Today Apple issued a letter on their web site explaining the iPhone 4 reception issue. I am afraid Apple's explanation is not convincing at all. Apple said "Upon investigation, we were stunned to find that the formula we use to calculate how many bars of signal strength to display is totally wrong." I am a wireless engineer by training. That explanation from Apple is just bizzare. Not to bore everyone with the technical details I will explain in a note at the end of this blog for those who are interested.
Apple said "To fix this, we are adopting AT&T’s recently recommended formula for calculating how many bars to display for a given signal strength. The real signal strength remains the same, but the iPhone’s bars will report it far more accurately, providing users a much better indication of the reception they will get in a given area." Translation - Now we 'fix' the software to 'accurately' show you how bad the signal really is. It means the phone will show fewer bars with the new software. So, we now blame the AT&T network coverage instead of the iPhone 4 reception or antenna problem?
Now it begs the question whether Apple's iPhone design team knew this antenna problem all along. Apple had never sold any decorative accessories for the iPhone. It leaves the accessories to after-market vendors. Why is Apple selling a plastic bumper for the iPhone 4 and it costs $30! Turning a crisis into an opportunity?
Note:
The phone software can fudge the number of bars displayed to anything. Let's consider a hypothetical example. Let's assume in Phone#1 a signal level of -100dBm shows 1 bar and every 2dBm shows another bar. The signal indicator on Phone#1 will show the following, -100dBm = 1 bar, -98dBm = 2 bars, -96dBm = 3 bars, -94dBm = 4 bars and anything higher than -92dBm = 5 bars. Now, let's change two variables so that on Phone#2 the bar starts showing at -95dBm and every 5dBm shows another bar. The signal indicator on Phone#2 will show -95dBm = 1 bar, -90dBm = 2 bars, -85dBm = 3 bars, -80dBm = 4 bars and anything higher than -75dBm = 5 bars. Now a user starts at a location receiving -90dBm and move to a area where the signal drops to -100dBm. Phone#1 shows 5 bars at the first location and then drops to 1 bar at the second location. Phone#2 displays 2 bars and then drops to no bars. Same phone, same signal, different software show different number of bars. That doesn't solve any coverage or reception problem but just faking the number of signal bars. The real proof is to look at the RxLev in absolute numeric value in dBm in a field test mode, not some artifically fudged signal bars displayed on the phone.
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