Apple Won't Change iPhone's Antenna For Verizon Release, Expert Claims
There's still a debate about an iPhone launching on Verizon's network some time next year. Some believe that it will launch as early as January, while analysts believe that it will be some time later in the first quarter of 2011. And, while rumors of Verizon obtaining the legendary Apple manufactured have popped up and died down over the years, there's something about next year that definitely feels . . . Different. But, with the recent plague of "antennagate" issues swarming Apple since the launch of the iPhone 4, there's been one question on people's minds. If Verizon does get the iPhone, will Apple fix the antenna? In one expert's eyes, that's not going to happen.
Spencer Webb is the president of AntennaSys, with at least a dozen patents to his name, and he's also an antenna engineer. He was one of the names out there that claimed Apple's redesigned antenna was both "bold" and "risky," but he also says that the design of the antenna is architecturally fixed, and therefore Apple should see no reason to fix it. He also points out that any fix that Apple would want to do would take time, and would fly in the face of the company's tried-and-true method of sticking with one design for their phone for a period of years, not months. The expectation is that Apple is going to keep this antenna design, this general phone design, for the years to come, until a heavy redesign (as we saw between the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4) happens again, years from now.
According to Webb, there is also no easy fix for the current antenna's "issues." As he puts it, "There's no coating that's thick enough to make a difference." Furthermore, the Bumper (and free cases that Apple is (still) handing out), does the trick to remove the "lossy conductor, the human" from the phone, and therefore stop hindering the antenna. At this point, it's no secret that plenty of people out there (Verizon customers and non-customers alike) are waiting for the iPhone to show up on the largest wireless carrier in the United States. Howevere, with all of these antenna issues still on the public's mind, would a launch in January with the same architecutre hinder your purchase? Do you think Apple needs to fix the issue before a Verizon launch can happen?
[via Computer World]