Editor's Note: This post was originally published on alexleiphart.com. View the original here:
http://alexleiphart.com/blog/2010/08/thoughts-on-apple-antennagate/
As many know, I love technology and how it can help us. I especially embrace Apple products and how we can use them to make our day to day lives easier. In the past few weeks, I have come across a few occasions where I hear negative remarks towards Apple and their mistakes they’ve made lately with iPhone 4. Everyone has the right to an opinion, once the facts are fully understood.
I, like many others am an iPhone 4 user, Apple’s latest flagship smartphone. With every new phone, especially smartphones, comes many challenges. One of those many challenges is the antenna. On iPhone 4, the antenna is wrapped around the perimeter of the phone, and when touched can possibly interefere with the signal. Many media sources picked up on the potential issue, and literally made it sound ten times worse than the problem actually was. This was soon dubbed, “Antennagate”.
Let’s take a look at the facts. It’s true that when the black bar (part of the antenna) in the lower left-hand corner of iPhone 4 is touched, your signal can drop from 5 to 0 bars within seconds. It’s also true that when any other smartphone’s antenna is touched in the same way, the signal will drop as well. This issue is a common problem with iPhone 3GS, many BlackBerry models, Droid Eris, Droid X and most other smarthphones on the market today. It’s not unique to iPhone 4.
Phones aren’t perfect.
Apple has made plenty of mistakes in the past. I’m not doubting that. Antennagate is just one of them. Even after hearing about this problem, I still purchased myself an iPhone 4. In terms of daily usage, I’ve yet to drop a call. Unless you intentionally hold your iPhone that way, you won’t have a problem.
In terms of other smartphones, many antennas are placed on the top or lower back of the phone. I’ve tried holding a Blackberry Curve in the way I usually would, and the signal dropped drastically. This is a problem that every smartphone has, and until one finds a solution, we’re stuck with it.
Apple held a press conference a few weeks ago to apologize for this issue publicly. They shouldn’t be the only ones apologizing. Every smartphone company should be holding a press conference publicly confessing the problem. Apple loves their users and want to make them happy more than anything. They’re rated number one in customer service anywhere you go. At the time of this writing, they are the only ones that are attempting to at least temporarly fix this problem. Apple is spending $175 million dollars to provide every iPhone 4 customer with a free case or Bumper. My iPhone 4 currently sports a black bumper and I think it’s great! Like I said above, I haven’t had one signal issue even with the Bumper removed.
This isn’t the only problem we’ve had lately. The other problem is people. Since my purchase of iPhone 4, I get asked almost daily if I’ve suffered “Antennagate”. Whenever I say no, I get a negative remark back more times than not. I’m not offended by it, so keep on doin’ it! This is where opinions get tied in with facts. If you don’t know the correct facts, you can’t go out saying negative remarks about the particular issue. I think it’s just a result of some close minded person that has no insight on Apple and for whatever reason is against Apple. That’s what really pisses me off and puts me over the edge.
This is just another example of a small problem being blown out of porportion by the media, and then followed by negative remarks by people that have little or no insight on the actual problem at stake here. Hope this essay finds you well and gives you a little more insight on what really happened.
Cameron Knapp 