jumping the gun

Too often, people take a small detail and blow it out of proportion. They ignore the facts, and only look at that one detail.

The iPhone 4 really illustrates what I’m trying to get at here. The main problem with the phone is that holding it a certain way (left side, google it for more info if you want) makes the signal drop and eventually, your call is dropped. Oh no! Why would anyone want to buy the phone then, if it has such a serious defect?? That’s exactly what the media has been harping for the past few weeks. What they’re not saying is that they’re making this a bigger deal than it really is.

First of all, some facts.

Yes, the signal drops when you hold it a certain way. But wait, that’s true for the 3GS too. And not just the 3GS, but all phones. The phone is of course going to have weaker reception when you cover the antenna with your hand. There have been many demonstrations that Blackberrys, HTC phones, Samsung phones, and older iPhone models drop signal when held a certain way.

A case fixes the problem completely, and they’re available for $29.

Compared to the 3GS, the iPhone 4 results in 1 more dropped call (out of every hundred).

The return rate for the iPhone 4 is 1.7%, which is less than the return rate for the 3GS. 0.55% (that’s less than 1 percent!) have called to complain about the problem.

Now that we have all that info, let’s break it down and analyze it without bias.

First, the fact that other phones have the same problem. If other phones have the same problem, and people have been using it without complaints before, why start now? Because they’re sheep. They’ve been hearing that the iPhone 4 has this reception problem, so they start thinking “Oh, that means I can’t make calls at all! What a terrible phone”. What a terribly wrong idea.

Who grips their phone so tightly, and on the left side, while making a phone call? Most people are right handed, and I’m just going on a limb here, but right handed people tend to hold their phone in their right hand while talking on the phone. The problem exists on the left side. Also, no one encompasses their phone the way you would have to to drop the signal significantly.

Second of all, cases do fix the problem. You would think that’d calm everyone down, but there are seriously people out there who shout that cases are too expensive. Really? $29 is too expensive compared to your $200 phone with a $30 a month data plan for 24 months? $29 compared to that is chump change. Besides, Apple just made them free for all iPhone 4 owners, so no reason to complain now!

Now finally, the fact that only 0.55% of iPhone 4 owners are calling to complain about it. That’s probably because people don’t actually hold it by the Death Grip, and that existing phones already have the same problem that they’re used to.

If people just took the time to consider all these things, then they would see that the iPhone 4 isn’t such a terrible phone. But, the media realizes that proclamations of fail tend to attract more attention than news about phones being.. phones.

I just had to write all of this because I die a little bit inside when I see people being so stupid. The iPhone 4 antenna news is getting really old really fast, and it would be great if people stopped talking about it like it was the end of the world!

My resources:
http://techcrunch.com/2010/07/16/antennagate-complaints-returns-and-call-drops-are-all-extremely-low/
http://techcrunch.com/2010/07/16/steve-jobs-were-not-perfect/