When Steve Jobs announced the iPhone 2.1 firmware update that was released on Friday, he said that the main problem addressed by the update is the high incidence of dropped calls the iPhone faced, as well as the poor 3G signal quality. With the update now released, user reaction is mixed, as we will show.

The iPhone 3G in its initial form, while endowed with an impressive array of features was also laden with bugs such as the aforementioned dropped calls and signal issues in 3G, as well as a low battery life and a security oversight that made it trivial for someone to circumvent the iPhone’s password. An update, version 2.0.2, was released last month to fix some of these issues, but users reported no improvement for the most part.

The second time around, the update seems to have gotten mixed results: Users in the Apple iPhone support forums are divided into two categories. The first is made up of users for which the patch indeed worked. For them, the 2.1 update comes with better synch time, longer battery life, and first of all – improved 3G reception. "I have better signal in my home than usual [and] I have had no failed calls so far. Great update,” says user tsmithband.

Others though report no change or even yet worsening of call-drop rates. One user even reported: “In Ireland and since 2.1 applied yesterday, I have become a member of the call dropping population. I can barely get a connection success on call setup without multiple tries and the calls keep dropping. Had no problem before update so I am really regretting applying this update”.

While only a partial success, the 2.1 update is still better than 2.0.2. Apple still have work ahead of them to figure out why the fix failed for some users. Maybe they’ll get it right the next time around, after all the third time’s a charm.