Exclusive: Conversation with Steve Jobs on the iPhone 4 antenna problems

By on Jul 1, 2010 at 9:05 AM
Exclusive July 1, 2010

iphone-4-low-signal

One of our readers has a pretty interesting story to share. It is one that involves his passion for Apple products, an Apple engineer, Steve Jobs, and reported problems with the iPhone 4′s antenna placement. Let’s call the person talking to Apple and Steve Jobs “Tom”… Tom recorded a video which he posted on YouTube. That video demonstrated the iPhone 4′s now well known issue of signal degration when being held mostly on the left lower side of the phone. Apparently, Apple noticed the video, and reached out directly to Tom. While talking with Apple, Tom was informed that Apple doesn’t consider this an issue, and that anything online is just “rumor hysteria”. Apple also asked Tom not to post further videos.

Tom followed up by emailing the Apple engineer and Steve Jobs directly. Below is the email thread broken down. We have verified the email headers and information, and believe this exchange to be 100% legitimate.

Updated…

First email:

[Apple engineer name redacted],

When we spoke, you would not tell me that there is a fix for this phone?

A friend just sent me this: http://www.bgr.com/2010/06/29/leaked-apples-internal-iphone-4-antenna-troubleshooting-procedures/

I assume there is no fix then. If this is legit, I have lost all respect for apple and just want to go back to Verizon and get a nice Android phone. And don’t tell me they have the same issues, all our co-workers with Androids are just mocking us right now…. “Hey, I am going to go in the basement and continue my call. You can use my office on the 2nd floor so you can get a signal”. You are going to kill your brand over one product. Apple is coming off arrogant and rude. If there is no fix just tell people so they can return their phones. We have work to do. I have bought just about every apple product made in the last 20 years  and this is the 1st time I am ashamed to be a MAC fan.

This is just  sickening,

[Tom]

Here is Steve Jobs’ reply:

No, you are getting all worked up over a few days of rumors.  Calm down.

Our reader’s response:

I am really insulted… “Calm down”…. “rumors”… What arrogance. This is will be marked as the begging of the end of Apple. Seriously, DO THE RIGHT THING. I just had dinner with 3 people who had iPhone 4s we all cant make calls without dropping. There is no rumors it is reality.

Steve Jobs counters:

You are most likely in an area with very low signal strength.

Our reader again:

Stop with jackass comments. I have has every iphone made. They all had a bad signal but this is the so much worse X3. The whole country is is in a “low signal strength” in reality… all but apple campus and your house it seems? AT&T maps are a joke. I am in “excellent” to “good” coverage and on my iPhone 1, Iphone 3G, and my iPhone 3Gs, I could  at least make a telephone call. After all, it is a phone. Iphone 4…. 5 bars….. touch the phone… ZERO bars call drops.

Steve. IT DOES NOT WORK! Geezzz I hope this this is not really you. Are we on a different MHz? I have yet to see an iPhone [4] work in Richmond when you hold it in your hand. It is not “isolated”. I was a big fan. But I am done.

Steve responds once again:

You may be working from bad data. Not your fault. Stay tuned. We are working on it.

Sent from my iPhone

And lastly, Tom emails in again:

Retire, relax, enjoy your family. It is just a phone. Not worth it.

What are your thoughts on this one? Is Tom in the right? Did he get a little too aggressive with his emails? Do you believe Steve Jobs when he says Apple is actively working on it?

UPDATE: The last line in the email exchange was actually not said by Mr. Jobs; rather it was by “Tom.” We corrected it as soon as we were made aware.

UPDATE 2: Added email header information and full exchange..

