Posted on 07/03/2010 10:37:29 PM PDT by Chet 99
In a press release issued on Friday, Apple announced that the iPhone 4's antenna issues weren't hardware-related, but that the formula to calculate signal strength was flawed. Also in the press release, Apple stated that customers could return their iPhone 4s for a "full refund" within 30 days if they weren't satisfied. Sounds great! But even better — it's been confirmed that Apple will not be charging its usual 10 percent restocking fee if customers do change their minds about the new iPhone.
Previously, it would cost you up to $30 to return an opened iPhone, but now, if you aren't sold on the new gadget after playing with it for a month, return it, get all your dough back, and consider your alternatives — the Droid X and HTC EVO 4G look like mighty fine candidates to me!
Good question... Apple hasn’t released any of those numbers, but estimates around the Internet range from 2% to 8% returned, and about double that who contacted Apple for a solution. So somewhere around 5-10% of all iPhone 4 users are having a problem.
And consider recalls in other industries - failure rates in the 0.1% to 0.5% are enough to trigger company recalls.
Considering this is the first time that Apple has waived a restocking fee, I think that’s indicative of some early damage-control spin.
But as of yet, I don’t know any “official” numbers, maybe Swordmaker has them.
Hmmm. 5-10% is significant, if accurate.
> And consider recalls in other industries - failure rates in the 0.1% to 0.5% are enough to trigger company recalls.
True, if the problem is a health/safety issue (e.g. car brakes, OTC medicine). Can't take chances with even a few fatalities.
But as a consumer device manufacturer, I wouldn't do a recall of a non-essential electronic product for less than 1% failures; I'd offer to fix them for free and leave it at that. Despite the attitude of some Apple fanatics, an iPhone is not essential for the continuation of life. :)
> Considering this is the first time that Apple has waived a restocking fee, I think that’s indicative of some early damage-control spin.
It is (the first time)? Interesting. If so then I'm inclined to agree that they're scrambling.
But Apple has a pretty good track record of figuring out what's wrong and addressing it. I think they'll get past this one in fairly good shape.
What I'm most curious about is whether the iPhone4 antenna design shows up in any future products...
Although it doesn't speak to the handling of the problem, doesn't a 90% - 95% satisfaction rate say something about the product and the company? I think that should invoke praise regardless of the clumsy response to the antenna (?) problem.
I enjoy and appreciate your knowledgeable and courteous posts. Once you mentioned walking the halls in Redmond which I interpreted as some involvement with MS. What specifically do you do?
I agree about this, however their current response to the antenna failure (you're holding it the wrong way) shows a distinct lack of that past addressing of issues. It's more like they KNOW it's a hardware problem/failure, and they have no chance to redesign the hardware - and it cannot be patched in the software. And since Apple is counting on 50% of next year's net profit to come from iPhone 4 sales, they CANNOT admit an error and pull the product off the market.
They really screwed up, and they're trying to spin as best they can to keep their stock price intact. I've been pilloried here at FR for daring to claim that Apple isn't about the consumer, but their investors (the consumers are just a means to an end). We're seeing that this is, in fact, the case.
What I'm most curious about is whether the iPhone4 antenna design shows up in any future products...
Apple opened 3 new PhD level mobile phone antenna designer positions the day after this antenna fiasco came to light. Coincidence?
I'd say that's pretty strong proof that future iPhones will NOT have this antenna design...;)
Apple is about the same as Motorola, Nokia, and Samsung in terms of customer satisfaction. They are neither the leader not trailer, just right in the middle.
I enjoy and appreciate your knowledgeable and courteous posts. Once you mentioned walking the halls in Redmond which I interpreted as some involvement with MS. What specifically do you do?
Independent consultant (a gun for hire so to speak) specializing in acoustics and audio. I've worked for Microsoft about 4-5 weeks each year, on average, over the last 5 years. I've also done this role for Apple, HP, Dell, and a host of others.
Personally, I use an HTC Touch Pro2 cell phone (mainly because of the features of the phone and the integration with other tools), an HP G71 laptop with Win7 Pro (because the technical software I have simply has no equivalents on any other platform), a Macbook Pro for cross-platform development, and a Linux-based music server (Ubuntu 10.4) running SqueezeServer for my Squeezebox audio player.
Well, I guess I'll be pilloried too... of course Apple is responsible first to its stockholders. Jobs didn't become the CEO of the Decade (or whatever) for nothing -- he is returning on the investments.
The fact that Apple manages to be consistently successful in that way, while still pushing the envelope on industrial design and advanced technology, not to mention "coolness factor", is what makes them special. Their attitude toward their customers is a factor, but not (IMO) the primary driver for their business decisions. Nor should it be.
> Apple opened 3 new PhD level mobile phone antenna designer positions the day after this antenna fiasco came to light. Coincidence?
That's fascinating. It shows they are serious about solving it, and don't care if anybody knows it (since obviously the open positions are public knowledge).
I just keep wondering, since the problem is related to direct-contact (hand-to-metal) conductivity, why not just put a thin non-conductive coating on the antenna metal?
I read a comment/article/something a couple days ago that speculated that such a coating was indeed part of the design, but that it had been inadvertently omitted from some percentage of the early production units. Given that Apple was rushing units through production, that's not too surprising, though it's a bit disappointing. But I don't have a solid citation for that speculation at the moment.
Is that a satisfactory failure rate in condoms or ammunition or just Apple products?
I would be pretty ticked if 10% of everything I bought sucked.
I”m not sure if it is a national regulation, or a state-by-state, but Every time I have bought a cell phone, the contract has had the stipulation that the consumer has 30 days to cancel the contract with no penalties...
And I am an AT&T customer.
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