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iPhone 4S customers report 96% satisfaction rate
The iPhone 4S has been out for about six weeks, and owners have had time to learn the ins and outs of the device. ChangeWave wanted to find out what these people thought and asked 215 iPhone 4S owners about their new handset. If you're a long-time iPhone owner, you won't be surprised by the results. The survey reveals an overwhelming number (77 percent) of 4S owners are very satisfied with their handset. This is slightly higher than the 73 percent who said they were very satisfied with the iPhone 4 right after launch. The feature 4S owners liked the most about their handset was Siri. Almost half (49 percent) of those surveyed ranked Siri as the number one feature of the phone. The second and third favorite features were the iPhone's ease of use and its 8-megpixel camera. The iPhone 4S isn't perfect, and a little over a third of those surveyed (38 percent) said battery life was too short. It may be a problem, but most people are not overly bothered by having to charge their phone regularly. Only 8 percent of owners with reduced battery life said it was a very big problem; 20 percent said it was somewhat of a problem. Battery life may be worse, but the dropped call rate has improved significantly. The iPhone 4S dropped call rate is 2.5 percent which is almost half that of the iPhone 4 (5.2 percent). The majority of these dropped calls occurred on AT&T which has a 4.1 percent dropped call rate. Verizon iPhone 4S owners reported only a 1.3 percent dropped call rate. Overall, iPhone owners like their new phone. Even though the diminished battery may be an inconvenience, things like Siri and improved call quality make those little glitches seem bearable. As a current iPhone 4S owner, I would have to agree. [Via AppleInsider]
AT&T has the fastest iPhone 4S network, Verizon the most reliable
In a smackdown between US cellular carriers AT&T, Sprint and Verizon, which network reigns supreme? That was the question answered by a new report by performance analytics firm Metrico Wireless Inc. that compared the carriers to determine who has the fastest and most reliable network. To perform the tests, Metrico grabbed more than 21,000 web pages, did over 8,000 speed tests and made more than 6,000 voice calls from the iPhone 4S. The company has a proprietary measurement platform that is used to monitor the performance of the carriers. The fastest network in the comparison was AT&T, with maximum download speeds of 6,047 Kbps and a mean speed of 3,210 Kbps. Verizon was well behind in the speed race, with a maximum download speed of 2,371 Kbps and a mean of 1,071 Kbps. In other words, the average download speed for AT&T was almost triple that of Verizon. Sprint was even slower, with a maximum speed of 1,767 Kbps and a mean speed of only 581 Kbps. When it came to call failures, Verizon had the fewest -- only 2.1% of test calls failed. Sprint was the worst network for dropping calls, with 3.7% of calls dropping. AT&T was in the middle with a failure rate of 2.8%. Metrico also found that the iPhone 4S has an average dropped call rate of about 1.4%, which is poor in comparison with competing smartphones. However, in terms of data task reliability, the iPhone 4S was at or near 100%, making the newest iPhone among the best in the world.
Verizon iPhone 4 owners report fewer dropped calls than AT&T customers
ChangeWave conducted a survey of 4,068 wireless customers to determine the difference between Verizon iPhone owners and AT&T iPhone owners. The survey was completed on March 28, and it takes into account Verizon owners' initial response to the iPhone's performance on the CDMA network. The results show that, overall, Verizon iPhone owners are equally as satisfied as their AT&T counterparts with 82 percent of Verizon owners and 80 percent of AT&T owners reporting they are very satisfied with their current service. Dropped calls on the two carriers differed greatly with AT&T iPhone customers reporting up to 4.8 percent of dropped calls and Verizon customers coming in with a much lower 1.8 percent. Over the two-year survey, Verizon's overall dropped call rate has decreased from 2.7 percent in 2008 to 1.4 percent in March 2011. AT&T, on the other hand, has shown an increase from 3.6 percent in 2008 to the current 4.6 percent in March 2011. This 4.6 percent is encouraging and shows that AT&T is trying to address this problem. Though its dropped call rate is higher than 2008, this rate is slowly falling down from a high of 6 percent reported by AT&T iPhone owners in September 2010. [Via AppleInsider]
Verizon's dropped 911 calls leave one woman trapped in burning house (video)
We're just hearing of a story that makes that 10,000 or so emergency calls that didn't go through over Verizon's network on January 26 look a little more serious. A house in Silver Spring, Maryland caught fire that evening during the snowstorm that knocked out power and landlines. A neighbor, noticing the house was ablaze, tried calling 911 on his cellphone but couldn't get through. Thankfully he was able to save the 94 year old woman who was trapped inside, but it would be about 30 minutes of repeated dialing before finally being connected to emergency services. Thank goodness for heroes, but maybe Verizon Guy has some work to do himself.
