Wednesday, September 15, 2010

iPhone 4...Shame on Apple

Well the iPhone 4 was released back in June, and since then it has caused an uproar in the smart phone community.  Why?  Well if you haven't heard it has a bit of antenna issue with it's new design.  Antenna issue = signal loss.

At first, the culprit seemed to be AT&T's network that was causing the issue.  However, extensive testing finally revealed that it was in fact the phone antenna that was causing the problem.  The phone would lose signal when it was held in the wrong way (well what Apple deems the wrong way).  The problem with holding like the picture on the left, is that the user was actually gripping the antenna band.  By doing so, the user would inadvertently disrupt the signal to and from the phone, causing dropped calls and very slow speeds.




To remedy this issue Apple had a great idea to give out free cases to everyone who purchased an iPhone 4.  Since the case would fix the issue everyone was happy, similar to how Nintendo gave out free rubber sleeves for their controllers. The problem is that Apple has now decided to stop giving away free cases on September 30th.  So anyone that buys an iPhone after the 30th is boned.  Apple claims that the number of phones that are actually having an issue is far lower than they thought previously.  After hearing this from Apple, I couldn't help but think of the scene in Fight Club, where Edward Norton is talking about how he works for a large car company and explains their recall procedure.

"A new car built by my company leaves somewhere traveling at 60 mph. The rear differential locks up. The car crashes and burns with everyone trapped inside. Now, should we initiate a recall? Take the number of vehicles in the field, A, multiply by the probable rate of failure, B, multiply by the average out-of-court settlement, C. A times B times C equals X. If X is less than the cost of a recall, we don't do one."

The whole process just reeks of shadiness.  If you make a foul product Apple, and any other company out there, do the right thing and correct it...for free!

So, if you were one of the ones that bought the iPhone4 and have been putting off getting that free case they were offering, you had best get on it because getting one easily is going out the window soon.  Too be fair to Apple, they are still offering the program to get a free case but you are going to have to jump through quite a few hoops to get it.

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