Wi-Fi Issues Reported With iPhone 3.0

The Apple iPhone OS 3.0’s latest ailment seems to be a difficulty connecting to Wi-Fi, according to PC World, as well as hundreds of readers on the Apple discussion boards.

“After upgrading my 3G to 3.0 my Wi-Fi is not stable, particularly when syncing a large database using FMTouch,” wrote one user. Another complained, “OK, I thought I would post my issues as Apple in the UK have been rubbish and I cannot contact them, and O2 are refusing to help saying it’s a software issue provided by Apple.”

“My Wi-Fi signal strength jumps all over the place, from five to zero bars every few seconds,” wrote a third

The reports of Wi-Fi issues follow recent complaints of some iPhone 3GS handsets overheating to the point of discoloration, as well as problems with the iPhone battery—a touted feature of the new iPhone, meant to last longer than the battery in the iPhone 3G—running down prematurely.

Ezra Gottheil, an analyst with Technology Business Research whose focus is on Apple, told eWEEK that all he’d heard about the incidents was what the press was reporting. “I don’t really know that it’s more than a few small things,” he said.

Gottheil agreed with the suggestion that the reports are surprising given Apple’s reputation for a certain degree of quality. “I think that’s reasonable. Their record is that the software is well-tested, and it works well when it’s released. If there are [things happening] it would be unusual.”

Gottheil said if there are widespread problems, “it’s probably due to some combination of factors occurring out in the real world that they didn’t anticipate … Some combination of access points, signal strength, etc., creating something that wasn’t present in their test environments.”

However, he said, “There’s no sense that [OS 3.0] was ‘too much, too fast.’

Sometime in the night between June 30 and July 1, developers received iPhone OS 3.1 beta software, which is expected to be offered as a free download later in 2009. OS 3.1 is also expected to clear up any major problems with OS 3.0.