The Case Against Secrecy
Gizmodo, a high tech web based magazine that has been in Apples time out corner for several years now for reporting on Steve Jobs health issues prior to public disclosure was the first to publish pictures and information on Apple's latest generation phone. One of the pieces they published focused on how Apple went about disguising the prototype that Gizmodo ended up with. That disguise, a plastic case that made the prototype resemble the previous generation 3GS model may have played a significant role in Apple missing the "grip of death" antenna issue that is currently getting them so much bad press. Field testing is a standard part of product development for just this reason, but Apples's obsession with secrecy meant that they had to disguise the phone when they did send it out into the field with trusted individuals such as the software engineer who lost his prototype at a bar. That disguise likely obscured the antenna issues since the case would have acted as an insulator.
Another less publicized/documented issue has been the tendency of the back and front glass to shatter when the phone is dropped. Again, the disguise used on the prototypes would have made it more difficult for Apple to discover this since it would have provided additional protection.
Design Versus Engineering
Of course Apple could have tested for both these issues without taking the phone out into public and if they weren't doing so before on their IPhone prototypes I'll bet they are now. The point of consumer testing though is to discover things you haven't thought of before the product makes it to market. It's really kind of surprising that Apple apparently did such a poor job here.
Apple is a company with an excellent reputation for design. When Steve Jobs has been in charge how a product looks and feels is at least as important as how it operates. It would be very hard to claim that Apple hasn't prospered greatly using this approach.
Betting against Apple is always risky (The wide spread panning of the IPad prior to launch being the latest example) but it seems likely that Apple is going to take a hit over the IPhone 4. Several independent sources have reported test results that clearly show the problem. Of course Apple is now saying that its a software glitch and I wouldn't discount that being part of the problem but it is hard to see how exposing the antenna's (one for WiFi, one for 3G, EDGE, etc) in a way that allows the user to "short" the two antennas simply by holding the phone normally in their left hand was anything other than a design decision but I'm not a hardware engineer.
I'd also be very surprised if the engineers had anything to do with putting in a glass back panel. It was clearly done for looks and doesn't seem very practical.
What Does It Mean?
Apple is an amazingly resilient company; one way or another they'll weather this storm and a year from now the only reason anyone will remember is that we'll be comparing the IPhone 5 launch to what we just went through with the IPhone 4.
It's going to be interesting to see if Apple relaxes their secrecy a bit in the coming months. There were two leaks of IPhone 4 prototypes well prior to the official announcement and clearly they didn't hurt sales. Combine this with the loss of opportunity to truly test new products in "live" situations and it is at least worth considering.
At the end of the day the buck at Apple stops at Steve Jobs. If he's considering loosening up a bit on the secrecy front he certainly hasn't given any indication.
Personally I'd want a case in any... case. I'm a bit of a klutz and even with the typical phone carrier discount a modern smart phone is not cheap. The case mitigates both the antenna issue and the fragile glass.
Image: Salvatore Vuono / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
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