About the ‘Antennagate’
As you noticed already I write about Photography but I write also a lot about Apple, Smartphones and iPhones. So I cannot avoid a word on that antennagate story.
First, monday was an interesting day for me, FedEx delivered my iPhone 4. It took me about 5 minutes to have it activated and another 30 seconds to test the infamous death grip to the conclusion that… what a bullshit!
There is simply no problem there. Ok, there is some signal attenuation. Ok, if I hold the phone tight for a minute maybe the signal will decrease but nowhere enough to drop a call. And in real life who will grip a phone like that and hold tight and not end up with cramps after a few minutes.
Come on, this is just plain bullshit.
I also watched the press conference last week about this topic and like everybody I noticed the body language and sort of contempt in Steve Jobs attitude when he announced the free bumper for everybody. And honestly now that I have experienced the real extend of the matter (sorry, I cannot call that a problem) I understand much better his frustration and his general attitude with the media.
This bumper giveaway will cost Apple probably $150 to $200 millions because of something that has been blown out of proportion by the media. That’s kind of expensive for a media interference.
So what’s the bottom line. iPhone 4 has a new antenna design, with a trade off. There is one clearly indicated weak spot in an overall excellent product. Does that make the product unusable? No. Is it a reason for a recall? Never ever. Is it a real problem preventing a normal usage of this product? Not in my experience. Actually I don’t even think about it or pay particular attention to it. I never used a case on my iPhones and I won’t use one on the iPhone 4, because I don’t like cases, because they are ugly and not convenient.
Funny thing, now the focus has shifted from the antenna issue to Steve Jobs attitude during the press conference.
And honestly I understand him. To me his answer to this problem is exactly in line with the way he thinks and not very different to his answer on the flash controversy. Listen if you have not done so yet to the interview he gave at All things Digital a few month ago. The segment on Flash is particularly relevant, basically steve’s opinion is quite simple – we think that Flash is not appropriate for iOS devices, there are technologies that allow us to get the same result without the problems generated by Flash, so we don;t need Flash and we won’t invest in it. If people agree with us they will buy our products, and if they think we are wrong they won’t!
For that matter Steve is the ultimate believer in free market. He must be a good friend of Alan Greenspan.
And when you look at the last quarter numbers, the market tend to prove that steve is right. Yesterday Apple repeated several times that they sell the iOS devices as fast as they can make them and cannot keep up with demand.
Nowadays information travels fast and social medias are powerful to build or destroy the reputation of a product, obviously the iPad sales like crazy even without Flash and people buy iPhone 4 despite the antenna weak spot. And they don’t return those products.
So what happened? There is a weak spot on the iPhone 4 antenna. Maybe this should have been clearly explained during the presentation of the product. Instead, it was blown out of proportion by the media. We heard all sorts of conspiracy theory about Apple knowing about it and having ulterior motives. at the end of the day – money talks, bullshit walks. Or maybe customers do. People want to buy more iPhone 4 and iPads than Apple can produce. They don’t return the products. They experience some dropped calls but not more than any other phone on the market.
This bullshit is over. Price tag for this media stunt – about $150 millions.
I’m a strong believer in the freedom of the media but maybe they should really focus on the important topics nowadays, not on that kind of easy crap.


