iPhone 3G Glitches - Wireless Turkeys 2008

Why is it a turkey?

When Apple launched the iPhone 3G on July 11, in conjunction with AT&T Mobility as the wireless service provider, it was heralded as an industry-wide game-changer. And that has proved to be the case, as the iPhone 3G was the top-selling consumer device in third quarter of 2008. But the phone faced a series of early setbacks, as some customers found that it could not connect in some cases to AT&T's 3G UMTS/HSPA network, and instead dropped them down to EDGE data speeds, or the signal dropped entirely. The reaction was, well, fierce.

After news reports began filtering in about the connectivity issue, some thought that perhaps design flaws were part of the problem [1]. Apple released a software update [2] that it said fixed the issue, but declined to specifically comment on what it was fixing, saying only that the update "improves communication with 3G networks."

The next day, Apple was hit with a lawsuit [3] that claimed the iPhone 3G's network performance and reliability did not live up to what the company claimed in its marketing campaign. Users around the world claimed that the operators were to blame [4] for the flub. A lawsuit to that effect was filed in early September against both AT&T and Apple [5], with the bulk of the complaint being against the network.