Invisible Shield for Apple iPhone 4!“Apple Inc. may be able to line up customers around the block, but even the iconic technology company can no longer afford clumsy product launches in the hotly competitive smart phone field,” Therese Poletti writes for MarketWatch.

“Rivals are probably chomping at the bit to take Apple down a notch for its rather flawed introduction of its latest gizmo, the iPhone 4,” Poletti writes. “While fans lined up last week for blocks to buy the iPhone 4 and Wall Street analysts were pounding the table over potential sales, some consumers were quickly venting about a problem with the new smart phone’s reception.”

“Demonstration videos on YouTube popped up,” Poletti writes. “Consumers complained in tweets about losing reception if they held the phone in a certain way… ‘Gripping any mobile phone will result in some attenuation of its antenna performance, with certain places being worse than others depending on the placement of the antennas,’ Apple said in a statement. ‘This is a fact of life for every wireless phone.’”

MacDailyNews Take: Demonstration videos on YouTube did indeed pop up – and they prove Apple’s statement to be true:

Poletti continues, “On Monday, Apple touted the fact that it has sold 1.7 million units of the device in its first three days on the market. The company is also reportedly working on a software update to fix the issue with the iPhone 4, similar to what it did for its iPhone 3G two years ago, when poor battery life and other technical issues plagued early adopters.”

MacDailyNews Take: We were iPhone 3G Day One owners and we weren’t “plagued” by anything except people who were very interesting in seeing, holding, and trying out our new iPhones.

Poletti continues, “But such missteps may prove to be more costly now. Unlike two years ago, the iPhone is no longer the only compelling, touch-screen, Web-friendly smart phone available. Products like the Droid from Motorola and the Incredible from HTC are racking up big sales numbers.”

MacDailyNews Take: Good. They’ll need those profits to compensate Apple for the IP they stole.

Poletti continues, “Combine that with the continuous network problems with Apple’s only carrier in the U.S., the overburdened AT&T Inc., and consumers are now starting to realize that Apple is no longer the only game in town. AT&T’s arch-rival Verizon is spending heavily to promote Google’s Android operating system and devices built for the platform, and that carrier enjoys a far better reputation for service and coverage than the resurrected Ma Bell.”

MacDailyNews Take: A Cingular by any other name is still just a Cingular.

Poletti continues, “Recent market research data shows that phones designed around Android are starting to gain ground. Gartner Inc. said last month that in the first quarter, sales of smart phones based on Android surpassed iPhone for the first time in the U.S.”

MacDailyNews Take: How about trying the truth on for size, Theresa? Gartner said no such thing. Last month, Gartner stated only worldwide sales for first quarter 2010:

Worldwide Smartphone Sales to End Users by Operating System in 1Q10 (Thousands of Units)

Source: Gartner (May 2010)

If Poletti is instead mistakenly referring to NPD’s survey which did not even include business users, please read:
• Apple: Widely-misreported NPD data does not provide complete picture of U.S. smartphone market – May 11, 2010
• Don’t be misled by poorly-reported NPD Android vs. iPhone stats – May 11, 2010

Poletti continues, “Most analysts, for now, don’t believe the iPhone 4 antenna issue is going to be a big deal or impact sales.”

MacDailyNews Take: And, finally, there’s the lede, buried beneath a mountain of FUD. Typical.

Poletti continues, “Apple should not be resting on its laurels, nor can it afford to bungle new product launches with half-baked responses. Consumers now have plenty of other options in smart phones, and with better networks to choose from.”

Full hatchet job – Think Before You Click™ – here.

MacDailyNews Take: What, did Dvorak leave MarketWatch, leaving poor, little, ill-equipped Theresa all alone trying to fling around her anti-Apple FUD?

Here’s the deal: AT&T is an albatross around Apple’s neck and if Steve Jobs doesn’t know it implicitly by now, he’s blind and deaf. We can only assume that a proven genius like Mr. Jobs has a master plan. For now, we’ll just continue to suffer along, but not so quietly anymore.

The “iPhone Death Grip” is a trumped up issue – as you can see from the videos above. However, if Apple says that a rubber bumper is required to the iPhone to work properly, then they should provide one free of charge in every box. We expect at least that much from Apple; a 29-cent piece of rubber marked up to $29 simply doesn’t cut it if it’s required for the phone to work properly while held in the hand.

As for the overall concept underlying Poletti’s FUDtastic mess, our own SteveJack laid it out much better weeks ago: Apple Inc. needs a bit of a tune up – June 08, 2010