iPhone 4 satisfaction high, but lower than iPhone 3GS

Results from a small-scale survey rating satisfaction among iPhone 4 owners were released Wednesday. The verdict? Mixed. ChangeWave Research, a self-described "independent research boutique", conducted a survey of 231 iPhone 4 owners to determine what they described as "one of the biggest unknowns" in the ongoing handset dust- …

[Anonymous Coward]

Pretty much in line with my informal inquiries of owners

yes, you can attenuate the signal indication (regardless of whether or not that's an accurate indication of signal strength) by performing assorted kinds of hand-jive, but no, it doesn't really seem to be causing any problem with day-to-day usage. Admittedly, this is from folks in London where poor signal strength hasn't been that much of a problem for a good few years now, unlike our poor friends in the States where AT&T seems to be little better than a couple of old Campbell's soup cans connected by a piece of overcooked spaghetti.

[DZ-Jay]

Drop-call rate?

If drop-call rate measures the potential of the network to drop calls, then wouldn't a "poor" drop-call rate be a Good Thing, as in a "low potential to drop calls"?

This is one of those thing like a "negative prognosis" which sound counter-intuitive to the layman.

-dZ.

[Anonymous Coward]

" 24 per cent of iPhone owners cited "Antenna Issues" "

In other words, people have seen all the media reports and think there is a problem with their phone, despite their actual experience of not having any problems with it.

Can we stop beating this dead horse now or would the Android fanbois like to continue claiming the phone explodes and gives you cancer when you touch it?

[Anonymous Coward]

A++++

Would thumb down again.

[DrXym]

There is an issue with the phone

Perhaps someone can train themselves to avoid the issue or use duct tape / rubber slipcase but the phone does have the issue. Apple and Jobs have both admitted it after numerous independent demonstrations of the issue. Simply put, just holding the phone in an ordinary way can degrade the signal strength to unusable levels.

Now perhaps it's not a deal breaker. Perhaps iPhone users lovingly insert their phones in silicon bumpers anyway. But the issue is there and is a serious design flaw in the device.

[Anonymous Coward]

"holding the phone in an ordinary way can degrade the signal strength"

What constitutes "holding the phone in an ordinary way"? I find the natural way to hold the iPhone 4 doesn't involve bridging the two antennas, and that's with either hand. Judging from the study I'm not the only one either.

I don't deny bridging the antennas can cause the signal strength to fall, but I think you have to be deliberately trying to hold it in such a way as to cause it to happen, and I would argue that's not normal usage. I've seen the YouTube video of a single finger causing the signal to be lost, but I can't recreate that even though I only get about 2 bars from O2 where I live.

It is a design flaw, but it's one that never interferes with everyday usage of the phone in any way. I think it's only an issue for those who want to bash the device.

[Anonymous Coward]

@AC "you're holding it wrong!"

I'm glad that holding the iPhone doesn't bridge the antenna for you. You get a great big golf clap and a stunning round of vuvuzelas to make you feel special and proud. Glad that you "hold it right."

There are however those among us who are *gasp* possessed of different combinations of genes than you are! (Shocking, I know. Wars have been fought over this.) My particular genetics mean that when I hold the phone in the manner most comfortable to me, the bloody antenna shorts out and it's useless.

I am so unbelievably sick of everyone in these iPhone threads spamming comments that boil down to "well, my experience is X and thus it must hold true for everyone! If you disagree with me you're a fanboi/apple-hate/moron/heathen/anti-heathen/spawn of or tool of evil."

Every single one of you uptight pricks on all sides of this battle can go straight to whatever place makes you the least comfortable. There is a design flaw with the device. For this, Apple deserves to be spanked. The design flaw isn't the end of the world: there are numerous simple workarounds that basically involve coving the area on the antenna that can be bridged.

Other than the design flaw, it's a reasonably acceptable smartphone. It does what needs to be done, in a manner that obviously some people enjoy. Is it "better' than Android, or vice the versa? Not really. They are both so close to each other in terms of capability and performance that it boils down to what the INDIVIDUAL likes.

Which brings me right back to...

...that something works or doesn't work for you does not mean that the same is true for everyone. We are all different; please join us here in the 21st century. It’s some 75 years AFTER we fought a major world war about this concept. Any civilised country has recognised the natural, legal and moral rights of all people, consisting different races, genders, beliefs, sexual orientations and every other method of drawing distinguishment and division.

