Apple says it has got to the bottom of the reception problem affecting the iPhone 4 when held in a certain way.
According to the company, the issue is not the fact that signal strength drops when the phone is tightly held in a way which covers the black strip in the lower left corner of the metal band running round the outside of the phone. Rather, Apple got its sums wrong when working out how many signal strength bars to display on the phone in the first place, with the problem dating back to the iPhone 3G. So when the signal appeared to tail off when the phone was held in a certain way, what was really happening was that the phone was in an area of weak reception anyway. Apple is issuing a software update to fix the problem.
If you’re thinking that you couldn’t make this up, then rest assured, so are we. Perhaps the best thing we can do is reprint the Apple letter in full. Here it is…
Dear iPhone 4 Users,
The iPhone 4 has been the most successful product launch in Apple’s history. It has been judged by reviewers around the world to be the best smartphone ever, and users have told us that they love it. So we were surprised when we read reports of reception problems, and we immediately began investigating them. Here is what we have learned.
To start with, gripping almost any mobile phone in certain ways will reduce its reception by 1 or more bars. This is true of iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, as well as many Droid, Nokia and RIM phones. But some users have reported that iPhone 4 can drop 4 or 5 bars when tightly held in a way which covers the black strip in the lower left corner of the metal band. This is a far bigger drop than normal, and as a result some have accused the iPhone 4 of having a faulty antenna design.
At the same time, we continue to read articles and receive hundreds of emails from users saying that iPhone 4 reception is better than the iPhone 3GS. They are delighted. This matches our own experience and testing. What can explain all of this?
We have discovered the cause of this dramatic drop in bars, and it is both simple and surprising.
Upon investigation, we were stunned to find that the formula we use to calculate how many bars of signal strength to display is totally wrong. Our formula, in many instances, mistakenly displays 2 more bars than it should for a given signal strength. For example, we sometimes display 4 bars when we should be displaying as few as 2 bars. Users observing a drop of several bars when they grip their iPhone in a certain way are most likely in an area with very weak signal strength, but they don’t know it because we are erroneously displaying 4 or 5 bars. Their big drop in bars is because their high bars were never real in the first place.
To fix this, we are adopting AT&T’s recently recommended formula for calculating how many bars to display for a given signal strength. The real signal strength remains the same, but the iPhone’s bars will report it far more accurately, providing users a much better indication of the reception they will get in a given area. We are also making bars 1, 2 and 3 a bit taller so they will be easier to see. 
We will issue a free software update within a few weeks that incorporates the corrected formula. Since this mistake has been present since the original iPhone, this software update will also be available for the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 3G.
We have gone back to our labs and retested everything, and the results are the same – the iPhone 4’s wireless performance is the best we have ever shipped. For the vast majority of users who have not been troubled by this issue, this software update will only make your bars more accurate. For those who have had concerns, we apologise for any anxiety we may have caused.
As a reminder, if you are not fully satisfied, you can return your undamaged iPhone to any Apple Retail Store or the online Apple Store within 30 days of purchase for a full refund.
We hope you love the iPhone 4 as much as we do.
Thank you for your patience and support.
Apple
David Murphy writes:
I was planning to pen a few words this afternoon about the iPhone 4 fiasco. My original rant was going to be along the lines of: How does Apple get away with it? I can’t imagine any other handset maker releasing a phone that seems to have an inherent design flaw, to the point where some people who bought the device are trying to sue the firm, and yet there are still people queuing round the block to buy it, and networks, such as 3 in the UK, that don’t currently offer the phone, are inviting people to register for updates about its availability, with not a word about the antenna issue.
Meanwhile, those networks that already have the device, like Orange, O2 and Vodafone, are merrily plugging it on their homepages, once again, without any mention of the problems some people have been experiencing.
Wouldn’t almost any other handset from any other company have been pulled off the shelves while they sorted the problem out?
And then the ‘Letter from Apple regarding iPhone 4’ arrived in my inbox, and it’s one of those letters that makes you check the calendar to make sure it’s not 1 April. I have absolutely no doubt that there will be plenty of people out there checking Apple’s claim that when the signal strength appears to drop, it’s actually because the signal was never as strong as the phone was making it out to be.
If Apples reading of the problem is correct, however, it’s a huge admission from a mobile phone maker that it hadn’t worked out how to display the signal strength correctly. This one, I predict, is going to run and run.
