The Antenna Hitch of iPhone4

Last week, iPhone 4, another much awaited product launch from Apple, opened up for sale in the United States. It is estimated that over 1.5 Million phones were sold on the very first day, creating a record of sorts in the Cellular industry. No other phone, including earlier incarnations of iPhone itself, had seen such numbers. More interestingly, 70% of these customers are existing iPhone users. This reaffirms the fact that the company has built such a strong, repeatable customer base that is very loyal to its products - a very typical of  Apple.
However, the weekend also saw a bit of jolt to this clean records of Apple, at least as far as iPhone is concerned. A product that created waves in the market with its features like the retina display, 6-axis-Gyroscope, 5 Megapixel camera, multi-tasking, etc, made it the most exciting gadget. It has a little (??) problem though. The Phone inside the iPhone 4 loses its signal if you grip it a certain manner. The sad part is - Apple blames the consumers who hold the gadget in that way.

To me, its a basic design flaw.

The Problem:

The iPhone 4 has two antennas built into the external steel band that runs on the rim of the device. One of the antennas is for cellular reception. This one is located on the left side bottom. If you hold the phone on your left hand firmly, (which most of the right-handed people would do), you will end up gripping this antenna. CNET's tests have consistently revealed that after holding the phone like this for around 5 mins, the phone loses its signal.After you soften your grip, the signal comes back.

Apple's Reaction
Apple has formally acknowledged this issue. It said that it happens because it is held in a certain way - easily passing on the blame to the consumer who just bought the expensive device by shelling out 300 dollars from his/her nose. The solution?? "Avoid gripping it in the lower left corner in a way that covers both sides of the black strip in the metal band, or simply use one of many available rubber cases."

Come on. Not expected at least from Apple. The company that is known for its innovation in user experience cant blame the customer for holding the phone in a certain way and then losing the signal.

The Reality
This is a serious design issue. Using the band as an antenna is a "bold design decision", as I read on many blogs, which might be a polite way of saying "poor design decision". You can't have a critical problem like losing the cellular network just because the phone is help in a certain manner. The reason is simple. iPhone is first a phone. People should be able to make/receive calls using it. Rest is frill.

Apple has been strongly advertising and pushing its rubber cases ($30), which is expected to solve this problem. It appears that this problem might have been known internally before the release of the phone in the market. This also means, Apple is in no mood to fix it soon.

While, Steve Job's company continues to face the heat from media on this issue, the iPhone 4 continues to sell like a hot cake. Its a paradox.

Update
(2nd July 2010, 11:30 AM IST):
Class action suite filed over iPhone antenna issue claiming that Apple and AT&T shipped this phone knowing that an issue existed with its antenna. http://bit.ly/a5rOEL

(5th July 2010, 11:30 AM IST)
In another stunt, Apple says "We are stunned to find that the formula we use to calculate how many bars of signal strength to display is totally wrong", now pointing fingers to signal strength itself apart from the way consumers hold the phone. Is anybody buying this statement ? http://bit.ly/c4AAF2

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Microsoft Launches Office Live

Yesterday, Microsoft launched the much awaited Office Online App. This is the Online Avatar of possibly the most popular software on the planet - Microsoft Office. MS calls it a slimmed down version of its hugely popular Office suite. It includes online versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote. (For those who have not used OneNote, it is a pretty cool software for taking notes and organizing them for easy retreival later). I beleive, this is a significant step in the history of Microsoft (and for its users like us) for the following reasons. 

A Big Gamble
This is a huge step. MS Office is a big cash cow for Microsoft. Last year it earned around 20 billion USD, only from MS Office. This is almost the size of the revenue of Google or Oracle - marginally less. It is also Microsoft's most profitable business. Offering it free on the internet is a significant step, the one that can potentially disturb a proven top-line and bottom line. Why would MS do it?

I think its a big gamble.
One one hand, this is a strong (and better) answer to Google Docs. (More of the comparison in a separate post.) This will restrict potentially large attention to Google docs. If MS can offer a free software with the same user experience as MS Office, why would somebody look at Google Docs? This would be a major win for MS.
On the other hand it can impact revenues as MS does not intend to make money out of advertising on Office online. However, major revenue for Office has been typically from Enterprises, which still have a long way to go online. The profits from retail customers might be affected, but then MS can absorb it, given that Office is most profitable. Its a gamble worth a play.

Online or Offline?
The Docs space is getting more exciting. Google, the giant behind promoting online docs from begining added offline capabilities with Google Gears last year. Now, the king of offline Office productivity tool Microsoft is going online. At the end of the day, the consumer has much better options now. This may not be of so significance to Enterprises, however, non-profit orgs, Universities, communities and retail customers will be hugely benefitted. Awaiting to hear from IBM to see if it has any plans for online version of Lotus. 

Wider Access
With online version, the world's most popular software just got much wider reach. Apart from Windows users, Mac and Linux users can also use MS Office. Although Office for Mac always existed, it was more expensive. Linux users always had to restrict themselves with Open Office. Office Live works on IE, FireFox and Safari.

Google's Stand
Recently Google has been making a case for companies not to upgrade to Office 2010 but to use existing version and add Google Docs. Would wonder what would be the effectiveness of this message now? In stead of adding Google Doc, why won't I add Office Live instead? Google has large ambitions in Enterprise space - evident from this yr's Google I/O key note speech. Google Docs has been one of its major pillars in this space. With Office Live, it definately has a reason to worry.

Integrations
MS is expected to launched enhancements to Hotmail/Live Mail to integrate Office Live. This means if you receive an office document through email, you could view it using Office Live. Pretty useful.
The docs are stored on MS's cloud based file sharing service - SkyDrive. This would pump some life to this service.
MS labs has also introduced a Facebook app for Office. http://docs.com/ It allows creation of MS office documents online and sharing with Facebook connections.

Finally, I hope this free incarnation helps reduce piracy of such a beautiful software.

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