So if the signal drop is caused by the hand physically blocking antennae...

Question

Apple is trying to convince us that this issue "exists in all smartphones" and that its caused by the hand physically blocking the antennae. Heres their education on it:
http://www.apple.com/antenna/
However, if the case is the hand blocking the antennae, as they want us to believe, then how come the iPhone4's signal problems can be reproduced without even touching the phone?
There are many videos of the phones antennae being shorted with a house key, part of a paper clip, etc, with the users hand nowhere near the phone. In fact, the person could stand 100 yards away and zoom in and see the signal gone with just a staple covering the black line.
Basically what I'm saying is, just because the result is similar does not mean its the same issue.
They should have announced a hardware fix, along with the bumpers for now. A simple polymer coating of the antennae, to reduce conductivity, would have fixed the problem, not required new FCC approval, and cost probably 25 cents per phone to implement.
Message was edited by: kre62

Answer 1

The facts are very basic:
1. Coming close to an antenna affects its impedance and its signal-carrying characteristics (ie. it can attenuate the signal) because antennas are designed and tuned assuming there are no conducting surfaces near it
2. Obviously, you cannot avoid close proximity to a cell phone antenna
3. Most other phones have the antenna surrounded by the case, so while you can get close, you are not directly contacting it
4. Apple chose to place the bare-metal antennae on the outside, where you your body (composed mostly of conducting H2O) making a direct electrical connection to them
5. To make matters worse, they placed two different antennas (cell and WiFi/BT) very close together - separated by a millimeter. Shorting those antennas is very easy to do. Not a great idea.
6. A case will keep your hands from shorting the gap, and also avoid direct electrical contact. This makes it similar to other smartphones.
So, while having the antenna act as the rim of the case sounds really cool and innovative, from an engineering efficiency standpoint it was a lousy idea.