Apple has an ally; Electromagnetic engineer says Consumer Reports iPhone 4 study flawed
Bob Egan, now a technology blogger and Global Head of Research & Chief Analyst at the TowerGroup, claims that the Consumer Reports study that had the popular independent customer advocacy group unable to recommend purchasing iPhone 4 has many inherent flaws and can barely be counted as scientific.Egan writes, "Bottom line. From what I can see in the reports, Consumer Reports replicated the same uncontrolled, unscientific experiments that many of the blogging sites have done."Egan also wonders if the issue is even entirely Apple's, supposing that AT&T could share some of the blame for the signal variance and call dropping problems that have since become endless blogging fodder for every technology website reporting on Apple's affairs. "We also don't know if placing a finger on the antenna bridge is detuning the antenna or detuning the receiver itself."Since this issue has come to light, I have carefully monitored my own 3G reception while using iPhone 4. My conclusions, though completely unscientific, are that while I can replicate the signal bar indicator issue (where the number of bars drops significantly when covering the antenna gap on the lower-left of the device), it does not seem to affect call quality or cause any dropped calls. That would lead me to believe that the indicator problem is a result of a software miscalculation and I fully expect a software fix to silence this issue for good.So the question looms, who do you believe? Has Consumer Reports done its due diligence in testing iPhone 4 or did it miss some steps along the way that would make the report more valid? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!Be sure to check us out on Twitter and the CNET Mac forums.Submit a fix to MacFixIt! Email Us.
