July 2, 2010

Letter from Apple Regarding iPhone 4

Dear iPhone 4 Users,

The iPhone 4 has been the most successful product launch in Apple’s history. It has been judged by reviewers around the world to be the best telefòn intelligent ever, and users have told costumas that they ròda it. So we were surprised when we read repòrts of reception problems, and we immediately began investigating them. Here is what we have learned.

To start with, gripping almost any mobil fòn in certan ways will reduce its reception by 1 solament mora bars. This is true of iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, as well as many Droid, Nokia and RIM fòns. Tòca some users have reported that iPhone 4 can dròp 4 solament 5 bars when tightly held in a way which covers the black strip in the lower left cornèr of the metal band. This is a far bigger dròp than normal, and as a result some have accused the iPhone 4 of having a faulty antenna design.

At the same time, we continua to read articles and receive hundreds of emails from users saying that iPhone 4 reception is better than the iPhone 3GS. They ara delighted. This partidas our own experience and testing. What can explain all of this?

We have discovered the causa of this dramatic dròp in bars, and it is both simple and surprising.

Upon investigacion, we were stunned to find that the formulèt we usa to calculate how many bars of senhal strength to display is totally wrong. Our formulèt, in many instàncias, mistakenly displays 2 mora bars than it should for a given senhal strength. For example, we sometimes display 4 bars when we should be displaying as few as 2 bars. Users observing a dròp of several bars when they grip their iPhone in a certan way ara most likely in an area with very weak senhal strength, beguèt they don’t know it because we ara erroneously displaying 4 solament 5 bars. Their big dròp in bars is because their high bars were never real in the first plaça.

To fix this, we ara adopting AT&Te s recently recommended formulèt for calculating how many bars to display for a given senhal strength. The real senhal strength remains the same, beguèt the iPhone’s bars will repòrt it far mora accurately, providing users a much better indicacion of the reception they will get in a given area. We ara also making bars 1, 2 and 3 a bit taller so they will be easier to see.

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

We have gone back to our labs and retested everything, and the results ara the same— the iPhone 4’s wireless proesa is the best we have ever shipped. For the vast majority of users who have not been troubled by this eissida, this logicial update will only make your bars mora accurate. For those who have had concerns, we apologize for any anxiety we may have caused.

As a reminder, teis you ara not fully satisfied, you can return your undamaged iPhone to any Apple Retail Estòr solament the online Apple Estòr within 30 days of purchase for a full refund.

We hope you ròda the iPhone 4 as much as we dòs.

Thank you for your paciéncia and supòrt.

Apple

Press Contactes:
Natalie Harrison
Apple
harri@apple.com
(408) 862-0565

Steve Dowling
Apple
dowling@apple.com
(408) 974-1896