Antennagate

Shortly after the launch of the iPhone 4, it became clear that the dispute with Gizmodo was not over. Although the search of the Gizmodo editor’s computer was ultimately settled amicably, a number of doubts arose as to whether the security team would have acted in the same way if its members had not been sitting on Apple’s advisory boards. In short, whether the units intervening against Gizmodo in the case of the “stolen iPhone 4” had exceeded their authority. And Gizmodo did not forget, even though it logically did not want to engage in an exhausting legal battle with Apple. On the same day that the iPhone 4 goes on sale, it publishes the first information that the phone loses signal. And it senses that it has caught another scoop that will give Apple a hard time. It was not mistaken.

Jobs initially responds rather dismissively to the media, saying that no one holds the phone in a way that causes signal dropouts on the new iPhone. Later, sources from the company cautiously suggest that the problem is more likely to be AT&T’s fault in areas where the signal is weak. AT&T strongly objects to this.

The cause of the scandal, immediately dubbed “Antennagate,” is simple. When designing the new iPhone, Apple decided to place the antenna on the surface of the phone, saving space and solving the problem of choosing a material to cover the antenna. Logically, the antenna cannot be covered with a conductive material, but the iPhone designers wanted the sides of the new iPhone to be metal. Integrating the antenna into the metal frame seemed like a logical choice, and Steve Jobs ostentatiously marveled at the iPhone launch that no other mobile phone manufacturer had thought of this. This was a bold statement that would come back to haunt him.

It was Nokia representatives who were the first to respond to journalists’ questions with Finnish coolness, saying that Nokia had of course also considered this, but found that it was not a good solution. So, even though it is certainly effective, they did not use it because they believe it is better to be able to hold the phone in any way. If a person touches the conductive surface of the antenna, it changes its tuning and thus also the previously precisely tuned ability to receive the correct wavelengths. And in most cases, such interference does not improve anything, but rather worsens it. This is what happened with the iPhone 4 when users held it from the other side, the side where the antenna was integrated into the frame. Nokia pokes fun at Apple on its blog and gives instructions on how to hold Nokia phones, parodying Jobs’ “recommendations” on how to hold the iPhone.

There are a number of tricks and tips on the internet on how to deal with this problem, but the best and most effective seems to be sticking a cushion patch on the antenna frame. This is logical, as the patch prevents contact and thus changes the lambda, tuning the wavelength of the antenna. However, the fact that the renowned iPhone needs a patch is fertile ground for ridicule, which Steve Jobs hates so much because it insults his creations.

At the end of June 2010, Motorola and Verizon published a full-page advertisement in the prestigious New York Times, declaring that the new Motorola Droid X can be held any way you want and still deliver perfect sound. This is one of the campaigns Verizon is using to convince customers to choose its network over its competitor AT&T, which is churning out iPhone 4s, but the partnership with Motorola is nowhere near as hot as the AT&T and iPhone 4 tandem. Apple sold 1.7 million iPhone 4s in three days and broke the previous record for orders in 24 hours, selling 600,000 units on the first day of sales, and would certainly have sold more if its and AT&T’s servers had not crashed. Motorola had trouble selling that many Droid Xs during the entire time this model was on sale. Just as Gizmodo did not forgive Apple, Apple will not forgive Motorola for this audacity, and later, when it comes to patent disputes, it will be the otherwise commercially insignificant Motorola that Jobs decides to properly sink, thereby practically driving it into Google’s arms. He will gallantly forgive Verizon because he will prepare a special CDMA version of the iPhone 4 for them and allow them to sell it – Verizon does not use a GSM/UMTS standard network. Business is business, and Verizon certainly didn’t mean any harm…

Following an extensive negative campaign, Apple partially backtracks and declares the “death grip” to be a software issue, no longer attempting to convince users to hold their phones differently. In a letter to users on July 2, 2010, it claims that the “death grip” will be eliminated by a firmware update to version 4.0.1, which Apple actually releases twelve days later, the day before Steve Jobs’ hastily convened press conference on Antennagate.

However, it quickly becomes apparent that the company has used an unfair trick: it counts the number of bars on the display differently. Users think that holding the phone incorrectly will not worsen the signal, because the phone does not indicate this with a signal strength identifier, but videos immediately appear showing that just one wrong touch is enough to drop the call, even though the signal bars do not move. And Apple has another PR problem on its hands.