AT&T could lose 26% of iPhone customers, study suggests
With Verizon picking up the iPhone 4 in the US, market research firm ChangeWave decided to see just how much of an impact the new carrier would have on AT&T. The result of a survey of over 4,000 U.S. consumers shows that a whopping 26 percent of respondents said that they would drop AT&T for Verizon. 42 percent of the folks who say they're going to move to VZW say that they're tired of the poor reception they get on the AT&T network, while 27 percent stated that dropped calls were the reason. Paul Carton, director of research at ChangeWave, noted that AT&T's current "churn rate" -- the number of subscribers who say they are planning to change carriers in the next 90 days -- is at an all-time high of around 15 percent at this point. Only last June, that rate was at about 9 percent. Verizon's churn rate is only about 4 percent by comparison. ChangeWave did find a sliver lining to AT&T's cloudy future, as the carrier has improved the rate at which it drops calls. Only 4.7 percent of AT&T subscribers reported a dropped call in the last 90 days, down from 6 percent back in September of 2010. TUAW would like to perform its own market research with our awesome readers, so we'd like to know if current AT&T iPhone customers are planning on jumping ship for Verizon Wireless. Take our reader poll and enjoy the results. Update: An AT&T spokesperson noted that both Piper Jaffray and Hudson Square published information today showing that only 6 - 8 percent of people in line today were previously with AT&T; much less than one would expect from the ChangeWave figures. Forbes ran a post that also talked about the light turnout for the Verizon iPhone. The AT&T spokesperson also noted that they're seeing record low churn -- about 1.15 percent in the fourth quarter of 2010, much less than ChangeWave's numbers show. %Poll-59975%
Apple: iPhone 4 drops 'less than one additional call per 100 than the 3GS'
It's fairly obvious that the howls around the web for Apple to address this antenna issue has gotten underneath the skin of one Steve Jobs, and in a fashion that's very much unlike Apple (or AT&T, for that matter), the aforesaid CEO has actually handed out a bit of hard data surrounding dropped calls on the iPhone 4. According to Jobs, AT&T won't reveal the exact amount of call drops for competitive reasons, but they did manage to push out a meaningful delta. As of today, they've noticed that the "iPhone 4 drops less than one additional call per 100 than the 3GS." In other words, the iPhone 4 has actually been dropping more calls than the 3GS in the three weeks that the former has been on the market. Of course, Steve's also playing up the fact that just a fraction of a percent of all buyers have bothered to call in about their bout with dropped calls (and why would you, knowing there's no cure?), but it's still interesting to finally get some cold, hard facts on this disaster. Even if it's but a snippet.
Law firms suing Apple not impressed with explanation of reception issues
The fix from Apple for the increasing complaints about iPhone 4 reception is, not surprisingly, not going over very well with the lawyers representing people who are complaining of dropped calls. Apple said yesterday it was 'stunned' to learn the signal strength graph on every iPhone made is not accurate, and is displaying much better reception than the phone is really getting. To fix it, Apple is going to recalibrate the display, essentially giving you fewer bars in more places. Dan Ward, of Ward & Ward, one of the law firms suing Apple and AT&T told me: We at Ward & Ward, along with many others, are very skeptical of this "fix." While Apple admits to misrepresenting to the public [about] the signal strength its iPhone 4 is receiving, and then says they will fix that problem, there is no indication that this "fix" will actually solve the underlying design problem. Another firm with clients suing Apple, Mason LLP, told TechCrunch: Our investigation revealed that users lost reception when gripping the phone in a conventional manner. We believe that the problem is not merely how the signal strength is displayed but involves a physical blocking of the antennae which cuts off calls. The other firms suing Apple are also not likely to be persuaded by Apple's explanation, so don't expect those lawsuits to go away any time soon.
