Apple; iPhone 4 fix comes: free cases for all

Apple held a press conference on Friday morning, at 10AM PDT, to cover the iPhone 4 and its antenna issues. Much as we might hate to admit it, they did show a sense of humor, as they played the "iPhone Antenna Song" (below) as the conference began.





Of course, that song does tend to defend Apple ... at any rate, after that, we expected to see a ton of defensiveness by Apple, and that's what we got. Hold this phone and you see a signal drop in the signal level display on phone x, y, z (Blackberry Bold 9700, HTC Droid Eris, Samsung Omnia II).

Of course, as Apple stated, the iOS signal bar display was improper. That was what iOS 4.0.1 was designed to fix, the display. That way you could know how low the signal was, Apple, said, to anticipate when holding the device, which affects all devices, would drop a call.

True, we already knew that. It wasn't the degree of drop at all. It was the fact that the iPhone 4 could drop calls, and see data transfer slow or even halt, and that sort of drastic impact of holding wasn't seen on other devices, users said.


As Steve Jobs further emphasized, Apple had an "X marks the spot" moment with the iPhone 4. The gap between antennas on the lower left-hand side of the device was a perfect bulls-eye. That also is true. Apple also made sure to emphasize how many PhDs were pare of the iPhone 4 team, along with their state-of-the-art facilities.

Apple delved into statistics as well. AT&T supplied them with data, and the data says that iPhone 4s drop more calls than the iPhone 3GS. However, Apple said, the number is < 1 more per 100 calls than the 3GS. One again, all true. What was the bottom line of the press conference, though? Although Apple still believes this issue has been blown out of proportion, Apple came through the way we assumed, more or less (more, reallY). Free cases.

Ah, but not just bumpers. As Jobs readily admitted, Apple can't keep up with the demand for bumpers. Thus, the company is going to source some cases, and users will have a choice of cases. This applies to all purchases through Sept. 30th, and those who have already bought a bumper case, will get a refund from Apple. This will all be available on the site, according to Apple, late next week.


Here's what Jobs said:

We think this has been so blown out of proportion. It's fun to have a story, but it's not fun on the other side. So here's what we're going to do to make our users happy. The first part is the software update, that fixes the way the bars report and other bugs; that's out now. Second, people said the bumper fixes everything ... "Why don't you give everybody a case?" Okay, we'll give you a free case.

We're going to send you a free case. We can't make enough bumpers. No way we can make enough in the quarter. So we're going to source some cases and give you a choice.

Suddenly, we can see Consumer Reports changing their review of the iPhone 4 to "recommended." This is what they wanted, and it's indeed what they got.

Note however, the caveats: a deadline of September 30th, which Apple admitted would probably be re-evaluated at the time. Perhaps a more permanent fix in the manufacturing process will come. Also, the refunds promised will only be for those who bought bumper cases. That might prove to be an issue; we'll see.