Under fire for wireless reception problems caused by the wraparound antenna on the iPhone 4, Apple conceded Friday that all of its phones mistakenly inflate their signal strength.
The company
said the method it uses to determine how many bars to display was incorrect. In many cases it will show two more bars than it should for a given signal level, such as four bars instead of two, leading
users to believe reception is stronger than actually it is.
"Upon investigation, we were stunned to find that the formula we use to calculate how many bars of signal strength to display is
totally wrong," stated Apple in an open letter addressed to iPhone 4 users. To fix the problem, Apple plans to adopt AT&T's
recommended formula for calculating how many bars to display and will issue a free software update in a few weeks for every model except the original iPhone.
Apple had initially said
widespread criticism of weak reception on the iPhone 4 related to how users gripped the device, in which the stainless steel frame doubles as the antenna. The glitch has already triggered at least
three lawsuits claiming Apple knowingly sold a defective product.