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FTA - | So, naturally, the design evolved to meet requirements - and efficient transmission and reception while being held by a human hand are simply not desig

by suraj 16y ago

FTA - | So, naturally, the design evolved to meet requirements - and efficient transmission and reception while being held by a human hand are simply not design requirements! This is analogous to saying driving experience doesn't matter as long as car pases emission tests which is certainly not true (I hope). People don't buy phones because it passes FCC testing they buy phones to make calls! If you don't factor human hand into your design, word of mouth will kill the phone.

fname 16y ago
word of mouth will kill the phone I'm not so sure. Of all the complaints about AT&T consistently dropping calls, people are still flocking to the iPhone. I realize they don't have a choice, but once again, people are voting with their dollars. They're willing to accept a subpar network for a cool phone.
- ramy_d 16y ago
  people do have choice http://store.apple.com/uk/browse/home/shop_iphone/family/iphone http://store.apple.com/uk/browse/home/shop_iphone/family/iph... people are voting with their dollars. The design of the product is more important than its functionality (this is to say: the average consumer likes pretty things).
  - fname 16y ago
    By choices, I'm referring to the network. Most consumers (not ones who jailbreak, mind you...) don't have a choice. If they want the iPhone, they're stuck with ATT.
    - jarek 16y ago
      * in the U.S.
- alexitosrv 16y ago
  But in this case, people also must be willing to accept a not so cool iPhone a cause of the antenna issue... well, unless they want to follow that stupid solution suggested by Jobs.
douglasputnam 16y ago
"word of mouth will kill the phone" Whenever we hear a prediction about "word of mouth" stunting the sales of an Apple product, we have to take that statement with an iPhone-sized grain of salt. Word of mouth doesn't hurt recent Apple products. The Gizmodo "leaks" were word of mouth about this particular phone and Apple sold 1,000,000 phones today. If you will think back a few months, "word of mouth" was that the 27-inch iMac had screen problems. That "word of mouth" amounted to thousands of posts on the Apple support site. Apple simply fixed/replaced the machines with problems, improving their reputation as a make-good company. I haven't heard any "word of mouth" about the iMac lately because the customers are satisfied and the FUD has evaporated. When these iPhone problems are resolved, this entire thread will dry up and blow away in the wind.
- jsz0 16y ago
  I've been thinking about this a lot lately. There's definitely a growing disconnect between internet people and reality. It's not at all limited to technology news. I don't think it's going to end well.
  - jurjenh 16y ago
    Most likely to immersion bias - they tend to visit sites that align with their beliefs, which in turn reinforces their world view, and without a healthy dose of physical reality, the distortion gets so bad you tend to get these types of comments a lot. It pays to be aware of the subjectiveness of your feelings on things - if I can't put objective figures on it, then I don't trust it - which tends to eliminate popular folklore from a lot of scenarios...
  - mechanical_fish 16y ago
    a growing disconnect between internet people and reality The disconnect has always been there. People have always had immersion bias. That's why it goes by many names: Parochialism, regionalism, racism, class bias, tribalism. It's fun to watch people blame the disconnect between tribal culture and reality on the Internet -- one could have predicted that; new technology tends to get blamed for anything and everything, no matter what the technology is -- but history is replete with examples of clueless, reality-disconnected people who managed to construct their bubbles without the benefit of any kind of networking tech. Lysenko didn't need the net. The pre-Revolutionary French aristocracy didn't need the net.
watty 16y ago
Yep, this piece really threw me off on the article. He may be an antenna expert but he definitely doesn't know much about product design. OF COURSE reception when being held is a design requirement. Regulation requirements must trump aesthetics and functionality but it doesn't mean Apple doesn't consider stuff like the way the phone looks and how well it works when held.

by suraj 16y ago

fname 16y ago

word of mouth will kill the phone I'm not so sure. Of all the complaints about AT&T consistently dropping calls, people are still flocking to the iPhone. I realize they don't have a choice, but once again, people are voting with their dollars. They're willing to accept a subpar network for a cool phone.

ramy_d 16y ago
people do have choice http://store.apple.com/uk/browse/home/shop_iphone/family/iphone http://store.apple.com/uk/browse/home/shop_iphone/family/iph... people are voting with their dollars. The design of the product is more important than its functionality (this is to say: the average consumer likes pretty things).
- fname 16y ago
  By choices, I'm referring to the network. Most consumers (not ones who jailbreak, mind you...) don't have a choice. If they want the iPhone, they're stuck with ATT.
  - jarek 16y ago
    * in the U.S.
alexitosrv 16y ago
But in this case, people also must be willing to accept a not so cool iPhone a cause of the antenna issue... well, unless they want to follow that stupid solution suggested by Jobs.

douglasputnam 16y ago

"word of mouth will kill the phone" Whenever we hear a prediction about "word of mouth" stunting the sales of an Apple product, we have to take that statement with an iPhone-sized grain of salt. Word of mouth doesn't hurt recent Apple products. The Gizmodo "leaks" were word of mouth about this particular phone and Apple sold 1,000,000 phones today. If you will think back a few months, "word of mouth" was that the 27-inch iMac had screen problems. That "word of mouth" amounted to thousands of posts on the Apple support site. Apple simply fixed/replaced the machines with problems, improving their reputation as a make-good company. I haven't heard any "word of mouth" about the iMac lately because the customers are satisfied and the FUD has evaporated. When these iPhone problems are resolved, this entire thread will dry up and blow away in the wind.

jsz0 16y ago
I've been thinking about this a lot lately. There's definitely a growing disconnect between internet people and reality. It's not at all limited to technology news. I don't think it's going to end well.
- jurjenh 16y ago
  Most likely to immersion bias - they tend to visit sites that align with their beliefs, which in turn reinforces their world view, and without a healthy dose of physical reality, the distortion gets so bad you tend to get these types of comments a lot. It pays to be aware of the subjectiveness of your feelings on things - if I can't put objective figures on it, then I don't trust it - which tends to eliminate popular folklore from a lot of scenarios...
- mechanical_fish 16y ago
  a growing disconnect between internet people and reality The disconnect has always been there. People have always had immersion bias. That's why it goes by many names: Parochialism, regionalism, racism, class bias, tribalism. It's fun to watch people blame the disconnect between tribal culture and reality on the Internet -- one could have predicted that; new technology tends to get blamed for anything and everything, no matter what the technology is -- but history is replete with examples of clueless, reality-disconnected people who managed to construct their bubbles without the benefit of any kind of networking tech. Lysenko didn't need the net. The pre-Revolutionary French aristocracy didn't need the net.

watty 16y ago

Yep, this piece really threw me off on the article. He may be an antenna expert but he definitely doesn't know much about product design. OF COURSE reception when being held is a design requirement. Regulation requirements must trump aesthetics and functionality but it doesn't mean Apple doesn't consider stuff like the way the phone looks and how well it works when held.