Could the iPhone 4 really be Apple's Vista?

Apple has been getting a bit of a bashing online and in the press lately. Everyone's talking about the iPhone 4 antenna issue, it seems, a 'design defect' that was recently confirmed in tests carried out by the US Consumers Union. Even in our tests, in real-life conditions, we saw network coverage drop when holding the phone in the infamous 'death-grip'. After all the hype that surrounded this new handset, the appearance of a basic design flaw is a dream come true for Apple bashers, and seems to have kicked off a media furore of monstrous proportions.

With the recent success of both the iPad and the iPhone, Apple seems to be everywhere right now. As a rule, people seem to invariably fall into one of two categories: Apple lovers or Apple haters. No middle ground exists, and the choice between one camp and the other seems fairly arbitrary.

Fanboy overload

Whether talking to your favourite co-worker, a childhood friend or your great auntie Joan, if you bring up the subject of the iPhone/iPad/iPod/iMac, and you don't agree 100% with the Apple Fanboy or Apple Hater in question, they'll instantly start laying into you. Don't even bother trying to put forward a rational argument, as voices of reason are lost on them, and they'll just throw ten more random arguments back at you anyway. Get out of there, and get out of there fast.

This slightly (but only very slightly) exaggerated scenario has been played out in living rooms and schoolyards for several generations of Apple product. Everything has been picked over and debated, from the lack of MMS (which to be honest, no-one really uses that much anyway) to the lack of multitasking. Now Apple's critics are having a field day with the antennae issues reportedly affecting the brand's latest star product, the iPhone 4.

The death-grip

It all started not long after the phone's release, when news of the so-called death-grip started circulating in forums, blogs and social networking sites: when you hold the iPhone 4 in your left hand, network reception nosedives. Everyone started having a go to see if they too were affected, and Apple's worst fears turned out to be true: when holding the phone with your hand covering its bottom left-hand corner, those pesky bars slowly start to disappear.

The fault was quickly portrayed as the scandal of the century, especially by non-iPhone users, but things then started to get slightly more serious. Steve Jobs published a somewhat hastily put together letter to iPhone owners, in which he explained that it's actually all down to a problem with the way the phone displays network connection bars, and, as an obvious response, Apple is releasing a firmware update that will 'improve the formula to determine how many bars of signal strength to display.' You could almost hear the mocking tuts and sarcastic laugher of tech-savvy readers echoing around the globe.

Software bug? Erm, well, actually ...

At the same time, several well-reputed online review sites and tech mags published advanced iPhone 4 signal tests, which seemed to confirm that the reception issue did, in fact, stem from a hardware fault, something wireless transmissions specialists then appeared to confirm. The final blow came from the US Consumers Union, whose researchers carried out tests on the iPhone in an electro-acoustic lab, which confirmed that holding the phone in a certain way does have a clear impact on signal strength. Their conclusion couldn't be clearer: they cannot recommend the iPhone 4.


Many sites and blogs have exaggerated the findings of the Union's Consumer Report, slowly twisting the story to conclude that users should steer well clear of the iPhone 4. And while the web is awash with similar such categorically negative statements, lawsuits are firing up in the US, while consumer groups here are starting to weigh up the options.

Even Microsoft has rubbed its share of salt into Apple's wounds, with COO Kevin Turner declaring that 'the iPhone 4 might be their Vista!'

Wall of silence

So what has Apple being doing to calm the situation while all this has been going on? Nothing, actually! The firm has a long-established communications policy based on stony faced silence, and, true to form, we haven't heard a peep from camp Cupertino. Until now, that is, as exceptionally, Steve Jobs has called a mysterious press conference, due to take place later today at 6 p.m. BST (10 a.m. Pacific Time). The web is rife with speculation about the subject of the conference (iPhone recall, free Bumpers, Jobs' new polo neck jumper etc.). Maybe the conference will help the Apple CEO calm the furore before it gets out of hand ... or maybe Jobs will surprise us all by announcing something totally unrelated. Anything's possible

Watch this space!




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