Apple hiring iPhone antenna engineers for some reason
Three Apple job postings for iPhone / iPad antenna engineers to "Define and implement antenna system architecture to optimize the radiation performance for wireless portable devices." All three were posted on June 23rd, the same day that we started seeing widespread reporting of the left-handed reception issues. Coincidence? [Thanks, Abe]
Worst Phone Ever chronicles dropped iPhone calls
I don't know exactly how useful this site is, but I'll let you check it out and decide for yourself. Worst Phone Ever is a site that purports to try and track all of the dropped calls being racked up on Apple's devices and AT&T's service. The idea is that you upload your dropped call log file, then they'll flip through it, and add it to the data they've already compiled. As of this writing, the site has already parsed over 1.5 million calls, and claim that 5.52 percent of them were dropped, costing users over $154,448 (you can see more about how that's all calculated on their FAQ page). Now, the paranoid in me has to warn you against actually sending them any logfiles -- while the FAQ claims that no "personal or uniquely identifying information" is in the files, they do say they're tying them to your email address, and I find it hard to believe that there aren't at least area codes in there for Apple's information. Their FAQ, again, admits that they're "going to do everything we can" with the data, and I can't really recommend you give them something from your computer under that agreement. But if nothing else, the site might turn out to be a nice compendium of information on just how many calls AT&T is dropping. If these averages from earlier this year are any indication, it might be just as high as frustrated customers think it is.
The Jimmy Fallon Test: is the iPhone 4 dropping fewer calls?
If you watched the most recent episode of The Engadget Show, then you know that Jimmy Fallon had a lot to say about the iPhone -- particularly the fact that he's been fed up with his 3GS' dropped calls, and was planning a jump to an Android device on Verizon if the iPhone 4 didn't improve things. You see, he takes a path through Midtown Manhattan where his calls are dropped in two specific locations on a daily basis. In his words: "It cuts out at 27th st. and cuts out again around 47th st., and it's awful, I can't take it." Jimmy told us that he'd test the path with the iPhone 4 and see if things improved, and he's recounted what happened yesterday in an email: I did the experiment. I tried to stay on the phone from downtown Manhattan to Midtown with no dropped calls. (usually I get 2 drops) I got..... (drum roll) No dropped calls!!! Not one. I'm a believer. iPhone 4. So like us, he's getting better reception on the new phone (despite the antenna issues). What about you guys? We know that there are definitely noticeable, real signal issues, but how has your connection been? More dropped calls or less? Let us know in the poll below! %Poll-48600%
Hey Apple, you're holding it wrong
We're only holding it in the way that you showed us.
iPhone 4's seams explained, ready to solve AT&T call issues? (video)
When we first exposed the iPhone 4 to the world, many of you were skeptical about its authenticity. Frankly, so were we, initially anyway. A device with black seams disrupting its otherwise clean lines just couldn't be from Apple, a company notorious for its obsessive design aesthetic. Well, now that the iPhone 4 is official, Steve took a moment to explain that the stainless steel band is actually an integral part of the iPhone's antenna system -- one part dedicated to Bluetooth, WiFi, and GPS; the other larger half to UMTS and GSM. Something that, according to Steve, has never been done before in a phone. We'll have to wait a bit before we know whether this "brilliant engineering" translates into fewer dropped calls for frustrated AT&T customers. But it's hard to imagine that Apple would take the time to show its antennas to developers if there wasn't a downstream reward for consumers. Remember, Steve did say last week that things "should be getting a lot better soon" on AT&T. Click through to hear Apple's loyal software developers ooh and aah over the iPhone's really cool ability to convert electromagnetic radiation into electrical current, and back. Amazing.
