Michelle Steiner

<http://www.macworld.com/article/152469/2010/07/iphone4_antenna.html>

Expert: iPhone 4 antenna issue molehill, not mountain

Posted on Jul 2, 2010 5:45 am byÂ*Gregg Keizer,Â*Computerworld

Editor’s Note: This story is excerpted fromÂ*Computerworld. For more Mac
coverage, visitÂ*Computerworld’s MacintoshÂ*Knowledge Center.

The uproar over the newÂ*iPhone’sÂ*reception problems is much ado about
nothing, an antenna expert said today.

“We’re making a mountain out of a molehill,� said Spencer Webb, an antenna
engineer with 11 patents to his credit,Â*and the president ofÂ*AntennaSys, a
mobile device antenna design and consulting firm.

Webb was referring to the ruckus overÂ*complaints by iPhone 4 ownersÂ*that
they were unable to make calls, maintain aÂ*connection, or keep a strong
signal on their new smartphones when they held them in specific ways.

Webb stressed thatÂ*AppleÂ*is not an AntennaSys client. In fact, he hasn’t
yet received the iPhone 4 he’s ordered.

Reports of call and data signal strength problems in the new iPhone 4
surfaced immediately after consumersÂ*purchased the phone or received their
pre-ordered devices. Apple has acknowledged that holding the iPhone 4
canÂ*diminish the cellular or data signal, making it difficult to place
calls or retain a data connection. Among the company’sÂ*suggestions: Hold
the iPhone 4 differently or buy a case to cover the antennas embedded in
the steel band that encirclesÂ*the phone.

“I don’t think this is a design defect,� said Webb, who has posted a pair
of blog entries analyzing the complaints andÂ*offering his opinions. “This
was a design choice by Apple.�

Moving the antennas to the outside of the iPhone 4—contrary to most modern
phones, where the antennas are insideÂ*the case—let Apple keep its
smartphone smaller, Webb said. “I’m willing to guess that Apple had the
industrial design—the glass on front, glass on back and the steel band—in
place before any of the guts of the phone were considered,â€�Â*he said.

Any design that would have improved reception would have made the iPhone
bigger, Webb said. “Apple is putting tenÂ*pounds of stuff in a five-pound
bag,â€� he wrote in aÂ*blog post last Saturday. “Put air space around the
antenna to makeÂ*it less sensitive to the presence of the human hand?
Fuggetaboutit. Air doesn’t sell phones.�

Webb doesn’t dispute that the outside antenna can cause some users, in some
places, to experience a signal shortage,Â*although he downplayed the
significance of most tests he’d seen people post on the Internet.

The varied results — some iPhone 4 owners said they had trouble getting a
signal, while others disputed those findingsÂ*— were most likely due to cell
tower placement and the user’s location. “If you’re covered by several cell
sites, youÂ*can’t know what’s going on,â€� Webb said. “You can’t tell what’s
really happening.�

Other factors, he noted, include difficulty in determining what the
iPhone’s signal strength indicator—the basis forÂ*most people’s conclusions
— really represents.

He acknowledged he had not had an opportunity to read the report published
Wednesday by the technology siteÂ*AnandTechÂ*that quantified the signal loss,
or attenuation, when the iPhone 4 is held in certain ways.

If the iPhone 4 was suspended in mid-air, with nothing or no one touching
it, it would likely perform admirably. “ButÂ*the antenna isn’t just the
antenna, it’s the entire field around the antenna. If there’s enough air
around it outside theÂ*case, you’re fine,â€� Webb said today in a telephone
interview. “But there are environmental factors that impede aÂ*signal. And
the human hand is an environmental factor.�

Specifically, placing part of one’s hand over one of the two slots in the
steel frame degrades antenna performance, asÂ*the human body’s conductivity
bridges the separate antennas, changing the length of the cellular antenna,
which isÂ*designed in a specific length to best receive and transmit the
cell frequencies. “There’s no way around this,â€� said Webb,Â*again noting
that it was a design choice mandated by Apple, and to a lesser extent, AT&T
and the FederalÂ*Communications Commission’s testing.

A case will help, said Webb, but probably not solve everyone’s problems.
But suggestions to place tape over the slots, orÂ*similar fix-its, was pure
“hokum,� he said.

The most likely solution is that users will learn how to cope by holding
the iPhone 4 slightly differently than they haveÂ*earlier models, or even
other phones. That’s essentially the same advice Apple CEO Steve Jobs has
reportedly givenÂ*users in a series of infrequent, and impossible-to-verify,
e-mails.

“The iPhone is so cool that we’ll forgive Apple that we’re going to have to
do the Vulcan iPhone pinch to hold it,â€�Â*Webb said, referring to his term
for holding the phone with the thumb and middle finger on each side, and
index fingerÂ*on the top back.

Webb’s bottom line advice? “Give it a couple of weeks,� he said of any new
iPhone 4. “Use it like you used your lastÂ*phone. If it doesn’t make you
happy, return it to Apple. But, give it a chance, and 24 hours ain’t it.�

Not everyone agrees with Webb that the iPhone 4’s problems are trivial.
Several iPhone owners have alreadyÂ*filedÂ*lawsuitsÂ*against both Apple and
AT&T over the problem, with at least three cases seeking class-action
status in bothÂ*California and Maryland federal courts.

Lawyers for one of the plaintiffs, Christopher Dydyk of Cambridge, Mass,
accused Apple of “massive fraudâ€� byÂ*shipping allegedly defective iPhone 4s.

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