Who Put the Burr...
under Consumer Report’s saddle?
Apple has quietly discontinued its free-case program for the iPhone 4 effective October 1, but says it will still provide a case to the "small percentage" of buyers who will need one due to the phone's "antenna attenuation issue."
In a statement posted to its website on Friday, the company said "we now know" that the antenna issue is "even smaller than we originally thought." Because of the low incidence, Apple says, it's discontinuing the current program, which allows all those who buy an iPhone 4 until September 30 to order a free case for the device.
Wherein there is nothing new under the sun. Apple had been up-front with all of this. But what comes later really makes you question Consumer Reports :
The iPhone 4's reception problem, we found in earlier tests, can occur when your finger or hand touches a spot on the phone's lower left side if the phone is being used in an area with a weak signal.
Apple provided no data to detail its claim of lower-than-expected incidence of dropped calls with the iPhone 4. In his July 16 news conference announcing the free cases, Apple chairman CEO Steve Jobs said the iPhone 4 dropped only about one call per hundred more than its predecessor, the iPhone 3G S, which remains available. Jobs also then reiterated the company's earlier claim that all smart phones have similar problems, and that "no one has solved this problem."
Least of all is Consumer Reports, who gets called out by a real EM engineer :
Consumer reports “RF” engineers should know better than to think they can run an engineering grade test for an issue like this in a shielded room. And certainly not one with people in it.
To even reasonably run a scientific test, the iPhone should have been sitting on a non-metallic pedestal inside an anechoic chamber. The base station simulator should have been also sitting outside the chamber and had a calibrated antenna plumbed to it from inside the chamber.
To say that Consumer Reports is doing more of an injustice to the consumer than Apple is being gentle and kind. To report a conclusion backed by the scientific reputation of CR without using, y’know, actual science is perpetrating a fraud on the consumer. It cannot be disputed that CR knew they were testing under scientific conditions. CR’s only ‘out’ here is to claim ignorance, but to do so means they will be throwing away their ‘scientific’ reputation.
But that fraud is compounded in the fact that CR does nothing to dispute Apple’s claim there is a smaller occurrence of the ‘death grip’ than reported initially. Please bear in mind that Apple reported one-half of one percent as the initial figure of problems. CR castigates Apple for not providing the documentation, but CR has done nothing to answer Bob Egan’s claims they screwed the pooch in their own testing. Since July !
Moreover, if the ‘design flaw’ doesn’t affect every user can it truly be called a design flaw at all? The testing fraud foisted on every unsuspecting reader of CR meets our definition of a design flaw. CR has the slogan “Nobody Tests Like We Do”, and now we see why. No self-respecting scientist would use the low standards and pseudoscientific methods CR has employed in their vendetta against Apple.
But on top of all of that, the iPhone 4 remains the highest-rated smartphone, according to no less of an authority than the formerly-reliable Consumer Reports !