For months consumers have been waiting for the iPhone 4 to be released. Rumours of possible features were being posted onto blogs, forums and even national newspapers in the running weeks up to its release. Would it have HD recording ability? Would it be able to sync with iTunes wirelessly? Multitasking? Would it be able carry out the basic functions of a phone?
Ok, so, the last one wasn’t the main question before being released…but it sure is now. Sadly, after a successful release of the iPhone, many issues have been reported from the screen turning yellow on some devices to others having their screen cracked through the slightest of knocks. However the big one being reported from most users is the issue of reception decreasing when holding the device. That’s right, when holding the phone the reception *noticeably* decreases which can be seen in the below video:
So what’s being done to solve the issue? Nothing. Steve Jobs, Apple CEO, has hit back against the reception issue by telling customer’s that they are holding the phone wrong. Not exactly the news that you want to hear when you’re tied into a contract with a phone that can’t even function as a basic phone, and as we can see below the noise online isn’t going to stop soon:
Have you purchased the iPhone4? If so, what do you think should be done to resolve the issue? If not, do you think you’ll risk the issues just to get your hands on one? Let me know in the comments below!
I personally wouldn’t buy one until the teething problems are resolved. There are two issues I see here:
1. There are always unexpected problems with brand new products, particularly technological products – I purchased the X-Box 360 as soon as it was released and fell prey to the ‘ring of death’ issue.
2. How the company handles it. Microsoft were brilliant – immediately issued instructions to their customer care teams and made it easy to send back your 360 and get a replacement (if the serial number identified it as an affected unit)
Not that I’m pro-microsoft and anti-Apple, was merely an example of 2 companies customer care delivery, but Apple need to be very careful of how they handle this issue. Their products aren’t cheap and if customers deviate away from such a well known brand they may struggle to ever get the trust and loyalty back.
I use a Palm Pre; get one of those and you won’t have that problem. In fact, you can use the phone while you are using your favorite apps.
On the customer service side of things, I am surprised at how Apple is handling this. They are definitely going to lose some customers over this one.