Apple Have their iPhone 4 Scapegoat?

The Apple executive who oversaw development of the troubled iPhone 4 is leaving the company. Mark Papermaster joined Apple as Head of iPhone and iPod hardware engineering department from IBM in 2009 and all seemed to be going well until the recent problems with the antenna on the iPhone 4. Apple would not comment on whether he resigned or was sacked.

Despite many owners reporting the new iPhone dropped calls, the problems were initially played down by the company. The problem was traced to the iPhone's use of its metal casing to house its antennas and small gap between the two antennas. When the gap was bridged on the lower left-hand side of the case the signal strength was drained. This was further compounded by a influential US Consumer Reports organisation declaring that it could not recommend the product. The result was that Apple had to offer free cases to all iPhone 4 owners as these stop the gap being bridged.

The problem may have been an engineering fault, but given the promotion and innovation plaudits at the launch and the far from effective communications programme on the problems post launch, it would appear to be a bit harsh to part company with Mr Papermaster. After all, the design is innovative and the iPhone 4 is leading the market despite its hitch. Perhaps Apple’s Marketing and Public Relations Heads need to take a hard look in the mirror today.

Apple: Is All PR Good?

One day you are a hero the next you are a villain. One day everyone hangs on your every word the next they hang you for every word. We saw what bad PR did to a delayed car recall recently and BP has had a mare of a communications problem since oil stated to impact its main buying community. No one is immure to bad press and not everyone can handle it. Now Appleworld certainly is experiencing a rollercoaster of a month since it launched its iPhone 4.

The iPhone 4 went on sale in late June 24 and Apple claim to have sold more than 1.7 million units in the first three days of the launch.

Should they recall the phones and correct them, simple tell people how to hold them, download a patch, or tough it out? The one thing you don’t do is act arrogant and say that there isn’t a problem when there is. The next thing you don’t do is tell people how to fix your problem and offer them a bumper at a cost of $30. The last thing you don’t do is expect it to go away – ask BP.

The Comsumer Reports statement which it could not recommend the iPhone 4 should have been taken on board. Apple blog TUAW however claimed that the company was deleting threads in its support forum that referenced the Consumer Reports ratings. The chorus of complaints continue to grow and consumer review sites question whether a recall is required.

The company so far has made two official responses to the reception issue, which has been blamed on an external antenna design. One recommended that customers refrain from holding the phone in a way that covered the bottom left corner. Another said it had discovered a software glitch that miscalculated the strength of wireless coverage in a given area.

Do Pixels Per Inch Matter?

How many Androids equal an iPhone? Some would say that the iPhone is better than them all but the reality is that the healthy competition that is now in the market can only benefit one group – the consumer.

Samsung, LG, HTC, Motorola, Dell are all spreading their bets with Windows 7 and MeeGo and Symbian 3 but the reality is that Android is getting the traffic and is a must make for all with multiple model offers. Motorola is clearly one that is pumping up the gigahertz looking at the devices that are coming as competitors for the notebook and of course the iPad. They are already rumoured to be relasing a phone to incorporate the Nvidia Tegra 1GHz apps processor, an iPhone-style gyroscope, Android 2.2 and of course, full Flash 10.1 hardware acceleration.

But the battle is not just about the operating system, how much GHz umph you can get into a phone but also about the display technology.

The new iPhone 4 was has Retina Display which is ultra-high resolution. The system still uses an a backlit LCD display but with advanced In-Plane Switch (IPS) technology to increase resolution, brightness, support a wider viewing angle and increase colour quality. Apple use smaller pixels, more than doubling the number to that in the iPhone 3GS screen. The LCD/IPS combination was first used on the iPad. It is claimed around 300 pixels per inch is the limit of the human retina to differentiate the pixels when a display is viewed some 10 to 12 inches away from your eyes. So at 326 pixels per inch Apple have created a pixel-less world! It could be said they have the closest to print on a small screen.

There are doubters and some who claim 477 is the perfect number but there again its down to the vision of the beholder and someone with 20/20 vision would see it different to someone with less perfect eyesight.

By contrast, top end LG and HTC models and the Sansung Galaxy S will be using an AMOLED display which achieves its effects by using sub-pixel rendering and other advantages are greater range of colours, faster response time, thinner displays, reduced power and no need for backlighting. Samsung claim only a marginally less sharp image than the iPhone 4 and will be only 3 to 5 %. They claim a 30% power advantage which will give the Galaxy S some 576 hours of 3G standby over the iPhone 4’s 300 hours.

Whatever the outcome smartphones are getting smarter and the technology battles rage on many fronts. It is clear that what we will be using shortly in the future will make today’s models look very clunky.

The New iPhone 4 and iOS 4

Steve jobs has announced at his Worldwide Developers Conference the iPhone OS 4.0 and iOS 4.

iOS 4 will support; multitasking, folders, improved data protection, device management, wireless app distribution, support for multiple Exchange accounts, a unified Mail inbox, SSL VPN support, Exchange Server 2010 support. iOS 4 will be released this summer for the iPhone and iPod touch, and a little later for the iPad.

So as the war between Google and Apple hots up we see Microsoft split in the middle, Adobe aligning the obvious way and literally tens of wananbee tablets lining up for Christmas. Apple continues to set the design stakes whilst Google is clearly stalking with menace. Google will launch Chrome OS later this year and its going to be interesting if this will strengthen or divide its appeal.