John Gapper on what the iPhone 4’s antenna problems has done to Apple’s famed industrial design, led by Jonathan Ive. Ive in Core77:
We experiment with and explore materials, processing them, learning about the inherent properties of the material – and the process of transforming it from raw material to finished product; for example, understanding exactly how the processes of machining it or grinding it affect it. That understanding, that preoccupation with the materials and processes, is [very] essential to the way we work.
Gapper on Ive:
In this case, it seems that Mr Ive and his team did not learn enough about the “inherent properties” of the band antenna, which was intended to ease problems with dropped calls on previous models.
So it would seem.