In addition, it appears that the “death grip” can also be eliminated by a rubber protective strip (bumper case), which Apple itself sells as a case that protects the metal sides of the iPhone from scratches – Apple is not concerned about scratches on the cover glass, as it can withstand a lot.

By that time, negative reactions to Apple’s approach to problems with the integrated antenna had long since ceased to be the domain of specialist blogs and IT media, and had already bubbled up into the mainstream media. Consumer Reports, a respected and influential magazine defending the interests of consumers and users, issued a warning against purchasing the iPhone 4 on June 12, adding that the iPhone manufacturer is obliged to deliver a product that works reliably and consistently as delivered. This was the final blow that Apple needed to take the problem seriously. On July 16, it called a press conference where Steve Jobs himself spoke and commented on the iPhone 4 antenna problem. There is public speculation that Apple will withdraw the iPhone 4 from the market, which, incidentally, will cause another rush of orders, as there are a number of people who don’t mind the “death grip,” are happy to solve it with a patch or by purchasing a case, or haven’t even noticed it, but don’t want to wait another few months for Apple to release a modified version. After all, iPhone 4 users in Western Europe, where the quality of 3G networks is higher, do not notice the problem. AT&T’s problem is really that in many locations, the signal is still too weak at this time, so even a slight deterioration due to a misaligned antenna causes call dropouts.

Steve Jobs had previously viewed Antennagate as a competitive tactic by Google and Motorola against Apple and responded to questions very irritably, convinced that the problem occurred in very few cases, as he himself used an iPhone 4 and had not encountered it. He was on vacation with his family in Hawaii at the time, and it was ultimately Apple’s COO Tim Cook who persuaded him to change his stance. He warned him that Apple could replace Microsoft as the hated, arrogant snob that ignores the opinions of its users. This convinced Jobs to rush back to Cupertino and assemble an emergency team.

Jobs and his team analyzed the problem. It turned out that engineers had warned about the pitfalls of the chosen antenna design and that Apple even had test records showing signal problems when holding the new phone in a certain way. However, it was Apple’s vice president of iPhone and iPod hardware, Mark Papermaster, who decided that the problem was not serious and would not be reported further. Apple never officially admitted this, but Papermaster subsequently left Apple in early August, and the company never specified how voluntary his departure was. It was an inglorious end for a figure whom Apple’s management had high hopes for and for whom it had even undergone a lengthy legal battle with IBM, where Mark Papermaster had previously worked and which complained that by moving to Apple, he had violated the non-competition clause in his employment contract.

The July 16 press conference is a sad one for Jobs, even though he tries to appear positive and carefree. He begins by recapping the iPhone’s results: three million units of the new model sold (the older 3GS model remained on sale as a cheaper version of the iPhone). He then points out that other manufacturers have a similar problem, namely a decline in signal quality, as demonstrated by the Droid Eris, Samsung Omnia 2, and BlackBerry Bold. However, he admits that more calls are dropped on the iPhone 4 than on the 3GS model, but it is still less than one in a hundred. Only 0.55% of calls end in failure due to signal reception problems with the antenna. However, he fails to recalculate that this represents half of all signal problems experienced by the iPhone 4. He then points out that the new iPhone comes with a 30-day return guarantee, so users can try it out to see if they are affected by the signal problem, and notes that only 1.7% of buyers return the iPhone 4, compared to 6% for the 3GS model.

And then comes the main point. Jobs announces that any signal issues will be resolved by a rubberized case, which Apple will provide to all existing and new iPhone 4 owners by the end of September. He adds that the white iPhone 4 will arrive at the end of July, and that’s that.

And indeed, with increased effort, the company eventually managed to smooth over the problem until it was forgotten. Although it was assumed that the antenna design would be changed by the end of September, Apple ultimately made the change much later and instead extended free case deliveries to customers indefinitely. The new method of attaching the antenna under the side strip did not actually come to market until the successor to the iPhone 4S.

Jobs was not so lucky with the launch of the white version. After a long wait, it finally went on sale in April 2011. The official reason given was quality issues, but Apple never admitted what these were specifically.

The context of this story

Antennagate

Table of contents