Q: Poor wifi reception on new iPad

Apple is going send me a replacement, they send me a box, I send in my iPAD and they send me a new one. I will be without mine for 5-7 days after I paid $599 for the thing.

It is kind of aggrivating you can't give them a credit card number or something to speed up the exchange time.

That does not make me very happy.

Yes. I doubt they make the underlying chipset, regardless of what the MAC reports.  It's the possibility of various chipsets I'm thinking about.

Here’s what iSuppli’s team found: First off, there weren’t many changes from the last iPad, in terms of suppliers. “It’s most of the same characters we saw last time around,” analyst Andrew Rassweiler told me today. Wireless chipmakers Qualcomm and Broadcom both reappeared — Qualcomm supplying a baseband processor chip, Broadcom a Bluetooth and Wi-Fi chip, TriQuint Semiconductor suppling some additional wireless parts.

Here’s what iSuppli’s team found: First off, there weren’t many changes from the last iPad, in terms of suppliers. “It’s most of the same characters we saw last time around,” analyst Andrew Rassweiler told me today. Wireless chipmakers Qualcomm and Broadcom both reappeared — Qualcomm supplying a baseband processor chip, Broadcom a Bluetooth and Wi-Fi chip, TriQuint Semiconductor suppling some additional wireless parts.

full artical here:

http://allthingsd.com/20120316/apples-new-ipad-costs-at-least-316-to-build-ihs-i suppli-teardown-shows/

Ok.  Makes sense.  My Bluetooth MAC is the next sequential number after my wifi MAC, so seems Broadcom is sequencing the for Apple.  So, HW issue or iOS issue?  If HW, is it a flaky set of wifi chips, the retina display shielding the antenna in some way, the bigger battery, etc.?  Hope Apple is looking at this.  I really don't want to play iPad roulette at the Apple Store next week.

I still think its a combination of assembly problems and possible wifi chip issues. If it were sofware (IOS) everyone would have the problem. Its just seems logical to me.

It end to agree, but if a mfg issue with iPads, swapping a number of times is going to get quite ugly.

Does anyone know if there is a restocking fee when returning the new iPad b/c of this wifi issue?

I agree, but Apple gave me a choice after the first 4 to take another one or a refund and try again on about a month. I decided to wait a month and just see how things play out. My iPad 2 works great and as much as I want a 3 I'm going to let the bugs shack out. The Apple Eng group took my last one in for eval. They'll get it all cleared up eventually. I know its a pain but it'll all work out.

No from mail in or at the store.

It would be very nice (and professional) on Apple's part to issue a definitive response to this.

no, no fee

So, come on Apple, make some kind of official response.

By now you have made unofficial comments to posters on this site. Tim Cook's office have replied to an individual, Stories have appeared in many online publications such as Gizmodo, yet still so far all we have from Apple is silence.

Stand up guys, be accountable, stop hiding in a corner like some frightened lemming. Do you believe in your products or are you going to keep your heads in the sand.

We are big boys and girls now, we can take it, even if its bad news. It wont go away by itself so face up to the issue. Discuss it with us, talk to us, make some official comment

We are a week down the line now, you have sold millions of iPads, only you guys know the return rates in shops, only you know the scale of the problems, have a little spine and talk to us!

I haven't noticed anything yet...I have a recent Apple router...although the indicator fan is not as high as my iphone or MBP, the speed is there with no dropped anything...went to speedtest.net and measured the following...PNG 14ms, Download 16.23Mbps, Upload 10.72 Mbps...the download is not as fast as my MBP, but the upload is almost 4 Mb faster...haven't really tested it in wifi hotspots yet...

If you fan is lower than your other Apple device in the same spot you have a weaker signal on the iPad 3. Move a little further away and look at both device signal again. You will most likely see it iPad 3 drop more as you move away but the other devices will still have a high signal fan showing. This is one of the know problems. Give it a try and let us know.