John Paczkowski

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Consumer Reports: Hey! Look at Us! We’re Not Recommending the iPhone 4 Again!

September 13, 2010 at 2:00 pm PT

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Just when Apple (AAPL) thought it had closed antennagate, Consumer Reports has thrown it wide open.

The company’s discontinuation of its iPhone 4 case program has prompted the publication to once again deny the device its endorsement. Because, why not, right?

“Our tests found the Bumper successfully mitigates the iPhone 4′s reception issue, which was a weak point in the phone’s otherwise-stellar performance in our tests,” Consumer Reports said in a post to its blog today. “And we agree with Apple that not all iPhone 4 owners will experience reception difficulties with the device. But putting the onus on any owners of a product to obtain a remedy to a design flaw is not acceptable to us. We therefore continue not to recommend the iPhone 4, and to call on Apple to provide a permanent fix for the phone’s reception issues.”

And, judging from iPhone 4 sales to date, consumers will likely continue to pay little attention to CR’s continued non-recommendation. After all, the publication did rate the iPhone 4 “Excellent” in its display, navigation, Web browsing, multimedia and battery life categories, “Very Good” in phoning and messaging and “Good” in voice quality.

[Note: Obviously Photoshopped image obviously Photoshopped]

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Tagged with: antenna, Apple, Bumper, Consumer Reports, hardware, innovation, iPhone 4, iPhone 4 Case Program, iPhone 4 Feature, John Paczkowski

comments so far. Add yours.

  • Anonymous

    CR: give me a break because you are now putting yourself at risk of irrelevevancy. The Iphone is not the only device that has reception problems so your integrity is also on the line. These latest comments are so stupid

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_S3WOQASRS6YYQRNC4NZQ4LIEUM Steve

    I have an iphone4 with the drop calls…but the case neatly solve the problem. Now I can’t live without it. Go try an iphone. It is addictive.

  • Anonymous

    Oh boy! Another story about Apple. Well not really, it’s a story about someone talking about Apple but that makes it news, because well it’s about Apple. Can’t wait until there is a story about Apple talking about Facebook or Facebook talking about Apple. ‘All Things Digital’ (as long as it’s Apple or Facebook). Yawn…..

  • Anonymous

    When you can’t recommend the best why should anyone take you seriously? CR is more flawed than the iPhone 4!!!

  • Anonymous

    I can’t recommend Consumer Reports … Again!!!

  • http://twitter.com/murphymac MurphyMac

    I think the more interesting observation is WHY does Apple command this attention? You can complain about it but that certainly won’t stop it.

    It’s far more useful to try to understand WHY they pull this level of scrutiny upon themselves – and then try to profit from it.

  • Anonymous

    The extra tests that Consumer Reports did on iPhone 4 to discover its “design flaw” broke their own rules because they did not do those same tests on other phones. And since the whole Antennagate thing, international carriers tested and deployed iPhone 4 without issue. One carrier said iPhone 4 had the best reception of any phone they ever tested.

    I did my own round of iPhone 4 antenna reception tests. My roommate, whom I wouldn’t recognize if he didn’t have his iPhone 4 stuck to the side of his head, drives all over the SF Bay Area for work, and he rates iPhone 4 reception to be not only better than iPhone 3G, but better than any phone he ever used. He ordered a free bumper, but only because he thought it would make his iPhone 4 stick better in his shirt pocket, for the few minutes it is ever in there.

  • Anonymous

    Go read Information Week and stop complaining. They have an article on “What Solid State Storage Form Factor Is Best?” and it is part 3 even, and also a story about a new product blitz from SAP, and another about … zzzz.

  • Anonymous

    well…let’s see, it’s not market share (pc’s or cell phones)…no, well then it’s not capabilities or performance (ATT ’nuff said). Must be based on number of fart apps.

  • Anonymous

    I like reading Mossberg. Really wish he was given more headlines. More practical and less splash.