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How about this: I know about 20 people who have iPhone 4's. None of them have any issues with the antenna, no matter how they hold the phone. This issues is hug

by andreyf 16y ago

How about this: I know about 20 people who have iPhone 4's. None of them have any issues with the antenna, no matter how they hold the phone. This issues is hugely overblown, demonstrated by elementary arithmetic. These issues exist in very few phones, or maybe with very sweaty hands.

kelnos 16y ago
A sample of 20 of your friends/acquaintances is neither statistically significant nor random.
- KirinDave 16y ago
  And that'd matter a lot if people took product reviews from statistics. The iPhone is a phenomenon largely driven by word of mouth, and it always has been. Sure, it gets a ton of press and attention, but that sort of stuff doesn't move phones. If it did, many other phones would be moving more units. Look at how much money and time Verizon had to dump to make the Droid take off; we haven't seen a phone model even remotely as successful (as in units sold) from any vendor but Apple since that massive ad blitzkrieg. You see someone using an iPhone, you like it, you get one. Now everyone asks me, "Do you have an antenna problem?" I say, "No, it's been working much better for me." Then they go get one. Similarly, when I was considering an EVO someone came up to me and said, "Don't get an EVO, look at this terrible battery life." I backed off. Because phones play such a huge role in our daily lives, word-of-mouth and personal testimonial become very important. If Apple can preserve positive sentiment in its users, they will keep selling phones. Judging from their absurdly high sales numbers thus far, they're managing to keep the majority happy.
  - kelnos 16y ago
    Many people do follow a statistical/empirical approach when deciding whether or not to buy a particular product. If no one did, review companies like Consumer Reports wouldn't exist. The fact that many customers seem to drool over Apple products simply because of the Apple label is regrettable (for some reasons, not all), but not that surprising. (Hell, I love my MacBook Pro, even though I only run Linux on it. At present it'd take a lot to convince me to buy a non-Apple laptop. I won't go near the iPhone for software reasons, but that's another matter.)
- loewenskind 16y ago
  Wait, what? You're calling someone out on anecdotal evidence compared to your, what? Bunch of blogs on the internet? The only hard data I've seen was from Apple and that had the problem at less than 1%. Were you being ironic on purpose?
  - kelnos 16y ago
    Hey now, please don't put words in my mouth. I never claimed to have any evidence of anything. I merely made a general statement about the lack of validity of a statistically-insignificant, non-random sample. Sounds like you have an axe to grind, or something. But yes, I would trust a bunch of blogs on the internet (at least, the ones that have proven themselves over time to be reputable) over a random anecdote from a HN poster.

by andreyf 16y ago

kelnos 16y ago

A sample of 20 of your friends/acquaintances is neither statistically significant nor random.

KirinDave 16y ago
And that'd matter a lot if people took product reviews from statistics. The iPhone is a phenomenon largely driven by word of mouth, and it always has been. Sure, it gets a ton of press and attention, but that sort of stuff doesn't move phones. If it did, many other phones would be moving more units. Look at how much money and time Verizon had to dump to make the Droid take off; we haven't seen a phone model even remotely as successful (as in units sold) from any vendor but Apple since that massive ad blitzkrieg. You see someone using an iPhone, you like it, you get one. Now everyone asks me, "Do you have an antenna problem?" I say, "No, it's been working much better for me." Then they go get one. Similarly, when I was considering an EVO someone came up to me and said, "Don't get an EVO, look at this terrible battery life." I backed off. Because phones play such a huge role in our daily lives, word-of-mouth and personal testimonial become very important. If Apple can preserve positive sentiment in its users, they will keep selling phones. Judging from their absurdly high sales numbers thus far, they're managing to keep the majority happy.
- kelnos 16y ago
  Many people do follow a statistical/empirical approach when deciding whether or not to buy a particular product. If no one did, review companies like Consumer Reports wouldn't exist. The fact that many customers seem to drool over Apple products simply because of the Apple label is regrettable (for some reasons, not all), but not that surprising. (Hell, I love my MacBook Pro, even though I only run Linux on it. At present it'd take a lot to convince me to buy a non-Apple laptop. I won't go near the iPhone for software reasons, but that's another matter.)
loewenskind 16y ago
Wait, what? You're calling someone out on anecdotal evidence compared to your, what? Bunch of blogs on the internet? The only hard data I've seen was from Apple and that had the problem at less than 1%. Were you being ironic on purpose?
- kelnos 16y ago
  Hey now, please don't put words in my mouth. I never claimed to have any evidence of anything. I merely made a general statement about the lack of validity of a statistically-insignificant, non-random sample. Sounds like you have an axe to grind, or something. But yes, I would trust a bunch of blogs on the internet (at least, the ones that have proven themselves over time to be reputable) over a random anecdote from a HN poster.