A day after pinning the blame for erratic iPhone 4 reception on a faulty antenna design,
Consumer Reports said it thinks Apple, not consumers, should pay to fix the problem.
Since the much-heralded iPhone 4 got into consumers` hands June 24th, there have been complaints about the so-called "death grip." When holding the phone a certain way, consumers said bars indicating reception dropped off and sometimes, so did calls. Apple said the problem was an optical illusion caused by a software glitch, and urged customers to buy a plastic case for their phones.
Writing on its Technology Blog today, Consumer Reports said the problem is clearly a matter for Apple to address.
"We think it`s the company`s responsibility to provide the fix-at no extra cost to consumers," CR said.
CR`s statement Monday that it could not recommend the iPhone 4 because of the antenna problem was big news in the technology press. There were debates today on competing blogs about whether or not Apple would - or should - recall the iPhone 4.
When Apple reportedly deleted a thread on the Apple forum about the CR review, readers went ballistic. "Apple appears to be resorting to censorship on its company message boards," said wirelessground.com.
Market reaction
Wall Street today hit Apple where it hurts. Apple stock fell more than five points in today`s trading, a 2.1 percent decline. The CR dust-up appears to be just the latest in a series of snafus dogging the high-flying technology firm.
In its report Monday, CR offered several temporary fixes, but said today it believes that`s only a stop-gap measure.
"The real fix, we believe, should come from Apple," CR said today.
Apple has said it will issue a software update that will make the phone`s bars more accurate, though CR says it remains to be seen if fixing metering inaccuracies will address the problem of dropped calls. The company will also provide a full refund to users who return their iPhone within 30 days.
"But for those who prefer to keep their iPhone, we encourage Apple to step forward soon with a remedy that fixes the confirmed antenna issue, and not one that requires additional consumer expense," CR said.
Testing complete
Consumer Reports engineers said yesterday that they had just completed testing the iPhone 4 and confirmed that a hardware flaw is creating the reception problem. As a result, Consumer Reports said it has decided not to recommend the iPhone 4.
The CR analysis is in direct contradiction to Apple`s explanation. The company attributed the drop in reception bars when the phone is held a certain way - what frustrated users have dubbed "the death grip" - to a software glitch. It said there was actually no loss of signal.
But the engineers at CR disagree, saying there is a problem with its reception.
"When your finger or hand touches a spot on the phone`s lower left side - an easy thing, especially for lefties - the signal can significantly degrade enough to cause you to lose your connection altogether if you`re in an area with a weak signal," CR said in a statement. "Due to this problem, we can`t recommend the iPhone 4."
CR said it reached its conclusion after testing all three iPhone 4s, purchased at three separate retailers in the New York area, in the controlled environment of CU`s radio frequency (RF) isolation chamber. In this room, which is impervious to outside radio signals, test engineers connected the phones to a base-station emulator, a device that simulates carrier cell towers.
The engineers say they also tested several other AT&T phones the same way, including the iPhone 3G S and the Palm Pre. None of those phones had the signal-loss problems of the iPhone 4, the engineers said.
"Our findings call into question the recent claim by Apple that the iPhone 4`s signal-strength issues were largely an optical illusion caused by faulty software that `mistakenly displays 2 more bars than it should for a given signal strength,`" CR said.
The tests also indicate that AT&T`s network might not be the primary suspect in the iPhone 4`s much-reported signal woes.
Duct tape
"We did, however, find an affordable solution for suffering iPhone 4 users: Cover the antenna gap with a piece of duct tape or another thick, non-conductive material," the engineers advised. "It may not be pretty, but it works."
Apple recommended that consumers use a case for the iPhone 4 and the CR engineers said they expect that would, in fact, provide a remedy. They said they will test the phone with a case next week.
Consumer Reports said the signal problem is the reason that it did not cite the iPhone 4 as a "recommended" model, even though its score in other CR tests placed it atop the latestRatings of smart phones that were released Monday.
The iPhone scored high, in part because it has the sharpest display and best video camera seen on any phone, and even outshines its high-scoring predecessors with improved battery life and such new features as a front-facing camera for video chats and a built-in gyroscope that turns the phone into a super-responsive game controller.
"But Apple needs to come up with a permanent-and free-fix for the antenna problem before we can recommend the iPhone 4," CR concluded.
If you want an iPhone that works well without a masking-tape fix, CR said it continues to recommend an older model, the 3G S.