For the love of $diety people, you’re supposed to be the GEEKS. The vast majority of you have probably experienced some form of social ostracisation for a goodly chunk of your lives, and you sit here trying to come up with and reinforce NEW ways to alienate each other?

Each and every one of you that dismissively claims that what you like/dislike use/don’t use believe/don’t believe is the ultimate arbiter of how the entirety of the human race should think act be and behave should have your privileges to EVER mock some small minded cretin permanently revoked. Most likely including myself in that statement.

I am sickened and disgusted by us all.

A/C because while this is for some reason making me angry enough to post a gigantic rant, I well might regret signing my name to such vitriol after I've calmed down some...

[Anonymous Coward]

Title

I'd be more inclined to believe that iPhone users are inserting them into latex bumpers.

/Rimshot

//Hahaha. He said "RIM".

[Anonymous Coward]

in the words of nana.....

....What a load of old shit!

(the phone not the article, hehehe)

[Anonymous Coward]

Statistics are like mini skirts...

they give you good ideas but hide the most important parts

[Les Matthew]

Re: Statistics are like mini skirts...

"they give you good ideas but hide the most important parts"

Not when it's windy in central London, and especially not if they are wearing a thong underneath.

And it is not always a pleasant sight.

[Anonymous Coward]

Dropped Calls

I guess it's hard to drop a call if you can't make or receive one in the first place due to having no signal!

[Anonymous Coward]

Possibly a stupid question:

How can you tell when a dropped call is the fault of the carrier or the antenna?

[Scorchio!!]

How

Jailbreak it, use a number of different suppliers. Put it in the lab, test it for responses:

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/study-death-grip-antenna-problems-unique-to-iphone-4/37427?tag=nl.e539

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/07/30/pa_consulting_group_iphone_4_tests/

Mind you, they were warned about this, as you can see, so this is not a question of mere hindsight but one also of foresight and insight:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-07-15/apple-engineer-said-to-have-told-jobs-last-year-about-iphone-antenna-flaw.html

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/07/15/jobs_was_told_about_judas_phone_antenna_problems/

What with the latest news showing this ghastly creation has blue tooth, proximity sensor, iOS update problems, battery longevity problems following successful iOS upgrades (makes it more of a resource hog) it's clear that Jobs/Apple have taken the hint. They have hidden complaints about them like so:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/08/02/apple_antenna/

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/gadgetreviews/apple-drops-competitor-antenna-criticism-from-website/16857?tag=nl.e550

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/07/13/iphone_support/

Indeed, there is now a clear line on security flaws, consistent with other Apple products:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-10865288

So it will come as no suprise to fanbois that Apple are going to try again:

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/apple/rumor-mill-iphone-5-7-inch-ipad-ipods-and-bumpers/7856

This was their Vista - though Vista's problems were more due to behaving like the Nanny State - and perhaps iPhone 5 will be their 7. Who knows, but it will be nice to see Apple following in Microsoft's steps for once, especially given their current swathe of security problems:

http://arstechnica.com/security/news/2010/07/apple-the-new-world-leader-in-software-insecurity.ars

http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/mac/?p=611&tag=nl.e101

And a variety of OS howlers:

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2010/03/29/mac_os_x_updates/

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/11/10/apple_mac_security_update/

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/12/04/mac_windows_java_attack/

Then there was 'time capsule':

http://timecapsuledead.org/

http://www.reghardware.com/2010/07/12/apple_time_capsule_warranty/

There have been other hardware problems too:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/02/05/imac_refunds/

Me PC not Mac, though I have on occasions been tempted by their designer beauty. It's probably far more satisfying that the black beast on the floor to my extreme right has not ever let me down, boots up to its 64 bit OS in 30 seconds, and doesn't blink when I give it a hard job to do. Speed's a question of money; how much have you got to spend?

[JaitcH]

Reality at last? Fanbois acknowledge V4 is a Lemon?

It appears this survey has finally begun to reveal the truth - Lemon 4 users admitting it isn't perfect.

Call dropping might be the result of software changes made in iOS4+ to reduce battery consumption. Obviously there is more than that disappointing Lemon 4 owners but the sample of 231 users is hardly a big enough sample to flesh out accurate numbers and details.

