March 29, 2012: Apple settles its “Antennagate” controversy by giving affected iPhone 4 homeowners the prospect to assert a whopping $15 payout. The settlement covers prospects who skilled issues with the cellphone dropping calls attributable to its cutting-edge design, however have been unable to return their handsets (or didn’t desire a free bumper from Apple to mitigate towards the issue).
Whereas it’s controversial whether or not a $15 payout was price submitting all of the paperwork obligatory to assert the money, the Antennagate story — and the ensuing class-action lawsuit — generated large headlines on the time.
Antennagate: A uniquely Apple controversy
“Antennagate” referred to the tendency of the iPhone 4 to often drop calls when held a sure approach. The issue proved notably vexing when a consumer held the cellphone of their left hand in order that their palm coated the system’s tiny antenna hole.
A bit like 2014’s “Bendgate” controversy with the iPhone 6 Plus, Antennagate was massively overblown by the media. The antenna drawback affected solely round one name in 100.
Nevertheless, issues got here to a head when revered commerce publication Consumer Reports said it could not recommend the iPhone 4 due to the defect. Within the aftermath, Apple CEO Steve Jobs flew again early from a household vacation in Kona Village, Hawaii, to handle the issue at a press convention. (Apple’s preliminary response to aggravated iPhone 4 homeowners principally boiled all the way down to “you’re holding it wrong.”)
By being sincere in regards to the antenna drawback, however standing by the iPhone 4, Jobs defused the scenario. Antennagate didn’t immediate the mass iPhone returns some feared. Nonetheless, Antennagate stays a big second in Apple historical past for a number of causes.
Apple design: Type over perform?
For starters, it marked one of many first instances that Apple’s design-first strategy to expertise clashed with making a product that “simply labored.”
Metallic just isn’t the best materials to put subsequent to an antenna. A design just like the iPhone 4’s can create a Faraday cage that stops alerts from getting in or out of the cellphone.
The unique iPhone acquired round this through the use of a plastic band on the backside. Nevertheless, for the iPhone 4, Apple design chief Jony Ive needed to exchange the plastic for aesthetic causes. The design brilliance of Apple’s engineers made this potential. Nevertheless, some argued that their answer illustrated the hazard of placing kind earlier than sensible perform. (Some folks proceed to lodge that very same accusation towards Apple today.)
Antennagate settlement and controversy illustrates how far iPhone had come
The opposite factor Antennagate highlighted was simply how large Apple had turn into. By the point of the iPhone 4 release in 2010, Apple had transitioned from the money-losing company it was in the 1990s to turn into one of the vital useful companies on the planet.
A lost iPhone 4 prototype that wound up within the fingers of Gizmodo in April 2010 generated headlines previous to the system’s unveiling by Steve Jobs on June 7, 2010. When the iPhone 4 went on sale, Apple clocked a record-setting (for the time) 600,000 preorders on launch day.
In different phrases, the iPhone and Apple have been fairly large offers by that point. And what wouldn’t have been information for a lesser firm grew to become a serious story for the much-scrutinized Apple.
Do you bear in mind Apple’s Antennagate drama and the ensuing settlement? Did you personal an iPhone 4? And, in that case, did the antenna drawback have an effect on your utilization of the handset? Go away your feedback under.
