Rotten hardware core in Apple's iPhone 3G

Stephen Withers
Thursday, 14 August 2008 04:54

Business IT - Technology

The news that the iPhone 3G could be suffering from 3G reception issues due to faulty hardware, which apparently can't be fixed by a firmware update, has flashed across the web. The debate now rages: who is right?

The world's most desirable smartphone may be experiencing the world's most undesirable problem: poor 3G reception. Complaints are being so widely reported that some are demanding Apple should instigate a worldwide recall!

Various users and tech journalists are reporting their own issues with very patchy 3G reception in the US, Australia and other iPhone 3G countries, while enjoying excellent 2G reception. My own limited experience with an iPhone 3G on the Optus network was that even when the display showed weak 3G reception, voice calls were perfectly clear with no dropouts.

Richard Windsor, an analyst with Nomura Securities, is widely quoted as advising clients "We believe that these issues are typical of an immature chipset and radio protocol stack where we are almost certain Infineon is the 3G supplier."

Windsor reportedly went on to suggest that the issue probably could not be fixed in firmware, but several commentators have rubbished that idea.

Perhaps the most illuminating report comes from Swedish publication My Teknik (New Technology), which reports that the nominal sensitivity measured for an iPhone 3G is well below the figure specified by the 3G standard. Since prototypes must have been tested for conformance with the standard, it follows that the problem was introduced in production.

So what does My Teknik finger as the cause? See page two.