Form Over Function - The iPhone 4

Written by on Jul 16, 2010

I've always been an Apple fan, with plans of building a business around what I saw was a company that was going to explode onto the scenes. And it has. I recall back in 2002 telling people that soon "MP3s" would be a thing of the past and the new kid on the block would be "MP4s". Well, the name MP4 isn't used, but none the less, iTunes is the largest distributor of digital music, and so MP4s (or rather AACs) have taken over.

I find it difficult to get excited about Apple products like others do. When I do, I'm not blinded by their faults. I will always choose Macs over Windows. I will never run my business on Windows. Never. And now with the iPhone, I will never own a different cell phone. It just doesn't make sense in my mind to do so.

Enter the iPhone 4. A perfect storm, some are saying. It's definitely a case of form over function when you look at how the antenna is designed. It's so obvious, in my min,d that direct skin contact with the antenna will influence it, so how Apple thought they'd get away with this brand new design is beyond me.

Thankfully, the new iOS 4.0.1 update is a step in the right direction. It has adjusted how the phone measures the wireless signal strength with the nearest tower. And there's been reports of a slightly revised version of iPhone 4 being given to customers, one that may have a transparent coating over the bare metal antenna.

I think the iPhone 4 is a huge step forward, but it's not without its downside, for now. That's enough for me to remain a bystander until my need for a new phone is great enough. My iPhone 3G is serving me very well for now.

Let Apple learn from its mistakes. The company (and brand) is taking a massive beating by ill-informed bloggers and media types, which is not entirely fair, but this is one situation that could've been avoided with proper design decisions and testing. Apple does [eventually] learn from its past, so this should help to make their future products and services even better.

To the future.