Report: Apple Will Release Updated iPhone 4 With Redesigned Antenna By End Of September

John Brownlee ()

Report: Apple Will Release Updated iPhone 4 With Redesigned Antenna By End Of September

According to Apple, there’s no problem with the iPhone 4’s antenna… or, at the very least, no problem it doesn’t share with all of its competitors. But are they being disingenuous? According to a new rumor, Apple is very much hard at work on an updated iPhone 4 that alleviates the signal attenuation problems once and for all.

The rumor comes via the admittedly questionable source of a spokesperson for Mexican wireless carrier Telcel, who says that Apple will release an updated iPhone 4 by the end of October… a date which will closely follow the end of Apple’s own iPhone 4 Bumper program, which is Cupertino’s current PR band-aid slapped over the problem.

It’s an interesting rumor, but I think it’s a bit spurious. Apple’s said over and over again there’s no problem: they can’t reverse course on that without reopening the debate, and possibly making themselves even more liable in class-action lawsuits. If Apple significantly redesigns the iPhone 4’s antenna, there’ll be a name for it: the iPhone 4.

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About the author

John BrownleeJohn Brownlee is news editor here at Cult of Mac, and has also written about a lot of things for a lot of different places, including Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, Gizmodo, Kotaku, Lifehacker, AMC, Geek and the Consumerist. He lives in Cambridge with his charming inamorata and a tiny budgerigar punningly christened after Nabokov's most famous pervert. You can follow him here on Twitter.

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Posted in iPhone, News |

  • Johhny

    I am sick of people posting crap stories. I want to read about mac…not TMZ. Really??? Telcel???? And you wrote this load of crap story why? You even admit in your article that your only source is not credible. I trust you guys to weed out garbage and give me stories with at least a little credibility. Quit perpetuating stupid rumors that mac haters use as ammo when there is no truth to em in the first place.

    Telcel????????

  • WalrusCP

    Every tech and Mac/iOS site and blog is parroting this story. This is a rumor less likely to be true than all of those impending Verizon iPhone rumors over the past few years. This would be a near-suicidal move by Apple, and they would be crucified by current iPhone 4 owners (millions) unless they allowed for cheap/free exchanges.

    Not happening.

  • Simon

    Just letting you know that we seem to have no problem here in Australia. I think the whole issue is a lot to do with the substandard of the carriers 3G networks and over loading of such networks that have let to this being a problem. If carriers had better infrastructure and upgraded towers to keep up with demand, we never would have seen this as a problem… I think a lot of people forget that.

  • Alfred

    I LIKE to hear these rumours. The whole Apple rumours universe is all part of the fun of being an Apple fan, including the silly or not-credible ones. The fake spy photos. The “sources close to apple”, the “people familiar with the situation”.

    It’s all great fun.

    Yes, this is a silly rumour, and I love it!

  • Guy

    Yeah, ditto to Simon.

    We have a number of iPhone 4′s here in Aus as our company has standardised on them. Whilst you can make the bars drop if you really try, there is no discernible problem in normal use.

  • Dave

    If I were cynical, I might think there was an orchestrated FUD campaign of rumors to squelch Apple’s pre-holidays sales. “Fixed iPhone coming before end of year! iPad 2 with front and rear cameras coming before end of year!” Kiss sales goodbye between now and then.

  • jobs

    first things 1st, there IS a problem, just coz a few people say or CLAIM

  • jobs

    DAM website posted that last comment early, as i was saying, just coz some people claim that they have not had any problems doesnt mean they have not had any, the web is full of people who are apple fanbois and will see jobs and apple as bigger than jesus. apple has a massiv epeoblem as the antenna isssue has cost them 20% of lost iphone 4 sales and thats a LOT!!!!! any way you look at it. jobs is a game player, when the first rumours of the iphone 4 came out it was via a so called questionable source that turned out to be true and jobs has a habbit of this, slipping out upcomming products/news via dubvious sources so that everyone is left guessing and rumours turn to frenzy and hype machine goesinto overdrive, he choses his words and actions carefully so with all the evidence in play there will be a updated iphone4, hence why no white iphone 4 yet, as they orriginally had a few problems with it so never made any, then just as they were about to mass produce them they were made aware of the antenna issue so they delayed production and since have been working on solving it, otherwise they would have released the white iphone by now?? there ar eplenty of clips of journalists etc playing with white iphone 4 just after launch etc? plus the american fcc has slapped a 90day banning order on any freedom of information requests about the iphone 4 and especially its antennae? the only reason for this is to protect a company when releasing new hardware to stop giving their competitiors a heads up as it were, so the only thing that then makes sense is apple are releasing a updated iphone 4. wether they admit it or not is another matter but it is comming so the sooner you fanbois admit it and stop bitching at anyone who has a go at god i mean jobs then the better

  • http://www.paamplifier.org PA Amplifier :

    it jobs are very much in demand these days because of technology boom~.-

  • http://www.bathroomlightinglab.com Bathroom Lighting

    i like it jobs because it is a high paying job and you work in an air conditioned office “~`

  • http://google.com/ PatrickSquarepants

    I shouldn’t belive in sources that doesn’t provide any links but I heard a lot of folks pointing this problem out

  • http://www.principalservicesolutions.com/ Miriam Dittrich

    It’s not surprising that they were able to acknowledge and work on this issue. A big company like them probably has the best IT staffing the industry has to offer. There’s no doubt in my mind that they will be able to fix the signal problem once and for all.