Having continually denied that its iPhone 4 has any reception problems, Apple announced Friday that it was “stunned” to find out that its formula for calculating signal strength is “totally wrong.” A free software update will be issued within a few weeks.
The Cupertino, Calif.-based company said its current formula “mistakenly displays two more bars than it should for a given signal strength” so that, for instance, four bars of signal might show when only two should.
‘Never Real in the First Place’
The company said this could be contributing to the reported signal drop of as many as four or five bars, described by a number of users as occurring when the iPhone 4 is held in such a way that the black strip in the lower left corner of the metal band is covered. Apple noted that this is a “far bigger drop than normal,” and pointed out that gripping virtually any mobile phone — including the Android-powered Droid, Nokia devices, and RIM BlackBerrys — can reduce reception by a bar or more.
Because of the faulty metering, the company said, users who hold the phone in a certain way may be misled into thinking the signal drop is larger than it is. “Their big drop in bars,” Apple added, “is because their high bars were never real in the first place.”
AT&T’s “recently recommended formula” for calculating bars will be used in the software update. In addition, the update will make the first three bars taller so they’re easier to see, and will be available for the iPhone 3GS and 3G as well, which use the same erroneous formula.
Avi Greengart, an analyst with industry research firm Current Analysis, said his personal experience with the iPhone 4 is that “the signal drops when I touch the area of the external antenna.”
‘Gas Gauge’ Fix
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