AT&T's Q1 results: earnings down thanks to one-time charge, NYC seeing 'solid improvements'
AT&T's first quarter results posted this morning look generally quite positive for the company -- it saw its highest first-quarter net wireless adds in history (1.9 million) and both postpaid and total churn are at their lowest levels ever, suggesting that subscribers are happier with their service than they have been in recent months, the thought of tantalizing hardware is keeping them around, they're too worn down to bother switching, or some combination of the above. Net income of $2.5 billion was down a bit year over year -- $600 million, to be exact -- thanks to a one-time charge related to some tax craziness that only accountants would fully comprehend, but had it not been for that, they'd be looking at having banked $3.5 billion. In other words, the numbers are looking good. At least the financial numbers are looking good, but what about those dropped calls? AT&T claims that Manhattan -- one of the hardest-hit areas in the country, if not the hardest -- saw a 6 percent improvement in the first quarter, with the New York metro area improving 9 percent overall. The promised third carrier rollout is claimed to be well underway, and as proof of all this noise, AT&T helpfully provides a pair of graphs -- graphs with no perceptible Y-axis units, mind you -- showing bigger bars and higher lines in the first quarter than in last. Of course, we still don't appreciate AT&T bringing its extensive WiFi network into the equation here; it's still totally non sequitur to the matter at hand, as far as we're concerned, since even the most extensive WiFi coverage is a drop in the bucket against WWAN footprint. Besides, if these guys can actually meet their proclaimed goal of offering both the fastest and the most reliable 3G data around, it's a moot point, right?
Modern smartphone radio design partly to blame for AT&T, O2 network woes?
Even though AT&T's already committed both carrier and backhaul upgrades in an effort to buck the butt-of-the-joke trend it's been experiencing for the last couple years, there's some evidence that it's a recent trend in the way phone radios operate -- not a lack of overall capacity -- that should shoulder at least some of the blame for the issues. An O2 staffer (O2 carries the iPhone and has coincidentally experienced many of the same growing pains AT&T has in recent months) that reached out to Ars Technica says that Apple's baby was one of the first widely popular phones to immediately drop data connections as soon as transfers were complete and re-establish them only when needed; that tactic saves battery power, but can overwhelm cell sites pretty easily if they're not configured to handle it -- even if there's plenty of spectrum and backhaul available. Other handsets now employ the same strategy, compounding the problem. This seems like an awfully odd thing to miss during carrier testing, but who knows -- we wouldn't put it past anyone to gladhand the iPhone through the toughest parts of the gauntlet.
AT&T says it's 'closing the gap' on dropped calls
AT&T spent a good bit of its earnings call today talking about its network -- not too surprising, really, considering the cozy relationship between dropped calls, subscriber count, and profit. The overall takeaway was that the company is pleased with its progress and continues to improve thanks to the addition of new carriers at existing cell sites (read: increased over-the-air capacity), an ongoing backhaul renovation, and the recent roll-out of 7.2Mbps capability across most of its 3G footprint. In terms of dropped calls specifically, AT&T claims that the statistic dropped network-wide from 1.41 percent to 1.05 percent between December '08 and '09 -- not bad, though the real problems seem to be in key high-density, high-visibility markets like Manhattan where it hasn't yet met its vaguely-defined "performance objective." That said, it seems convinced that it'll patch things up over the next few months as it continues its infrastructure push -- and considering that Apple's entrusting AT&T with the iPad, we don't doubt that there's some work underway to mute the cries of "we want Verizon" about 90 days from now. Then again, there's no substitute for real-world experience, so we'll dare pose the question: are you seeing improvement in your neck of the woods? Follow the break for another juicy slide out of AT&T's earnings deck.
AT&T offers app so you can report crappy service. Huh?
In one of life's supreme ironies, AT&T today posted an iPhone app that allows you to report substandard service. That's right folks. Got a dropped call? No reception? AT&T Marks the Spot [iTunes link] is designed to get that info to your favorite cell company so they can act on it. Let's see... I don't have any reception, so I pull out my new AT&T app to notify them of the problem. Doh! No reception to do that. And the app even nicely brings up a GPS map showing where I am. The GPS signal is much more reliable of course. Look, I know AT&T means well, but the app is a tacit admission that all is not well on the AT&T network. I know you could travel to someplace with good reception, and send the data to them, but I think this app will rub salt in an already sensitive wound. [As readers point out, the app is designed to queue up the error reports and send them later when coverage is available. -Ed.] This reminds me of when I worked at a PBS station many years ago in Ohio. We had pretty weak reception, and the Station Manager decided to do an hour long program to tell people how to adjust their antennas if they couldn't receive us. I tried, and failed, to convince him that the very people we were trying to reach couldn't see the program. My pleas fell on deaf ears, so we did the program and great hilarity ensued as the local press chewed us up for our stupidity. AT&T says they will acknowledge the report with an SMS (and I assume not charge for it the SMS messages are listed as free) and I truly hope that they use the information they get to improve the network, because if it is just a PR stunt it is likely to backfire. There are already reports of people sending reports and not getting any acknowledgment. Oh well.
