Apple’s Antenna Design and Test Labs

Apple has invested more than $100 million building its advanced antenna design and test labs. Our engineers have logged thousands of hours designing and testing iPhone 4 in these state-of-the-art facilities.

Advanced facilities.

Apple never releases a product without thoroughly testing it first. To do this, we built our multimillion-dollar antenna design and test labs. These labs feature 17 different antenna characterization chambers (or anechoic chambers) designed to accurately measure antenna and wireless performance.

Testing performance in the lab.

Our anechoic chambers are connected to sophisticated equipment that simulates cellular base stations, Wi-Fi networks, Bluetooth devices — even GPS satellites. These chambers measure performance in free space, in the presence of materials simulating human tissue (“phantom” heads and hands, for example), and in use by human subjects. Over a one- to two-year development cycle, Apple engineers spend thousands of hours performing antenna and wireless testing in the lab.

Testing performance in the field.

Apple engineers tested iPhone 4 in a variety of scenarios, environments, and conditions in order to gauge performance. They spent thousands of hours in cities in the U.S. and throughout the world testing iPhone 4 call quality, dropped-call performance, call origination and termination, and in-service time. They tested iPhone 4 while stationary, at high and low speeds, and in urban, dense urban, and highway environments. In low-coverage areas and good-coverage areas, during peak and off-peak hours — iPhone 4 was field-tested in nearly every possible coverage scenario across different vendor and carrier equipment all over the world.

iOS 4.0.1 Software Update

We’ve updated the iOS software to fix issues with the signal strength bar display on iPhone.
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July 16 Press Conference

Watch the July 16 press conference held at Apple’s campus in Cupertino, California.
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