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Apple didn't get away with anything, because there was nothing to get away with. I know android fans hate to hear it and will likely pound me into oblivion for
by nika 16y ago
Apple didn't get away with anything, because there was nothing to get away with. I know android fans hate to hear it and will likely pound me into oblivion for it, but the reality is that the antenna on the iPhone 4 is better than all the previous devices Apple has shipped, and better than most in the industry.
An external antenna is going to pull in more signal most of the time, and this makes it better. Every device must find compromises to provide the best signal as much of the time as possible, along with convenience. Most android and other smart phones use internal antennas and that is a good design from a usability perspective. Apple did to for the first three iphones. For the iPhone 4 they found a new way to put an antenna on the outside of the phone, without having the silly pull-out antenna that predominated ten years ago.
This gave them better signal pulling capability in almost every situation, with the usability of an internal design. This is a significant innovation.
Which means that the entirety of antenna gate was fueled by anti-apple forces (eg: hack journalists looking for a dramatic story, and general apple haters who posted to blogs and spread the story).
Apple got away with it because there was no real defect in the antenna. The observable effect exists in all modern mobile phones to one degree or another, and this particular design is superior to all past iPhones.
The real lesson here is that a dedicated social media campaign can create massive hassle for a competitor, even when that competitor produces a superior product. I am quite astounded that they were able to make such a big deal out of this. Apple produced an innovative design that was superior in usability and reception, and they managed to turn that into some sort of a liability. They did this even though within days it was revealed publicly that the claims were nonsense by people who understood how radios work. But the few people with technical knowledge cannot beat the masses who don't have it who propagate the FUD. This is the power of FUD, and this is why you see it so often.
Even today there are people who think there is a defect with the iPhone design. For many of them, it is a matter of ideology. They hate apple, and therefore they will continue to believe.
- icegreentea 16y agoOne degree to another does not excuse 'noticable worse than the rest'. You're right, large parts of the hate -was- unjustified. As an engineering student, I understand the necessity of tradeoffs, and acknowledge the advantages of the external antenna. That doesn't mean they couldn't have done it differently, and still have a better antenna. For example, the CDMA iPhone4 (from the AnandTech review) actually has two CDMA antennae, positioned in such a way that the only way you can duplicate the 'death grip' is the cradle with both hands. The launch phone ran into -significant- signal degradation in a common use case. This -should- have been anticipated better. And the whole "you're holding it wrong" thing did not help.
- dhimes 16y agoNo, I'm sorry, the design is flawed. I own one. Our family has owned the iphone 1, 3, and now 4. Yes, the iphone 4 is the best "phone" of the lot, but 1 and 3 were lousy- far too poor for me to risk using as my primary business phone. Which is why I waited for the word on the 4 before I bought one. The main problem was something I could fix with a case- I use cases anyway, so it wasn't a problem for me. Or so I thought. Turns out, there is another flaw, one that I never had with a 2006 motorola on the same network and used under exactly the same conditions. The iphone 4 has an echo- some times- that makes it very difficult to talk. When I'm talking on the phone I get an echo in my ear of what I'm saying. If I have any mobility I can manage this by moving to another room or sometimes just changing the direction in which I'm holding the phone. I love the iphone, it does a lot of things brilliantly, but it has never been a terrific phone. Besides, they advertised for an antenna engineer just after the brouhaha. And, in fairness to them, I never dropped a call because of the antenna (in the week or so I used the phone before the case). I actively tried to a couple of times, but it didn't drop.
- brianpan 16y agoIf you're hearing an echo, that means echo cancellation is not working, either in your network or the network of the person you are calling. I don't believe handsets do any echo cancellation.
- patrickaljord 16y ago> I know android fans hate to hear it and will likely pound me into oblivion for it No, I downvoted because comments like that are very annoying and go against the HN guidelines: See this please: http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html > Please don't bait other users by inviting them to downmod you.