4 ms·

I didn't down vote you, but a raw number like 16,000 people is meaningless. What if I said that 16,000 google searches a day give bad results.

by jshen 16y ago

Herring 16y ago
>Steve also claims that only 0.55% of people who bought the iPhone 4 have called into AppleCare to complain about the antenna, and the phone has a 1.7% return rate at AT&T, compared to 6% with the 3GS, though he would cop to a slight increase in dropped calls over the iPhone 3GS.
- KC8ZKF 16y ago
  In the press conference, Steve said 0.55% of AppleCare calls about the iPhone 4 were about reception or antenna issues. That's a big difference from 0.55% of iPhone 4 purchasers.
  - jshen 16y ago
    I'm not sure what your implying. I'm going to bet that the majority of iphone 4 owners haven't ever made an applecare call. This would mean that an even smaller percentage of iphone 4 users have complained about this problem.
    - KC8ZKF 16y ago
      That's what I meant.
mirkules 16y ago
There's lies, damn lies, and statistics. 0.55% sounds great, and not a big deal. In reality, 16,000 people get dropped calls - almost statistically insignificant. But if you're one of those 16K people, then it happens 100% of the time to you! (It's fun to play with statistics to alter public perception)
- ericd 16y ago
  When you deal with many millions, tens of thousands really aren't that big a deal, unless it's a really serious problem. Companies work at a different scale than you or I, and it's not reasonable to apply your own feelings about numbers to the numbers they work with. And it doesn't happen 100% of the time for anyone, it's just very visible to some people when they try it, hence the complaints.
  - JBiserkov 16y ago
    A phone that can't make/maintain proper calls IS a really serious problem. Lying to your customers about perception (5 bars always, making the first two bigger) IS a serious problem. When the Uberphone that was supposed to be mega-awesome has a repeatable hardware issue this IS a serious problem(even if the issue itself is minor, which it's not).
    - ericd 16y ago
      Nah, if you read the ars technica report on it, the perception explanation does turn out to be reasonable due to the way the "reception bars" graph works. Besides that, it explains that despite the fact that the phone suffers greater attenuation than most others, it still actually performs well due to higher sensitivity. See here: http://www.anandtech.com/show/3794/the-iphone-4-review/2 http://www.anandtech.com/show/3794/the-iphone-4-review/2
- mcritz 16y ago
  I think we’d all love a .55% unemployment rate (99% decrease) and be frightened if the homicide rate shot up to .55% (1000% increase). The most useful statistic Apple provided was the comparison between iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS. Dropped calls are about even. As expected.

I didn't down vote you, but a raw number like 16,000 people is meaningless. What if I said that 16,000 google searches a day give bad results.

by jshen 16y ago

I didn't down vote you, but a raw number like 16,000 people is meaningless. What if I said that 16,000 google searches a day give bad results.

Herring 16y ago

>Steve also claims that only 0.55% of people who bought the iPhone 4 have called into AppleCare to complain about the antenna, and the phone has a 1.7% return rate at AT&T, compared to 6% with the 3GS, though he would cop to a slight increase in dropped calls over the iPhone 3GS.

KC8ZKF 16y ago
In the press conference, Steve said 0.55% of AppleCare calls about the iPhone 4 were about reception or antenna issues. That's a big difference from 0.55% of iPhone 4 purchasers.
- jshen 16y ago
  I'm not sure what your implying. I'm going to bet that the majority of iphone 4 owners haven't ever made an applecare call. This would mean that an even smaller percentage of iphone 4 users have complained about this problem.
  - KC8ZKF 16y ago
    That's what I meant.

mirkules 16y ago

There's lies, damn lies, and statistics. 0.55% sounds great, and not a big deal. In reality, 16,000 people get dropped calls - almost statistically insignificant. But if you're one of those 16K people, then it happens 100% of the time to you! (It's fun to play with statistics to alter public perception)

ericd 16y ago
When you deal with many millions, tens of thousands really aren't that big a deal, unless it's a really serious problem. Companies work at a different scale than you or I, and it's not reasonable to apply your own feelings about numbers to the numbers they work with. And it doesn't happen 100% of the time for anyone, it's just very visible to some people when they try it, hence the complaints.
- JBiserkov 16y ago
  A phone that can't make/maintain proper calls IS a really serious problem. Lying to your customers about perception (5 bars always, making the first two bigger) IS a serious problem. When the Uberphone that was supposed to be mega-awesome has a repeatable hardware issue this IS a serious problem(even if the issue itself is minor, which it's not).
  - ericd 16y ago
    Nah, if you read the ars technica report on it, the perception explanation does turn out to be reasonable due to the way the "reception bars" graph works. Besides that, it explains that despite the fact that the phone suffers greater attenuation than most others, it still actually performs well due to higher sensitivity. See here: http://www.anandtech.com/show/3794/the-iphone-4-review/2 http://www.anandtech.com/show/3794/the-iphone-4-review/2
mcritz 16y ago
I think we’d all love a .55% unemployment rate (99% decrease) and be frightened if the homicide rate shot up to .55% (1000% increase). The most useful statistic Apple provided was the comparison between iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS. Dropped calls are about even. As expected.