Apple has released a letter confirming the iPhone 4's reception issue and promises a fix within a few weeks. The company says there isn't a reception issue, but an issue with how the iPhone represents signal strength to users via the number of reception bars on the phone. Really?
"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.
To fix this, we are adopting AT&T’s recently recommended formula for calculating how many bars to display for a given signal strength. The real signal strength remains the same, but the iPhone’s bars will report it far more accurately, providing users a much better indication of the reception they will get in a given area. We are also making bars 1, 2 and 3 a bit taller so they will be easier to see."
So according to Apple they've been misrepresenting the signal strength to their users. Could they have been making people think their signal strength was better than it is because of all the complaints over AT&T's service? Some people definitely see it that way if our inbox is any indication.
According to Apple's explanation all those people who were able to make the iPhone's signal strength meter go down by gripping the phone in their hand were already in a weak signal area. That can't be right.
Hopefully Apple is correct and they will be able to fix this issue with a software patch. If not, they're going to have a lot of really unhappy customers on their hands.
"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.
To fix this, we are adopting AT&T’s recently recommended formula for calculating how many bars to display for a given signal strength. The real signal strength remains the same, but the iPhone’s bars will report it far more accurately, providing users a much better indication of the reception they will get in a given area. We are also making bars 1, 2 and 3 a bit taller so they will be easier to see."
So according to Apple they've been misrepresenting the signal strength to their users. Could they have been making people think their signal strength was better than it is because of all the complaints over AT&T's service? Some people definitely see it that way if our inbox is any indication.
According to Apple's explanation all those people who were able to make the iPhone's signal strength meter go down by gripping the phone in their hand were already in a weak signal area. That can't be right.
Hopefully Apple is correct and they will be able to fix this issue with a software patch. If not, they're going to have a lot of really unhappy customers on their hands.
