In a highly unusual move, Apple is pleading mea culpa to the “grip of death” problem in the iPhone 4. The problem causes a significant drop in signal strength if users touch the device’s antenna port. In a statement, the company claims to be “stunned” that the formula it has been using to calculate signal bar strength is “totally wrong,” and that that iPhone sometimes display as much as two bars more than it should for signal strength. Apple therefore attributes the huge drop in signal strength attributable to the “grip of death” to erroneously high signal strength indicators before customers hamper the iPhone 4′s reception with their hands.
“Our formula, in many instances, mistakenly displays 2 more bars than it should for a given signal strength,” Apple wrote. “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.”
Apple promises a software update in “a few weeks” that will address the issue by adopting a new formula from AT&T on how to calculate signal strength. Of course, the software update won’t actually change the signal strength an iPhone 4 receives at a particular location, just the way the iPhone 4 reports it.
Implicit in the “simple and surprising” cause of the iPhone 4 reception drop is that Apple’s previous formula overstated signal strength the iPhone receives from wireless networks, making the iPhone’s reception look unrealistically good in locations where the devices may have been receiving poor or middling signal strength. Although Apple’s proposed fix to signal strength indicators won’t change the amount of signal a phone receives at a particular location, the company might expect some backlash from consumers who notice their phones get fewer bars in spots where they previously had four or five bars: the result could be the perception that the update significantly hurt the iPhone’s reception.
Apple continues to emphasize—and many independent reviews agree—that the iPhone 4′s overall reception is substantially improved over earlier iPhone models.
@ Gareth: Signal meters on cell phones are useless as anything other than stating the relative reception between two identical units. That’s it. There is no standard that says “At xx db of signal attenuation, thou shalt show 2 bars”. Manufacturers make up their own standards – which often vary wildly from phone to phone so that consumers feel good about their phone’s signal strength.
However, to suggest that this has gone unnoticed for this long, let alone that this is the true cause of the iPhone 4′s signal issues, is absurd marketing-speak at best. I’m afraid this is Apple attempting to drop (no pun intended) all their problems elsewhere.
hmmm i could make calls with 0 yes 0 bars..cant wait for the supposed software update coming soon…..
http://www.macrumors.com/
@ Gareth: Signal meters on cell phones are useless as anything other than stating the relative reception between two identical units. That’s it. There is no standard that says “At xx db of signal attenuation, thou shalt show 2 bars”. Manufacturers make up their own standards – which often vary wildly from phone to phone so that consumers feel good about their phone’s signal strength.
However, to suggest that this has gone unnoticed for this long, let alone that this is the true cause of the iPhone 4′s signal issues, is absurd marketing-speak at best. I’m afraid this is Apple attempting to drop (no pun intended) all their problems elsewhere.
So what is this “fix” going to accomplish? Now you’ll be able to get a more accurate reading of how much your reception REALLY sucks?
oh wait. come to think of it… is this the same tech support that told me the terrible wifi performance on my iPad was not a real issue? i simply needed to refigure my entire wireless network and would work just fine. so who is the arrogant ass that decided on calling their support team “apple geniuses” anyway?
LOL and theres this Tec Support that suggested that I take off the Ipads Apple case cuz its blocking the antenna…WTF!!
I hope it’s true because if it isn’t it would have been much better for the brand to admit they’d effed up in the first place
@Kyle, it has nothing to do with holding the phone that way. Apple is saying that the phone is reporting 2 bars more than it should regardless of how its being held: “Our formula, in many instances, mistakenly displays 2 more bars than it should for a given signal strength,”
Lost Faith in Apple about 8 years ago… This is just amusing.
Losing faith in Apple here…..
That is the biggest pile of horse shit I have EVER read in my entire life.
I mean, Christ, if you’re going to come up with something THAT bad at least make it plausible.
“Uh…yeah…so…the algorithm that we’ve used on previous models and worked just fine doesn’t work here and uh…it’s just a coincidence that when you hold it on the antenna, it drops it signal…and it really has to do with the area you’re in.”
Come on, Apple; that’s pathetic. To be honest, it sounds like they’re trying to dump the problem on AT&T. “You see, the iPhone works fine but you are always just getting REALLY bad reception because of the network you’re on.”
So how does holding the phone in a certain way change the mathematical algorithm?
I bought a nw Iphonee yesterday. I have already lost 5 calls.
I'm bringing it back today. It's terrible!!!
Here in Australia i haven't had any reception problems at all and i'm using telstra nextg 850 mhz umts network
Who cares if one word is incorrect.