From: Burford Jason
Subject: Re: No Fix
Date: June 30, 2010 1:05:10 AM EDT
To: Steve Jobs
Return-Path:
Received: from new-host-2.home (pool-96-253-89-57.rcmdva.fios.verizon.net [96.253.89.57]) by mx.google.com with ESMTPS id c35sm25851088qco.0.2010.06.29.22.05.11 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=RC4-MD5); Tue, 29 Jun 2010 22:05:12 -0700 (PDT)
References: <9C1F0280-6BD5-490E-AF89-50710B677139@burfordadvertising.com> <6E69753C-40F2-4327-9F0F-AA1BFAEAFF79@apple.com> <0AEDD93C-E272-4EE2-9069-C673A698189B@burfordadvertising.com> <561C74EC-C886-4AD9-B2DD-293F44453DB8@apple.com> <188F384D-126C-4FFC-8A15-D68BA80FCF17@burfordadvertising.com> <65CA06C0-6380-4629-AC6C-FFB8B641CB3D@apple.com>
Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary=Apple-Mail-22-1066883072
In-Reply-To: <65CA06C0-6380-4629-AC6C-FFB8B641CB3D@apple.com>
Message-Id:
Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v1081)
X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.1081)
Retire, relax, enjoy your family. It is just a phone. Not worth it.
On Jun 30, 2010, at 12:26 AM, Steve Jobs wrote:
You may be working from bad data. Not your fault. Stay tuned. We are working on it.
Sent from my iPhone
On Jun 29, 2010, at 8:55 PM, Jason Burford wrote:
Stop with jackass comments.
I have has every iphone made. They all had a bad signal but this is the so much worse X3.
The whole country is is in a “low signal strength” in reality… all but apple campus and your house it seems?
AT&T maps are a joke. I am in “excellent” to “good” coverage and on my iPhone 1, Iphone 3G, and my iPhone 3Gs, I could   at least make a telephone call. After all, it is a phone.
Iphone 4…. 5 bars….. touch the phone… ZERO bars call drops.
Steve. IT DOES NOT WORK!
Geezzz I hope this this is not really you.
Are we on a diffesrnt MHZ?
I have yet to see an iPhone work in Richmond when you hold it in your hand. It is not “osolated”. I was a big fan. But I am done.
On Jun 29, 2010, at 11:45 PM, Steve Jobs wrote:
You are most likely in an area with very low signal strength.
On Jun 29, 2010, at 8:13 PM, Jason Burford wrote:
I am really insulted,… :”Calm down”…. “rumors”… What arrogance.
This is will be marked as the begging of the end of Apple.
Seriously, DO THE RIGHT THING.
I just had dinner with 3 people who had iPhone 4s we all cant make calls without dropping. There is no rumors it is reality.
On Jun 29, 2010, at 10:15 PM, Steve Jobs wrote:
No, you are getting all worked up over a few days of rumors.  Calm down.
On Jun 29, 2010, at 2:28 PM, Jason Burford wrote:
Ken,
When we spoke, you would not tell me that there is a fix for this phone?
A friend just sent me this:
I assume there is no fix then.
If this is legit, I have lost all respect for apple and just want to go back to Verizon and get a nice Android phone.
And don’t tell me they have the same issues, all our co-workers with Androids are just mocking us right now…. “Hey, I am going to go in the basement and continue my call. You can use my office on the 2nd floor so you can get a signal”.
You are going to kill your brand over one product. Apple is coming off arrogant and rude. If there is no fix just tell people so they can return their phones. We have work to do.
I have bought just about every apple product made in the last 20 years  and this is the 1st time I am ashamed to be a MAC fan.
This is just  sickening,
Jason
UPDATE 3: Apple PR has said this was not Steve Jobs in the email exchange. We have updated this with screenshots…
photo 1

photo 2
photo 3
UPDATE 4: More screenshots…
photo 1
photo 2
photo 3
photo 4
photo 5
UPDATE 5: We have published a follow up story confirming the emails to be authentic. http://www.bgr.com/2010/07/03/the-entire-steve-jobs-email-story-its-real


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1,006 Comments

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  • Woo

    I Still haven’t found what this guy wrote to Steve to get this answer. “Retire, relax, enjoy your family. It is just a phone. Not worth it.”

    Whoever this guy is from my point of view this guy’s an asshole. By reading his email you can tell this guy only cares about himself. His email attacks other person from his anger and no wonder Steve wants him to go home and chill out and spend time with his family. I wanna know what he wrote to him. ALL OF IT. If you can’t if probably wrote something like “hey i am going to kill your family”

    I think who sold the email is an asshole, what do you guys think?

  • http://www.upsidedownlawnmower.com Dirt

    This exchange has been proven fake by multiple news organizations.

  • http://s771.photobucket.com/albums/xx360/DeniskaChi/?action=view&current=iPhone4Fix.png Deniska
  • Man!…

    Must be true, those images show his AT&T iPhone signal strength at two bars!

    Just wish “Tom” knew how to spell! It was disheartening to read his replies… “This is will be marked as the begging of the end of Apple.”.

    Tom, learn grammar and PROOFREAD! It will make you look scholarly.

  • http://maxrichardson.com Max Richardson

    Yeah definitely a fake but good attempt, fake Steve still kept his cool!

  • SomeoneWithHalfABrain

    This is so obviously a fake… Buttford Advertising Inc. … Showing all the phone #s and address of the place in the screenshots. Yeah, we’ll believe you… NOT. Lame attempt at getting some publicity.

  • http://www.tantiannunci.com xabarass

    Why so much talk about a phone ?

    Spend your time time with girls and life will smile you !

  • lestatar

    @SomeoneWithHalfABrain:

    Clearly, you are possessing less brains than you claim. Look again, closely, before you post…

    The company is called Burford Advertising – here is their site:
    http://burfordadvertising.com/Burford_Advertising/Burford_Advertising_Home_Page.html

    Here is the guy’s profile:
    http://burfordadvertising.com/Burford_Advertising/Jason_Burford.html

    Faked or real exchange with Steve? I have no idea.

  • http://bethmahoney.com Beth Mahoney

    Apple has put out an inferior product, end of story. It is one problem after another with this phone. The folks over at Motorola and Verizon must have big smiles on their faces with the pending launch of the Droid X.

