“Last year, Ruben Caballero, a senior engineer and antenna expert, informed Apple’s management the device’s design may cause reception problems, said the person, who is not authorized to speak on Apple’s behalf and asked not to be identified,” Burrows and Guglielmo report. “A carrier partner also raised concerns about the antenna before the device’s June 24 release, according to another person familiar with the situation.”
Burrows and Guglielmo report, “Steve Dowling, a spokesman for Apple, declined to comment and said he wouldn’t make Caballero available for an interview. Caballero didn’t respond to a call and an e-mail seeking comment. Apple plans to hold a press conference tomorrow about the device. Dowling declined to elaborate on what will be discussed.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: We predict the shit storm will continue through tomorrow, at least.
I guess this carrier partner got a preview before the phone was released. Bullshit. I don’t listen to unknown sources.
Yes, the “shit storm” will push into Friday’s stock options closing day.
I’m curious — how did Bloomberg find its source for this story, identified as an anonymous person …”who is not authorized to speak on Apple’s behalf and asked not to be identified,” ? Someone within Apple or AT&T;is spilling their guts and feeding the flames of this story? Seems highly unlikely, unless it’s a disgruntled current employee with an ax to grind.
You know, in New York State, an affidavit for a search warrant that relies on an informant’s tip has to show the informant’s reliability and basis of knowledge. No such quibbles here.
I call bs. The design comes into question a full year before release and no one at Apple pulls the brakes on it? Bs bs bs bs. Someone’s trying to get some street credit that never deserved it. And how many antenna experts have we heard from already say there’s nothing wrong with the hardware? Bs.
AAPL might fall below MSFT, that would suck!
It is amazing to me how the blogoshpere can get away with innuendo and non confirmed data but in yet still report it.
It would appear to me that without anything confirmed the person with familiarity of the situation that can’t be names should somehow be investigated to see if they have shorted apple stock.
@ Douglas MacArthur
The vast majority of news is acquired from “anonymous sources.” You either trust the news organization or you don’t. It’s nothing unique.
This is what happen when people get delusions of grandeur just because they can type
Am I correct that Apple hasn’t been a producer of cases until the iPad and the bumper of iPhone 4? When I first saw the bumper I thought it was a bit unusual. Could it be that Apple knew all along about the issue, created the bumper as a stopgap measure, and now will have to retool their design?
My iPhone 4 works well thank you.
Market cap maybe, but certainly not stock price. If so, AAPL will rebound.
Nah…. This is too much of personal enimity for Apple.. Even, killer tech companies now hammering bloomberg to say something before Friday! Haha.. They will shut their mouth and find all crap products fm win7 or blablabla…..
Our iPhone 4s work perfectly.
OK, so how genius does this make me look? If you review at my previous comments – including those taken down by MDN – you will find my explanation of what occurred in Cupertino that resulted in the production and sale of non-working phones.
To repeat: Steve Jobs and Jon Ive, completely obsessed by the notion that our society depends on their mission to design the coolest looking gadgets on the planet, just ignored their own engineers who were trying to tell them that putting the antenna around the rim of the phone would not work.
Apple’s near-hysterical secrecy about their own products has, once again, come back to bite them in the ass. If they were actually testing the REAL iPhone 4’s in the field — not iPhone 4’s cloaked in crazy cases to make them look like iPhone 3GS’s — then maybe Apple would have caught this problem a long time ago.
Zomg, he is against the Party! Hate him! Hate him!
I am so tired of everyone and their grandmother having an opinion about something most people ARE NOT QUALIFIED to have an INFORMED OPION about. Unless you’re a antenna expert all you are doing is contributing to the BS that surrounds this story on both sides of the issue. There’s the it never happens to me crowd and there’s no problem and the this phone sucks crowd it happening all the time to me. I myself can sometimes replicate the issue and at other times not at all. I have guesses as to what might be going on but I DON”T KNOW BECAUSE I’M NOT AN EXPERT. My information is anecdotal at best. So By all means if you have a problem let the world know you’re experiencing it but unless you’re and expert don’t offer up any opinions on what the REAL PROBLEM is.
End of rant. If I have offended anyone here then good, that was my intention. For those who are not offended, then thank god the gene pool hasn’t completely gone to hell.
And for all you spell-checkers out there I meant most people ARE NOT QUALIFIED to have an INFORMED OPINION.
Unknown sources…In other words, we made it all up…
Every word of BS I hear makes me want an iPhone 4 more and more. AND NO I would not put my beauty in a condom free or not. Losers and whiners all.
This Ruben guy sounds like a cowboy.
oh, isn’t this the same press with the endless verizon rumors and other various inaccurate, unsourced stories about everything from Apple to Obama to Tea Party…..
My iPhone 4 works perfectly fine but I was afraid of this happening. When you are on top like Apple is everyone is just waiting to knock you off your perch. I look forward to tomorrows press conference, no company is perfect but it’s in how they react to a crisis that sets them apart from the rest.
This should come as no surprise. The very existence of “Bumper Cases” belies Apple’s previous knowledge of the problem.
Having said that, there’s nothing nefarious going on here, despite the “whistleblower” tone that the press is obviously emplying here. Apple obviously knew about the issue, decided that the benefits to reception outweighed the downsides, whipped up a “bumper” product, and forged ahead, eyes open.
My only issue with Apple is not how they designed the antenna, but how they’ve handled this issue. Denying the problem, blaming the users for “holding it wrong”, blaming it on software, taking weeks to respond and letting the story fester – it’s corporate incompetence on a level that I haven’t seen from Apple since the early 90’s when Steve was on Elba.
Apple: Get the problem addressed. Pronto.
Steve: Get into an elevator with your PR team. Hit the “down” button. Then hire the best PR firm you can afford (i.e. the best PR firm on the planet), and then LISTEN TO THEM.
Sounds like Apple senior antenna expert Ruben Caballero doesn’t want to see his career/reputation destroyed because Jobs insisted on a design that risked antenna problems. It would be easy enough for Ruben to have one of his friends contact Bloomberg with the exculpatory scoop. Or, this could just be more BS by reporter Connie, who periodically trashes Apple. Honestly, though, I bet this is Ruben trying to avoid becoming the scapegoat for bad call by Jobs.