Source: Associated Press
Is the iPhone 4 jinked?
The popular device has been plagued by misfortune — including the suicide of a Chinese worker, lost prototypes and a shaky debut last month, where Apple Inc. Chief Executive Steve Jobs could not get the phone to connect to the Internet.
Now, in what amounts to a rare acknowledgment of a misstep, Apple Inc. has scheduled a news conference Friday where it is expected to announce its response to widespread complaints about the phone’s antenna.
There are no problems with basic functions such as managing PS3 downloads. You can surf the Net and pretty much do anything from online gambling to managing spreadsheets. But there are other issues.
Analysts say potential remedies range from giving customers a free protective case to launching a massive recall that could cost Apple $1.5 billion.
The string of woes have been so striking that some have sought alternative explanations, including the notion that the phone may simply be jinxed. One theory focuses on the number four.
In China, where the iPhone is manufactured, four is considered to be bad luck. That’s largely because the word for four is nearly identical to the word for death. Many buildings in Hong Kong do not have a fourth floor, and people try to avoid phone numbers and license plates with “4″ in them.
Device manufacturers such as Canon Inc. and Nokia Corp., wary of the digit’s ominous significance, have been known to skip from 3 to 5 when assigning model numbers to their products. Apple, though, seemed uncowed by the superstition.
The number requires a degree of care and attention that Apple may not have heeded, according to numerologist Daniel Hardt of Indianapolis.
“If shortcuts are attempted, the whole thing falls apart,” Hardt said. “The 4 can also be karmic, having some overtones of a problem stemming from some past activity. It seems very likely to be the case that there is some karma at play in this situation that has caused the phone to not be as functional as it should be.”
Lydia Chen, associate director of the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies at Harvard University, said she grew up “knowing that number 4 was something you avoided.”
“I would personally never say it’s the number 4 causing all of this,” she said. “Still, maybe people should avoid iPhone 13 when it gets here.”
The story begins exactly one year ago — long before the public knew anything about Apple’s fourth generation iPhone.
On July 16, 2009, a 25-year-old Chinese factory worker leaped from the window of his apartment building and fell 12 stories to his death. He had been accused by his superiors of losing an iPhone 4 prototype.
Months after the incident in China, an Apple engineer out drinking at a pub in Silicon Valley lost track of the iPhone 4 prototype he was testing — and pictures of it ended up all over the Internet.
When Steve Jobs introduced the new phone last month in front of a huge audience of reporters and Apple developers, it failed to connect to the Internet.
And since the phone’s release, it’s been plagued by reception problems blamed on everything from software to cellular network to antenna design.
Most recently, Consumer Reports won’t recommend the iPhone 4 because of what it called a “design flaw” in the antenna.
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My Take: I’m not sure what’s wrong with the iPhone because I own nothing with an apple on it. I guess I’m a “PC.” I’ have had my phone of course confiscated after signaling the metal detection equipment at the airport. Never try to go through a walk through metal detector without taking your phone out of your purse! I don’t download Playstation 3 guitar games and I certainly don’t use my phone as an online casino. Surfing is pretty limited. But connectivity is an issue sometimes and I think once iPhone’s bugs are removed, it’s going to be just as much a part of the Apple party’s accessory line as ever.
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