  • http://alghienkad06.student.ipb.ac.id/ thea

    nice info

  • http://ekos06.student.ipb.ac.id Kojeje

    Woww.. Great phone..
    Always love iPhone :)

  • GeniusBoy

    11:24AM Q: You’ve been communicating with customers through email quite a bit — how is that impacting how you’re dealing with these issues.
    Steve: I always have, and you know, the address is out there and I’ve always emailed people back. I try to reply to some of them because they’re our customers. But now people post them to the web… and some people just make things up. So don’t believe everything you read!

  • http://ekoz06.student.ipb.ac.id zul

    i phone
    very nice phone…

  • Dane Wayne

    I’m 51. I’ve been using a cell phone since before the Motorola brick phone. Before the MotoBrick, I used a cell that was 15 lbs. and was bigger then a portable defibulator is today.

    I’ve had many cell phones since and I’ve have simultaneously had Verizon, T-mobile and ATT on three seperate phones.

    Given the above, I can say with much experience that even with the legitimate, iphone4, “death grip” issues it is still the best portable internet access platform anywhere — by far.

    The competition has closed the gap with “me too” iphone-like devices and it is true Steven Jobs and Apple have addressed the issue quite poorly.

    But, in my estimation the iphone4 is a great, great product (in spite of loss of signal strength when holding in the palm of my right hand).

    Until the iphone4, I have been using the 1st generation iphne I bought when it first came out (unlocked to T-mobile about 18 mos. after purchase). I did not upgrade to the 2 or 3rd generations becsuse I saw no decernable advantages in either performance or price.

    The iphone4 justified the upgrade even in lieu of the grip issue.

    That being said, Apple needs to dump AT&T. The iphone is so much better a product with another low cost carrier. I will unlock the iphone4 as soon as the brainiacs that do that stuff dial-in the code.

    JMHO
    DW

    JMHO

  • Dane Wayne

    P.S. As a phone. It works as good as any other cell (granted you have to be mindful of where you hold it); provided of course, you have the elusive ATT signal.

    Lastly, if you DON’T like the darn thing with this legitimate (minor) deficiency, TAKE IT BACK.

  • Olly

    “my iPhone 1, Iphone 3G, and my iPhone 3Gs, ”

    LOOOOOOSSSEERRRRSSSS

    Get a life you lot, have you got nothing better to worry about that getting the next, 1mm thinner iphone?

    my mobile rocks, its got these CRRRAZY things called “buttons”
    and it makes “calls”
    and occasionaly sends messages.
    ive found, if i want to watch TV, i have a thing called “a TV”

  • blondi.josh

    Ok so this is the truth, apple is way ahead of any other company, the iPhone 4 is beautiful, and on ebay they are going for over $1000.00 Still!!!! even used i saw one for $1750.00

    Its a absoulty amazing device! you can put a case on it, and you wont have a issue, i absolutly love it!! no issues so far. there is so many things that are way better about the iPhone, its just funny that other people would rather have a bold 9700, i just cant believe it! the BB and droix X and all thos other HTC device “iLike” devices are always different, Apple follows a constintant design, and i would never go from one, even with 2 cases on it.. come on people PLEASE! this is one of the best devices yet. it may be a issue, but not worth putting some clothes on the iPhone and rocking it, please for the naked sake of love.

  • disillusioned iphone user

    I have been a dedicated apple consumer for 20 years as well, for home and business use, buying more than 50 apple products over the years – laptops, workstations, servers, multiple big ticket items and lastly an iphone for the last 15 months. I bought the $99 3G version just before the newer version was released, and I LOVED it until iphone 4 was released.

    Now my phone is an unreliable SLUG. I have updated to OS 4.1, but it is still a DOG, an old, slow quirky dog at that. Apps crash or freeze, the typing delay is huge. Calls are dropped.

    The perfect example of how bad it is was played out last weekend while we were driving around Boston trying to use the navigation. One person in the car had the Droid Incredible (Verizon) and had access to GPS navigation immediately while 3 of us – all with iphones were still waiting for the app to load.

    I still want to love apple – I’m a graphic designer – but I feel betrayed. This is planned obsolescence in the extreme.

    I am so mad at apple’s lack of response except to instruct me to go back to OS 3, that I will abandon apple.

    Apple dropped me. I’ll drop them, and complain loudly about it ALL THE WAY.

    Steve Jobs, don’t forget who made apple the company it is today. Us – one by one, believing it apple. Do something to restore our faith.

    That Droid looked way too sweet.

  • Mike

    The tone that “Tom” used was completely inappropriate.
    It’s like going “Hey man, this sandwich you gave me, although delicious, is missing a strip of cheese on half the sandwich.” “Oh sorry” “FUCK YOU MAN GIVE ME SOME CHEESE”

    Stop holding your phone like an idiot, you spoiled brat.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000314962648 James Kelly

    I don’t think “Tom” was overly aggressive at all. His grammar was a bit iffy, but that is irrelevant. I agree with him that Steve Jobs and his company can come across as arrogant and disrespectful. It’s pretty obvious that the iPhone 4 has serious antenna issues, and it was naive of Apple to brush these issues off as “rumours”.
    Just hope the iPhone 5 doesn’t suffer from the same issues when my iPhone 3GS’s contract is up.

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