Dropped calls and poor reception are frustrating frequent travelers who upgraded to Apple’s new iPhone 3G. But a fix is just a download away. Maybe.
According to Macworld, industry analysts estimate more than 3 million iPhone 3G units have been sold world-wide since the phone’s introduction in July. AT&T, the exclusive Apple iPhone 3G U.S. cellular phone carrier, signed up 500,000 customers to use the iPhone 3G in the first week following its release.
But within days of its release, there were reports of angry iPhone 3G owners complaining of poor reception, slow data transmission, and dropped calls all over the U.S., even in areas with strong 3G reception. As reported by c|net’s News.com, a huge thread on Apple’s discussion boards sprung up overnight, discussing serious problems that iPhone 3G users said they were experiencing with AT&T’s network in the U.S. Soon, similar reports were coming in from iPhone 3G users in the U.K., Germany and Australia, all reporting the same problems with 3G connectivity in their countries.
ComputerWorld reports the problems include “weak 3G signals in areas supposedly flush with 3G, and/or in places where other 3G-enabled phones … have no problem acquiring a strong signal, consistently dropped calls, often as the iPhone automatically switches from 3G to EDGE (2G) when the user moves between coverage areas, and slower-than-expected web browsing that doesn’t match Apple’s claim that 3G gives users a 2.4X speed boost over EDGE.”
People like Joe Wilcox of Apple Watch continue to speculate about what’s wrong with the incredibly popular phone, but frankly, right now, it’s all speculation, as Apple and their iPhone 3G partners have been mum.
Business Week reported on its site last Thursday that the iPhone is suffering from faulty software on an Infineon chip, and that Apple plans to fix the problem with a software update. The Infineon chip is that part of the iPhone which controls the connection between the phone and a 3G network.
That update may have been released yesterday with the release of iTunes 2.0.2, but if it is, Apple isn’t saying.
Investment bank Piper Jaffray estimates Apple is averaging 95 iPhone 3G sales per store, per day, and will sell more almost 4.47 million iPhones in the quarter ending September. The pressure is building quickly for Apple to fix this phone. Business Week has speculated that the fix could be available as the end of this month.
For iPhone 3G users, the fix can’t come fast enough.
As a traveler, I know how dependent we’ve all become on quality communication tools while away, so my advice, for those of you who are hot to purchase the new Apple iPhone 3G, is to get something cold to drink, cool off, and wait until Apple releases its “fix” to see if it will actually make the iPhone 3G a reliable, useful phone and email product.
Personally, I wouldn’t consider the phone until that happens.
After many years working in corporate America as a chemical engineer, executive and eventually CFO of a multinational manufacturer, Ned founded a tech consulting company and later restarted NSL Photography, his photography business. Before entering the corporate world, Ned worked as a Public Health Engineer for the Philadelphia Department of Public Health. As a well known corporate, travel and wildlife photographer, Ned travels the world writing about travel and photography, as well as running photography workshops, seminars and photowalks. Visit Ned’s Photography Blog and Galleries.
