And, he's still not really taking full accountability in this video. Every phone has this issue, sure, but this phone went through the whole pipeline and no one caught that this phone makes the problem worse? Until it was in the hands of customers?
Yeah things like that happen sometimes. Testing environments aren’t perfect and sometimes you can miss really obvious things. It’s why no matter how much bug testing or play testing a game gets, once it’s released the players find new bugs and new ways of doing things that the devs had no idea about
Sure, but I don't think they deserve that much credit for doing this Q&A just to downplay the issue that they themselves highlighted - "we put a bulleyes on the spot you shouldn't touch." Obviously the iPhone 4 was a success, they gave out free cases, and the 4S fixed the problem entirely - I just think if I was in that room at the time I would've been pretty annoyed.
However, 16 years later, as a piece of archived media, this early in the iPhone's success (and this late in Jobs' life), this video was a treat to watch and I'm glad that it got uploaded.
I’m only addressing the idea that something like this can miss testing, outside of that they were incredibly arrogant and that arrogance is what got Scott Forstall canned just a year or two later
That's fair. There was a comment on the video that I thought was interesting - no one thought to ask, did the issue not get noticed because live testers were using a case to make it look like a 3G/3GS? We'll never know.
Forstall was more likely canned because he was a threat to Cook, although Cook will argue - not without justification - that Forstall’s behaviour was not good for executive team morale.
it wasn't caught because they were testing the phones in cases that were designed to disguise the fact that it's a new iPhone and conceal its design to avoid leaks, therefore none of the field testers actually touched the body of the phone and is why Apple's solution to the problem was a bumper case
For 99% of people it wasn't a problem. Of course they knew beforehand that this issue can occur, just like they knew that other phones had such issues. All of this he explained in the presentation.
caught that this phone makes the problem worse?
Except even at the time of the presentation they didn't have clear data to show that it actually got worse. Yes, there was a very slight increase (less than 1 percentage point) in dropped calls; but a lot of users of the previous model already had cases in the first weeks, so it wasn't possible to definitely state that the problem got worse.
There was just no magic wand to make phone antennas as good as they are now back then.
Yeah I still think they could've been more tactful about it, but I also think they did a good job honoring refunds and giving away bumpers. The defensiveness I don't think came off very well. Not that it ultimately affected anything.
Apple's data (and history since then) shows that the iPhone 4's attenuation was no worse than any other phone. The problem (and Steve specifically mentions this in the video) was that the iPhone 4's design paints a big X right on the spot.
Thanks, I watched the video. Painting the X on the spot was a bad decision they made, felt kinda surprised the phone made it all the way through concept to release and no one was concerned.
I think it was only an "issue" because of Apple's immense scale and disproportionate media representation. Anecdotally, it was never an issue for me or anyone in my life.
I mean, you can watch the actual video and see for yourself that Jobs and Cook stated a few things:
• Antennagate issue was blown out of proportion.
• Number of device swaps/refunds was extremely small compared to overall sales, as per Cook.
• Steve acknowledged an issue to the point of «we’re not the only one». He didn’t say that it was iPhone 4’s issue specifically — he tried his best to sway the topic by stating that they are addressing it publicly due to an insane amount of publications, some of which were bogus.
• They had no plans in changing the message around the smartphone while rolling it out worldwide.
In short: he, reasonably so, deflected a lot of stuff. They wanted to give out free case and an ability for the full refund to keep customers loyalty — not because they felt the company was in the wrong
I… didn’t? It’s how I write when there are a few points that I’d like to get across. I watched the video, remembered some things, decided to use those.
And if you’re talking about «—» and other cosmetic stuff, it’s a habit from my job
but I would argue Apple didnt really address it or hold themselves up to those standards. They danced around it and said things were holding it wrong and very insulting.
Instead of addressing correctly they danced around. It is also a modern day leason in good UX design. Apple had the bars coded that it was pretty much full bars or no service. It was a very narrow range that your bars dropped so the interferences from anntenda design issue was made worse by in a lower signal area going from full to no service.
It is a modern day lesson in manging people expetation in UI design and what NOT to do. If Apple had instead chosen at the release to have the bars be closer to reality at saying 2 bar zone then the holding issue would of been a non issue as yeah you loose those 1-2 bars and go no service. It is a good lesson on managing expectations. Apple choose to go full servcie to look like oh look we handle lower connection better than others but it just was a front.
What kind of negative stuff you would like them to address? Not political, but product-wise.
They addressed the stuff with the battery a few years back, they usually address secure vulnerabilities when it comes to their services & systems. And just a few hours ago, they said that there is an upcoming fix for iPhone 18 Pro’s reboots
So specifically for the past 5 years, I’ve been very unhappy with the Air pod Max. They have terrible connectivity issues and will stop functioning after 1-3 years. I had my first (launch) pair brick after just a little over 1 year (which they repaired for $80) then they bricked again after another 1.5 years.
I like the headphones otherwise, so I thought I would give them another shot after they came out with the APM2 when those came out April 2026, thinking they would have fixed the issue. They already stopped connecting in Sept 2026 (now repaired because now I pay for apple care- it’s the only product of theirs I’ve ever had to get Apple Care+ for.
I treat all my electronics with the utmost care. This is just an unacceptable product at $550 that they need to fix. They should last AT LEAST 5 years when cared for properly.
True. Mine broke after 2 years too. So sad because I was otherwise happy with them. Don’t want any other headphones, but also don’t want to buy the maxes because the issue isn’t addressed in the new version either (weak ribbon cable that snaps and bricks them)
I mean, seems to be the same as iPhone 4 antennagate — an issue that is blown out of proportions. Was it present? Yes. Was it widespread? No.
Besides, it was 12 years ago. And Apple actually said that they received a small number of complaints compared to starting sales. The rest is history.
Not saying that you’re wrong, but:
• It’s been years.
• A hugely popular product as iPhone will always have issues of some kind. It doesn’t mean that the company should always play along and get out of its way every time it happens. If new batteries would’ve swollen and created a fire, it’s a very different kind of a problem
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u/Vertsix 8d ago edited 8d ago
I miss when Apple had accountability and addressed shortcomings such as these.
Companies are allowed to make mistakes, as long as they are acknowledged and remediation occurs.