The iPhone 4 signal reception issue has gotten a lot of negative publicity. The ‘solution’ suggested by Apple is that they would solve this issue with a software update although it doesn’t look like that would fix this since it seems more like a hardware issues with iPhone 4. Some experts have suggested that Apple may have to recall iPhone 4 to solve this problem but it doesn’t look possible. Wall Street Journal analysts have said that Apple will not recall the iPhone 4 to minimize the damage to the brand.
Recall of iPhone 4 is highly unlikely because the issue can easily be solved with a bumper. Recalling iPhone 4 would cost Apple too much both in terms of money and reputation. It is also estimated that only twenty five percent of users are experiencing the ‘death grip’ problem when in low signal areas and the other seventy five percent are totally fine with their iPhone 4 signal. Another fact is that seventy five percent of the users are already using bumpers for iPhone 4.
Citigroup analyst Richard Gardner said:
We consider the probability of a recall to be very low given our view that the issue in question is not serious enough to warrant a recall.While bridging two portions of the antenna with one’s hand on the lower-left corner of the phone does cause signal degradation, it does not typically result in dropped calls unless the signal from the cell tower is already weak. Excluding this issue, overall signal reception on iPhone 4 seems at least as good, if not slightly better, than reception on the iPhone 3GS.
So the recall for iPhone 4 seems impossible but the interesting thing is that even though Apple said that they would solve this problem with a software update, they had mentioned buying bumpers before but the official statement which blamed this issue on software. Whatever the case is, iPhone 4 is still the best smartphone available and buying a bumper to solve the signal issues is not a bad idea.
[via 9to5mac]
it has nothing to do with low signal. i had a play in the apple store at the trafford centre, two identical 4's both on 3, one with a full signal operated by my better half, and the other held by me with the “death grip”, or whatever you want to call it.
hers had a consistant 5 (?) bars, whereas mine went to emergency after a few minutes of me holding it like that. ok, not instant dropping, but if you're having a long call and hold it like that, it aint good!