Jobs Knew About iPhone 4 Reception Issues, Says Apple Engineer

By Peter Ha | July 15, 2010 | +

Bloomberg is reporting that a senior Apple engineer had warned upper management that the iPhone 4’s design could lead to issues with reception.

Ruben Caballero, a senior engineer and “antenna expert” at Apple, is said to have been vocal about the possibility of dropped calls due to hardware design. Another unnamed source claims that a “carrier partner” had also voiced concerns about the antennae prior to its June 24 launch. Apple has declined to comment on both fronts.

We’ll find out what Apple intends to do over this mammoth catastrophe tomorrow during a press conference in Cupertino at its headquarters.

More on Techland:

Consumer Reports Won’t Recommend The iPhone 4

Leaked Apple Docs Explain How To Handle iPhone 4 Reception Complaints

Techland’s iPhone 4 Review

Related Topics: CRISIS MANAGEMENT, hitting the fan, iphone 4, Apple, Gadgets, Smartphones

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jimbo1167

Mammoth catastrophe? Little sensationalism, all Apple has to do is offer a case with the iPhone 4 and they have the problem solved. My guess is it’s going to be a cloth type case to cover the phone. Total recall of the iPhone 4 will be very costly and out of character for Apple.
jesssayin

Telling the truth is “out of character” for old Stevo, I can’t wait to hear what he comes up with tomorrow at the press conference.

Personally, When I buy a product that DOESN’T work as advertised I just need that company to SELL me a plastic sleeve so it WILL work. Now THAT’S customer service!
http://youtube.com/churchhatestucker Church

Meh. As far as I can tell (via engadget et al.) it’s only problematic in low-reception areas, most of which are ameliorated by the increased reception of the larger, more exposed antenna to begin with.

So, yeah, the problem happens, but with an earlier version you probably wouldn’t have reception to begin with.
richardsrussell

If Steve walks out on stage holding a wire coat-hanger, QUICK sell all your Apple stock before he even opens his mouth.
http://figerrific.wordpress.com/ figerrific

@Church: With AT&T, every area is a low-reception area. Zing!

On a more somber note, while this isn’t Deepwater Horizon, for a company priding itself on innovative perfection, a phone that can’t make calls is a fairly large catastrophe. This is starting to parallel Microsoft and RROD, except we all knew MS made clunky hardware.