Avi Greengart is the Research Director for Consumer Devices at Current Analysis (Mobile Phones, Connected Devices, and Digital Home). He also regularly writes for Slashgear, sporadically blogs at Home Theater View and Tweets far too often as @greengart. Avi's expertise lies in understanding consumer electronics marketing, consumer behavior, and technology adoption patterns: where new technologies meet the mass market. 

 

 

back to April 2010

June 2010

6/25/10: iPhone 4 "Death Grip" Antenna Problem

The claims that the iPhone 4’s reception is impacted if you hold it left handed are real, and a terrible public relations problem that Apple needs to address, but it is not a problem isolated to the iPhone 4, and it won’t impact sales. Since Apple made an obvious design decision to expose the antenna where your hand naturally comes in contact with it, Apple should offer bumpers free with purchase. (The bumpers prevent your hand from coming into contact with the antenna, thus solving the problem.) Many phones come with a case, pouch, or silicone sleeve in the box; Apple would not be setting a precedent here.

However, hand-impacted reception problems are not unique to the iPhone 4 - the original Motorola RAZR had this problem if you held the phone at the bottom, and all phones with internal antennas can be held in such a way that the signal is attenuated somewhat. We do not believe that this problem will significantly impact sales for three reasons:

  1. The same design decision that hurts reception when held covering the left hand corner helps reception in all other instances.

  2. I tested both of our iPhone 4 review units and found that covering the gap between antennas on the left hand side is easy to do – as a right handed analyst, it is the way I naturally hold the phone for anything other than talking – but it does not kill the signal, it just reduces it (usually 2 – 3 “bars”). I have also spoken to iPhone 4 users who cannot replicate the issue no matter how hard they try, so there may be some variability to the problem.

  3. Let’s not forget that people have been complaining about iPhone reception since 2007 and they keep buying them anyway.

6/25/10

New Slashgear column up: Nintendo v. Apple

6/24/10

I'm going to be out for a few days due to some (relatively minor) surgery to fix breathing and sinus problems. Not sure how long recovery will take, but I'll be posting additional commentary on the iPhone 4, DROID X, Galaxy S, new Xbox, etc. just as soon as I can. I've been postponing this surgery forever, and the timing... well, it is what it is.

6/16/10

I'll be out at E3 this week; clients and journalists seeking my reaction afterwards should email me at agreengart@currentanalysis.com, or call me at +1 (201) 677-8AVI.

6/6/10

I'll be at Steve Jobs' WWDC keynote tomorrow morning; clients and journalists seeking my reaction afterwards should email me at agreengart@currentanalysis.com, or call me at +1 (201) 677-8AVI.

My most recent Slashgear column, GoogleTV: Good Idea, Poor Initial Execution, was posted late last month.