[rarewolf]

I think Apple has handled it pretty badly: "hold it in the other hand" and "we're just calculating the number of bars wrong".

This is the point I made at the Apple forum ... i.e., if anything has hurt Apple (and the iPhone 4), it's the way Apple has handled it. Still, I see them coming back from it, once the problems are fixed, it's still the best piece of hardware out there (for camera, video, media).

my CA$0.02

 

[North_of_Calgary]

Looks like Apple is set to hold a press conference Friday morning (10am PST). Guess we'll find out what they want to do (and I'm sure hoping it's not to simply provide a free bumper to all iPhone 4 users).

Ha ha, are you saying you want "more" than a free bumper? I'm thinking you'll get less: there will be no admission of fault, no recall, no freebies.

My guess is that it will go like this:
1) Open with stats on how well iPhone4 is selling (1.7M units etc).
2) Possibly a quick update on white ones (i.e. "will be coming soon").
3) Possibly a quick update on roll out to other countries incl Canada (again probably "will be soon").
4) Some downplaying of the reception issue:
- "Most owners are not complaining about issues"
- "The media and tech forums are blowing this out of proportion"
- "All phones suffer from the same issue"
- "CR rated the phone as best in class in other areas" (Though I'm not entirely sure they'll want to specifically address any specific sources including CR)
- "It's mostly due to software and the bar display algorithm which is fixable"
5) Announcement of iOS4.1: displays number of bars better and has a whole bunch of other tweaks and enhancements.
6) And "one more thing" - facetime now works over 3G - yah!! (OK, going out on a bit of a limb on this one )

End of story. I can't see them admitting defeat and saying that there is an actual problem. Nor really helping the owners out in anyway. If they do (which I doubt) I'm guessing it will be a simple price reduction on the bumpers they sell. Something like a reduction from $30 to $25.

There won't be a hardware fix until iPhone5.

 

[Ruthless82]

Well since I've moved to the US I upgraded on day 1. I could replicate the bar reduction by bridging the antenna gap but while my phone showed less bars there was no reduction in speed at that time, nor did I drop a call. I had ordered a bumper but didn't receive it until July 1. Since then the phone has functioned the same but the number of bars is more stable.

I am curious to see what Apple has to say tomorrow but I guess I'm in the "most" that Apple refers to as having no issues.

Also, the bumper case is fantastic, best case I have had for any of my iphones. I actually prefer it with the case on.

 

[North_of_Calgary]

...My guess is that it will go like this:
1) Open with stats on how well iPhone4 is selling (1.7M units etc).
2) Possibly a quick update on white ones (i.e. "will be coming soon").
3) Possibly a quick update on roll out to other countries incl Canada (again probably "will be soon").
4) Some downplaying of the reception issue:
- "Most owners are not complaining about issues"
- "The media and tech forums are blowing this out of proportion"
- "All phones suffer from the same issue"
- "CR rated the phone as best in class in other areas" (Though I'm not entirely sure they'll want to specifically address any specific sources including CR)
- "It's mostly due to software and the bar display algorithm which is fixable"
5) Announcement of iOS4.1: displays number of bars better and has a whole bunch of other tweaks and enhancements.
6) And "one more thing" - facetime now works over 3G - yah!! (OK, going out on a bit of a limb on this one )

End of story. I can't see them admitting defeat and saying that there is an actual problem. Nor really helping the owners out in anyway. If they do (which I doubt) I'm guessing it will be a simple price reduction on the bumpers they sell. Something like a reduction from $30 to $25.

There won't be a hardware fix until iPhone5.

Well I was pretty much bang on with all of those points except for the free bumpers. I don't think their "admittion" was defeat at all. Watching in on CNBC is was snarky and they basically only admitted that the iphone4 suffers the same problems as every other phone. Nothing more.