Apple's iPhone 4 press conference: What to look for
Wasn’t I just saying that someone at Apple needs to face the music over the iPhone 4’s “death grip” fiasco?
Come Friday morning at 10 a.m. Pacific, the top brass at Apple — including, I would hope, Jobs himself — will step up to the microphone in the hopes of putting the “death grip” saga to rest.
[Breaking news: was Steve Jobs warned of "death grip" long ago?]
Like many corporate giants before it, Apple is now finding itself on the hot seat for stonewalling when it comes to a pretty obvious defect in its highest-profile product.
If the scale of it all — it’s just a phone, not an environmentally disastrous oil spill or a life-threatening auto defect — seems utterly ridiculous to you, well, you’re not alone.
Something tells me that Steve Jobs & Co. feel surprised and indignant about being at the center of this particular controversy, which they’d hoped to explain away with a tale about a faulty signal meter and a simple software update. (The coming update, by the way, reportedly does nothing to improve the iPhone’s reception, although it makes the reception bars look a little taller and prettier.)
Ridiculous or not, though, the brouhaha is real and growing bigger by the day. Here’s what I’m expecting and/or hoping to hear Friday.
1. A detailed explanation for the iPhone’s reception problemsThe iPhone’s “death grip” problems (which seem to strike when the iPhone 4 is held near the lower left corner, especially with the hand touching a tiny gap in the iPhone’s steel antenna band) have been well documented by Consumer Reports and other reviewers and publications. So far, though, Apple has acknowledged only that “almost any mobile phone” will lose some reception when held “in certain ways.” I’m expecting Apple to go into far more detail about how the iPhone 4’s external antenna works, along with hard data to either prove or refute the claim that reception degrades when the new iPhone is held the “wrong” way.2. A spirited defense of the iPhone’s external antenna designDon’t expect Steve Jobs or anyone else to throw the iPhone 4’s stainless-steel antenna band under the bus. Even if Apple admits to some signal loss when the iPhone is held, uh, incorrectly, I’m sure Jobs and/or his lieutenants will insist that overall, the iPhone 4 boasts better wireless reception than any previous iPhone. They’re a proud, stubborn bunch in Cupertino, and they’re not going to diss their latest iPhone openly. 3. an admission that the coming software update won’t fix the ‘death grip’Apple never said that its promised firmware update for the iPhone 4 (which could arrive as early as Thursday) would improve the iPhone 4’s reception, but it sure gave the impression that the update (which will supposedly fix the iPhone’s “totally wrong” formula for calculating the number of reception bars to display) would at least make the perception of the “death grip” go away. Bloggers, however, have already demonstrated that they can replicate the death grip even after installing a beta version of iPhone firmware 4.1. regardless, Apple execs will probably go into more detail about what the new update does — and doesn’t — do.4. Free Bumpers for everyone all along, experts and even Apple itself have said that using a case—like Apple’s $29 Bumper cases — would cure the iPhone’s “death grip” woes. many have called for Apple to just hand out Bumpers with every iPhone 4 purchase, and I’d be floored if Jobs & Co. didn’t announce plans to do so starting Friday.5. an extension for iPhone 4 returns and/or supportHere’s another easy way for Apple to assuage would-be iPhone customers spooked by the “death grip” drama: extend the window for returns from 30 days to … I dunno, two months? Three would be generous. and they should emphasize that there won’t be any questions or restocking fee. another option would be to extend the iPhone’s limited warranty from a year to, say, 18 months, but I doubt Apple will go that far.6. one more thing … All the items I’ve ticked off above are important, but as I wrote Wednesday, there’s one last thing Apple should do about the “death grip”: apologize. Not for a defect on the iPhone — after all, gadgets and glitches go together like eggs and bacon — but for not owning up to it sooner, for suggesting that customers were the ones with the problem (”just avoid holding it that way”!). The brash confidence that made Apple so endearing in its early days has crossed over into arrogance, and it isn’t flattering — indeed, in a dozen years of covering the tech industry, I’ve never seen a company draw this much vitriol, not even Microsoft. Apple needs to take itself down a peg or two (or three), admit its mistakes — hey, we’re all human (you too, Steve Jobs) — and say the magic words: “We’re sorry.” go ahead, you can do it.will it happen? We’ll find out in about 24 hours. Stay tuned.So, what do you want to hear from Apple during its Friday morning presser?— Ben Patterson is a technology writer for Yahoo! News.Follow me on Twitter!
Apple's iPhone 4 press conference: What to look for
Related posts:
- New iPhone 4G Out this Monday? | World Buzz Now!
- iPhone 4 for travelers: 30 days : Bad Latitude
- Paper quotes (fake) Steve Jobs suggesting iPhone 4 recall
- Friday press conference – European GP – Pt.1
- Apple's iPhone shipments continue soaring
Tags: brouhaha, controversy, hot seat, iphone, steve jobs
Reader contibutions