[Brave Ulysses]

So, today Jobs made several comments in regards to "reevaluating" the situation around Sept 30. Several of his comments suggested that they are working on a permanent/hardware fix. Does setting a date for the free bumpers suggest that Apple may possibly release a revised iPhone around that time?

It's an interesting thing for them to do in my opinion. I see two scenarios:
1. They are working on a hardware fix (for 22 days engineers have been trying to solve this busting their butts) that isn't ready yet and needs to be properly tested... Apple expects this to happen and knows that the only true remedy for this situation is to eliminate it, and while sales are good now, who knows if this will continue to plague the "iPhone 4" brand image until its permanently resolved. If Apple can resolve it prior to the holiday sales they get to maintain momentum and possibly grow.

2. Apple is more confident and arrogant than we think and actually sees the possibility of this bad PR dying down to the point where people realize its not that big of an issue and they won't be forced to give away free bumpers anymore.


Either scenario I can't really see having good PR. And scenario one just seems extremely complicated based on supply chain, manufacturing and FCC approval.

Thoughts?

[Eugene]

Doubt it, sounds to me like they just want to appease current iPhone 4 buyers and those who still haven't heard about the antenna issue. September 30 is probably just an arbitrary date deemed late enough for the news to spread around.

[Miko]

I think they are in a bit of a hard spot.

I mean showing how other smartphones have the same issue with attenuation neutralizes things a bit, but I think having the antenna behind plastic helps to some degree. Apple with this new design 1) simply doesn't have the space to put or relocate the antenna to where it was on the 3GS the iFixit breakdown shows how dense the iPhone4 is and as shown in the video the 3GS suffers from the same issue anyway. 2) coming up with a new antenna design will take a lot of time and will need to be resubmitted to the FCC. not saying that they won't eventually change things, but hitting the Holiday Season is a little too aggressive IMO.

I think the best thing they can do is try to coat the antennas some how and if this can be done by swapping out parts at an Apple store that would be better than sending your phone in and not having it for a week!

[dmegatool]

Originally Posted by Miko 2) coming up with a new antenna design will take a lot of time and will need to be resubmitted to the FCC. not saying that they won't eventually change things, but hitting the Holiday Season is a little too aggressive IMO.

At that point, it's the iPhone 5. They''ll maybe try to fix it with coating or something but they won't redesign it.

[Kraetos]

If Apple "fixes" the iPhone, they'll do it silently, never admit it, and the design won't change.

Look, not only is the entire situation overblown, now the extent to which it is overblown is also overblown. Most people don't care. The fact that iPhone shipments are still backed up three weeks proves this.

[Nogs]

Is the end of September the end of a financial quarter for Apple? If so that might explain the date.

[Brave Ulysses]

I think if anything, this problem is going to somewhat force them to accelerate their update cycle. I don't think it is realistic to think the iPhone 4 can carry them through June, not with this kind of bad press and increased competition.

I think January is looking very good for a new iPhone with Verizon added as a carrier.

[dmegatool]

Would they have enough time to redesign it ? I don't think so... That would give them 5 months to create it, test it, and ramp up the production. With the iPad and the iPhone 4 going strong, I don't see that coming so soon. It's true that they may come with something new before June, but January seems a little bit fast.

Anyway, there's no problem with the iPhone 4. It's selling really well and the return rate is so low.

Edit: Maybe an iPhone 4.5. Not redesigned but some little tweaks an improvements. That would be nice to announce along with a Verizon version.

[Noel]

Originally Posted by dmegatool Would they have enough time to redesign it ? I don't think so... That would give them 5 months to create it, test it, and ramp up the production.

It's naïve to think that they didn't already have prototypes of future generations in development well before the iPhone 4 came out...

[scratt]

Yes, but it is also naïve to think that they would compromise their next iPhone's design process by shortening it to react to what is actually a non-issue.

And when you consider that they are still to get all of their iPhone 4 manufacturing plants online then I think any change to Apple's long or short term development cycle is extremely unlikely.

It has always been easy to prototype new hardware, but not so easy to actually put things into production. This is the case for silicon, and all other components. Apple may have A5s on the bench in house (I know they do actually), and OLED screens with HD resolution (I made that up), but manufacturing them in quantity is another matter.

It is always the supply and manufacture lines that dictate products finally shipping.
Back in the day we were buying Motorola 68030s for a device that wouldn't come out for another year or so. We were paying £500 or more a pop for the development silicon because of the low yields. And there was no hope of putting the device into production until yields hit a point where the chips were cheap enough due to full production runs. All this takes time.

I'll even give you a specific example. I *know* that Apple has a non-Intel MacBook Air in testing inside Apple. Whether we will see it or not is another matter.

[surjones]

Hmm I also might add that IF they do come out with some sort of coating or element to fix the signal issue WITHOUT changing the overall design, Im sure we'll be able to buy an iPhone Upgrade Antenna Accessory Kit (which includes install by genius bar)

[psmith2.0]

I used to think about that (well, "used to" being 3-4 days ago ), but I think, at this point, their "hardware fix" and any sort of antenna coating already exists...it's called a Bumper. And they're doling them out for free.



They might discover something between now and September 30 that will make them extend the free bumper/case offer another few months, or announce some other approach (this mythical coating/insulator...did any of those assembled reporters actually think to ask about this during last Friday's Q&A? That would've been the first or second question on my list).

But the fact that much of the world still won't have readily available iPhones come September 30 (hell, it's been nearly one month since the U.S. rollout and I still couldn't walk into a local Best Buy or Radio Shack to pick one up on a whim, last I checked) makes me think they'll extend that out for another 1-2 months. Maybe even until the end of the year? Otherwise, you're going to have people in Outer Cornholia raising a fuss that they were denied free Bumpers because the iPhone 4 didn't even come to their country until mid-October.

But at some point, Apple will probably have to release a "If you're going to get an iPhone 4 and you'd like a new, free case for it, get off your ass and order one, because this offer isn't a lifetime deal, you mooches!" statement.