Apple Says Antenna Trouble from Software Mistake, not Design

Apple just admitted that there is indeed a problem with the new iPhone 4 but its not what everyone was expecting. Apple said that the problem is in their software and how it calculates signal strength and displays it. You can read part of Apple press statement below.

Upon investigation, we were stunned to find that the formula we use to calculate how many bars of signal strength to display is totally wrong. Our formula, in many instances, mistakenly displays 2 more bars than it should for a given signal strength. For example, we sometimes display 4 bars when we should be displaying as few as 2 bars. Users observing a drop of several bars when they grip their iPhone in a certain way are most likely in an area with very weak signal strength, but they don’t know it because we are erroneously displaying 4 or 5 bars. Their big drop in bars is because their high bars were never real in the first place.

To fix this, we are adopting AT&T’s recently recommended formula for calculating how many bars to display for a given signal strength. The real signal strength remains the same, but the iPhone’s bars will report it far more accurately, providing users a much better indication of the reception they will get in a given area. We are also making bars 1, 2 and 3 a bit taller so they will be easier to see.

We will issue a free software update within a few weeks that incorporates the corrected formula. Since this mistake has been present since the original iPhone, this software update will also be available for the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 3G.

Now, that’s assuring to hear but that doesn’t ignore the fact that the new iPhone did indeed have a problem and they did make a mistake. Well, I hope the solution to this one wouldn’t be a very big hassle because customers are starting to get a little annoyed about this whole thing.