iPhone 4 Users: 'Best-Ever' Wireless Performance? Not Quite

Don't look now, but Apple is denying widespread reports of iPhone 4 wireless performance problems.

"We have gone back to our labs and retested everything, and the results are the same -- the iPhone 4’s wireless performance is the best we have ever shipped," wrote Apple in a Web posting Friday.

Don't tell that to Bob Venero, president and CEO of Future Tech Enterprise, a Holbrook, N.Y,. technology solution provider. Venero bought two iPhone 4s and received them on June 23.

There are "definitely challenges in iPhone 4 connectivity and signal reception," he said.

"The Apple statement is convoluted and doesn't address the underlying issue, which is dropped calls," said Venero. "Don't point the finger at your customer or the competition. Apple calls out the Droid, Nokia and RIM phones."

Apple insists that "gripping almost any mobile phone in certain ways will reduce its reception by one or more bars."

"This is true of iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, as well as many Droid, Nokia and RIM phones," said the Apple statement. "But some users have reported that iPhone 4 can drop four or five bars when tightly held in a way which covers the black strip in the lower left corner of the metal band."

Venero said Apple is missing the point by talking about signal bars rather than wireless reception.

"It drops," he said of the iPhone 4's signal strength. "If you hold it a certain way I can watch my signal bars go from five bars to one bar. But when I take the phone out of my hands and put it on my chest, the signal strength comes back. This interview is being done on the iPhone 4 and in order to stay connected I am lying on my back with the phone on my chest vs. holding it in my ear."

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Venero's message to Apple CEO Steve Jobs: "What customers have become accustomed to at Apple is the superiority of the interface and the technology. Don't bring Apple down to the level of other iPhones, which are not as good."

Apple said it was moving to fix the problem by issuing a free software update that incorporates a new corrected formula for "calculating how many bars to display for a given signal strength."

Apple said that since "this mistake has been present since the original iPhone, this software update will [also] be available for the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 3G."

Venero said the Apple software fix reminds him of problems that have long plagued Apple rival Microsoft. His plea to Apple: "Don't become a Microsoft. Don't let the demand for volume affect the quality and experience that we have been accustomed to from Apple. The last thing we want to see from Apple is the daily or bi-daily updates that we are accustomed to from Microsoft to fix problems."

Venero said he suspects Apple released the iPhone 4 without proper testing in the wake of an iPhone 4 prototype that hit the streets in April.

"I think Apple rushed the iPhone 4 to market without enough testing after the prototype was left in a bar," said Venero. "They didn't do enough field testing."

Even with the reception problems, Venero isn't about to return the product. "I love the product so much that what I have done to offset the dropped calls is I have actually went out and purchased a Verizon phone," he said. "For those calls that I can't have dropped I'll use the Verizon phone."

Venero isn't the only one questioning Apple's claims of best-ever wireless performance.

A study from AnandTech has found that cupping the smartphone "tightly" causes the signal to drop.

"The fact of the matter is that cupping the bottom left corner and making skin contact between the two antennas does result in measurable difference in cellular reception," wrote Brian Klug and Anand Lal Shippi in a detailed review and analysis of the iPhone signal strength on AnandTech.com .

Even though it insists the iPhone 4 has the best wireless performance ever, Apple is not above apologizing to users.

"For the vast majority of users who have not been troubled by this issue, this software update will only make your bars more accurate," Apples said in its statement on the software update. "For those who have had concerns, we apologize for any anxiety we may have caused."