could be a problem, but Apple’s instructions do say to set up your new phone as a new phone. Duh.
Battery Life Problems- Some users have reported problems with the iPhone 4 batteries running down faster than advertised. Holding onto a call has always been a problem with the iPhone AT&T combo, and all that looking for a better signal can cause battery drain problems. Do we blame that on AT&T for not giving us good signal or on Apple for staying with AT&T?
Heat Problems- Some users also report that their new phones are running hot. That, too, could be a problem with all that better-signal seeking. There is apparently going to be a patch for this one, changing the way that the iPhone uses radio to deal with signal problems.
None of these are deal-breakers, but when combined, they point out a possible endemic problem with the Apple production cycle. Things like the gap in the antenna tend to creep into projects when time gets short and the pressure is on, and the same is true of the other problems. None of them (or all of them together) are reason enough to decide on a different phone. But they are sufficient to point to a problem with the Apple design and test process. That may be why they are busily hiring more engineers for their iPhone operations.
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July 1st, 2010
I can’t believe the amount of leeway people are granting Apple for this botch-job of a phone. Signal drops because of poor antenna design? – that is the users fault for not relearning how to hold an iphone. Battery life poor? that is AT&T’s fault for not building phone masts every 5 meters. bug ridden software like itunes causing the proximity sensors to go wonky? that is the users fault for not reading the fine print. Seriously, any other manufacturer would have been lynched by now, yet the i-sheep continue to worship the Jobs.