A decade and a half ago, when Apple unveiled the iPhone 4, sporting a gorgeous stainless steel frame, with a chemically-strengthened aluminosilicate glass, coupled with the unibody chassis to make it perhaps the most desirable device of its time. Unfortunately, its unrivaled beauty was overshadowed by a problem that has been immortalized in technology history as ‘Antennagate.’
It was found that when users gripped the iPhone 4 in a specific manner, the device’s cellular reception dropped, with the number of bars reducing dramatically. At the time, Steve Jobs famously suggested that people were holding the handset incorrectly, but that did not stop Apple from having to stand tall against an onslaught of controversy, which also culminated in settling a class-action lawsuit.
However, 15 years after the iPhone 4’s inception, a software engineer solved this glaring problem in the most anti-climactic way possible, using 20 bytes of code. Imagine if he had been present at that time to assist Apple? It would have saved the now-trillion-dollar entity a world of problems.
Apple was not lying when it said that the problem plaguing the iPhone 4 was software-related
On X, software engineer Sam Henri Gold figured out the fix. He started by comparing the code from the original iOS version at the time, and pitted it against the subsequent update. Upon further examination, he mentions that the code was never the problem, but the lookup table, which you can find in the post below:
When converting bytes into dBm values, Sam figured that Apple had set the results to highly optimistic so the majority of the time, users would see between 4-5 bars on the iPhone 4. However, when gripping it a certain way, the falloff was extremely sharp, causing a massive drop.
In the subsequent update, the values were more realistic, making it difficult for the bar to drop below the value ‘5.’ Based on Sam’s findings, it appears that Apple was right all along about the problem being related to software.
The entire controversy cost Apple $175 million - Here is how
While we will get to the tremendous loss the technology giant had to bear for the iPhone 4 debacle, Apple did provide a summary of its findings below related to the software problem emanating from the 15-year-old device.
“Upon investigation, we were stunned to find that the formula we use to calculate how many bars of signal strength to display is totally wrong. Our formula, in many instances, mistakenly displays 2 more bars than it should for a given signal strength. For example, we sometimes display 4 bars when we should be displaying as few as 2 bars. Users observing a drop of several bars when they grip their iPhone in a certain way are most likely in an area with very weak signal strength, but they don’t know it because we are erroneously displaying 4 or 5 bars. Their big drop in bars is because their high bars were never real in the first place.”
To compensate for the controversy, Apple offered iPhone 4 owners a Bumper or case program for those experiencing signal problems. The company had set aside $175 million as the amount it would incur because of the iPhone 4’s flawed antenna design, and the rest is history. The Cupertino never ran into the same issues as the iPhone 4S was re-engineered to avoid this problem.
News Source: Sam Henri Gold
About the author: Omar Sohail is a reporter and analyst for Wccftech's mobile section, specializing in the technology and business of the mobile industry. His expertise lies in the intricate hardware supply chain, covering developments in semiconductor manufacturing, chip lithography, and camera sensor technology.
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