“We’re seeing a preview of Apple’s death today with the hardware problem vexing Apple’s new star product, the iPhone 4. Users report drastic signal strength loss if they grip the phone while touching the lower-left edge, so their hands bridge two antennas designed to be separate,” Wagner writes. “How serious is this problem? Hard to say. For some people, it’s very real, and it makes the iPhone unusable. Others love their iPhones, and aren’t experiencing the problem.”
Wagner writes, “I fall in the second camp. I’ve had my iPhone 4 since last week, and I’m very happy with it. I think I’ve been able to reproduce the grip problem, but I’m not sure, which is an indication that it’s inconsequential for me.”
Regardless, “one day Apple will face a real crisis, and when that day comes, the company will remain silent while public opinion — including investors and customers — turns against it,” Wagner writes.
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: As we’ve already written: The iPhone 4 in a proper case has the best reception of any iPhone to date. In fact, it beats Google’s rebranded HTC Nexus One Android phone in tests, for what that’s worth. All cell phones suffer from some attenuation when held in certain ways. The problem, as is often the deal with Apple, is not really the hardware or the software, but the company’s handling mishandling of the situation from a public relations standpoint. All that said, we reiterate: The iPhone 4 is the best smartphone/pocket computer we’ve ever used. We wouldn’t give our units up even if they had to held with salad tongs.