If 30% is good enough for Apple in the App Store, it should be good enough for dropped calls on AT&T, right?
File this one under AYFKMWTS (are you freaking kidding me with this stuff?): a Gizmodo reader, aggravated with an unacceptably high rate of dropped calls on his iPhone, took it to a New York City Apple Store to have it checked for issues. The call dump statistics revealed a 22% drop rate on calls, which most of us would call "wicked awful" -- but not Apple and AT&T. No, in this particular case the Genius told our hapless iPhone owner that he should count himself lucky, as Apple's baseline stat for dropped calls in NYC is a blistering thirty percent. Yes, almost one in three calls on an iPhone in the Big Apple will end with frustration, and that's just OK with everyone. Well, not with us. Combined with the "five bars, no calls" dead zones and mysterious "call failed" issues, it must be said: this phone is not getting it done when it comes to the whole phone thing, at least on AT&T's network in the city that never sleeps. Or, for that matter, makes an uninterrupted cell call. [via Engadget]
iPhone update for 3G issues; more coming in September?
Jim Dalrymple at Macworld notes that the iPhone software update from Monday was mostly to handle issues with dropped calls on new iPhone 3G handsets. According to an Associated Press article, the update "improved communication with 3G networks," said Apple spokesperson Jennifer Bowcock. However, some Macworld commenters are saying the update hasn't helped with dropped calls, even in areas with a strong signal. What's more, according to an AppleInsider rumor, another update is scheduled for September that addresses an issue where non-default applications will repeatedly crash. A tipster claims to have received a Steveogram saying the issue "is a known iPhone bug that is being fixed in the next software update in September." (Chairman Jobs is known to occasionally respond to complaint emails with terse but sympathetic notes.) The crashing problem has remained unresolved so far, and it has resulted in large and angry Apple support discussions about the topic. Steve's one-line explanation may at least provide a target for users for when they can start using their iPhones as intended.
Scientists pinning dropped calls on... solar flares?
Dropped calls have admittedly become less of a problem as carriers became more reliable in more locales, but it sounds like we finally have somewhat of a celestial answer as to why they happen in the first place. Thanks to research by David Thomson and colleagues at Queen's University in Canada (pictured above), they have discovered that when a "solar radio flare occurs and cell-site antennae are facing the sun, the number of dropped calls that go away for no apparent reason increases dramatically." In one particular case, it was noted that "20-percent of calls" were dropped during flares, and while some may be satisfied with cranking out these results and darting away, the team is still interested in finding out the reasons why calls still drop in the absence of flares. And to think, all this time we were having way too much fun blaming the carriers.[Via Textually]
University of Florida students grumble over Cingular service
While Cingular has claimed that its GSM network integration with AT&T Wireless is complete (thus more reliable), and throws out a bajillion advertisements gloating about the "independent research" proving the company's lack of dropped calls, you'd probably have a hard time convincing the Florida Gators that those statements are entirely accurate. While we know that Engadget has been banned from Cingular's forums, there's no denying the bevy of complaints from UF students regarding the atrocious service around the Gainesville campus. Things got so bad that students rallied around the issue of Cingular improving its service, finally escalating it to the Student Senate, where unfortunately it was voted down after "fierce debate." The resolution called the carrier's service on campus "unacceptable," and cited problems ranging from consistently dropping calls to receiving error messages when trying to dial out. When local Cingular representatives were asked to comment on the outcry, they reportedly blamed the students "lack of reporting problems" as the culprit, curiously omitting the entire debacle that just went down. Nevertheless, we don't expect the members of the Swamp to take this subpar play laying down, but you may want to think twice about which provider to snap up if you're headed to UF next fall.[Thanks, Anthony]
