Will Consumer Reports Hurt iPhone4 Online Sales?

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July 13, 2010
By the ZippyCart Ecommerce Software Reviews Content Team

Consumers Reports is frequently looked at as the go to site for anyone wanting a completely honest and unbiased report of a product which they have an interest in purchasing. The word from Consumer Reports most recent iPhone 4 review, is that they cannot recommend the iPhone 4 because of the device’s antenna issues causing poor signal strength. In order to do thorough testing of the device, Consumer Reports engineers obtained three iPhone 4s from different retail locations around New York. Once the iPhone 4′s were procured, Consumer Reports tested them alongside other AT&T smart phones in a completely controlled environment to gain insight into the signal loss problems. After completing the testing, Consumer Reports concluded the iPhone 4 is the only smart phone from AT&T which is has signal loss problems.

One of the most interesting notes from their research, was that they called into question the recent letter from Apple on July 2, where they stated that “Our formula, in many instances, mistakenly displays 2 more bars than it should for a given signal strength.” However the Consumer Reports review of the new iPhone 4 was not all negative, as they found that the antenna issue can be fixed by covering the antenna gap with duct tape, or something similar. While this solution is not ideal, it will fix the issue very easily without spending much money. Consumer Reports did not test the iPhone 4 cases yet which are also reported to fix the antenna issue, but they predict that they would also fix the problem. Overall the iPhone 4 did get high marks from Consumer Reports for a number of reasons including the sharp display, amazing video camera, and improved battery. They also enjoyed the new features of the iPhone 4 model like the built-in gyroscope and extra front facing camera which allows users to video chat. Hopefully the mixed review from Consumer Reports will not kill the buzz for Apple, as they push to sell more iPhone 4′s so that they can continue to dominate the smart phone market.