If AT&T is the problem, why not survey owners of liberated/jail broken Lemon 4's? At least we would have better picture of which element in a call is not meeting expectations,

[Anonymous Coward]

Modern Statistics?

"The sample of 231 users is hardly a big enough sample to flesh out accurate numbers and details."

You don't know much about modern polling then, do you?

The average poll size accepted as accurate for politics/news/etc in the USA is between 2000 and 4000 people. The US population is 307 million people. 231 people for a supposed 4 million iPhone 4 users is more than enough to be accurate.

I'd explain why, but I really don't feel like teaching Gaussian distributions today.

[Scorchio!!]

Distributions

The normal or Gaussian distribution is not the only one. I'd explain why, but I really don't feel like teaching Poisson distributions today!

The point though is that polling for satisfaction does not constitute an accurate measure of performance, and is redolent of the scene in the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy, where a modern marketing consultant discusses different takes on fire, including whether people want it fitted nasally or not. This was more than mere sarcasm, it was Adams highlighting the difference between preference and truths, between cultural relativism and the truth.

Lecture 1, Intro to Philosophy 101, now concludes.

[StChom]

Bigotry.

"Fanbois" being your default name for Apple users, I bet for MS and Linux users your usual ones are "Lemmings" and "Freetards" ?

[Scorchio!!]

Cult

It's a simple as observing the behaviour of these people and arriving at a conclusion:

http://www.reghardware.com/2010/08/03/apple_as_a_religion/

http://www.cultofmac.com/

[Tigra 07]

Cold callers

Was the survey done over the phone?

Only the people with a good iphone signal would be able to answer the survey that way and apple can claim there isn't an antennagate.

[Alan Denman]

Apple issued an update to fix this!

Considering Apple are deleting forum messages on the massive Iphone 3G and 3GS IOS 4 update disaster it is quite safe to assume users are happier with the iPhone 4.

[Anonymous Coward]

what 3GS iOS4 update disaster?

I upgraded my 3GS two weeks ago and it's absolutely fine...

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: what 3GS iOS4 update disaster?

It's just another storm in a teacup from the haters. My brother's 3GS has been fine since he updated and a friend reckons his 3GS feels faster and more responsive since the update. There are always a few devices that have problems, but that's par for the course.

Every time the Xbox or PS3 gets a big update there are stories of broken systems, and in this case there seem to be a few 3GS devices that have an issue. But if you're an iPhone hater then that means all 3GS phones in existence have suddenly raped their owner's dog and set fire to the curtains.

[Alan Denman]

Apple issued an update to fix this!

Considering Apple are locking forum messages on the massive Iphone 3G and 3GS IOS 4 update disaster it is quite safe to assume users are happier with the iPhone 4.

[ColonelClaw]

I actually own an iPhone4

Just got mine this week, and I've got a few observations to share:

The antennae issue, is of course, a non-issue. Not too many surprises there.

Reception and 3G signal strength is miles better, but I'm mostly putting this down to having switched from the god-awful O2 to Orange. Actually having a 3G signal sitting here at my desk feels like a revelation, much to the amusement of my work colleagues who've always had it on other networks.

The phone looks and feels amazing.

And, er, that's about it. It's an iPhone, but much nicer than the old ones.

It's probably mostly down to the O2 to Orange switch but I'm much more satisfied with this handset than my old 3G.

[Anonymous Coward]

Strange question...

'How frequently have you experienced a 'dropped call' on your iPhone?'

The answer should be a range such as 'once a day', 'once a week', 'one or two times', 'never' that sort of thing. Yet it's reported as a percentage.

Is that meant to be the number of people who have ever had a dropped call or what? Without context that number is meaningless.

Oh and I thought you were joking when I saw the words 'independent research boutique' - you weren't. If you need me, I'll be weeping gently.

[Toothpick]

It would be helpful,,,,

... if dropped call rates for other manufacturers handsets on AT&T's network were also included. Surely if the dropped call rate was roughly the same across all handsets, then the finger of suspicion points to the network provider.

[Ascylto]

US?

I have an iPhone4.

I have not yet experienced a dropped call.

Is this a US American thing?

I should get out more.