Apple just finished off its press conference dedicated on the iPhone 4 reception issues leaving us quite puzzled, to say the least. At one point Steve Jobs was saying that every phone has a weak spot, then he claimed everybody makes mistakes but Apple is quick to fix theirs so that's why they have loyal users. Apple wants its users happy and since everyone cries for free cases, they will give away free cases. But not because they've messed up, but only because "they loves their users".
How about that? Apparently the problem with the iPhone 4 antenna had been blown way out of proportion by the "bad press". The iPhone 4 reputation obviously has been ruined by its incorrect signal representation (now fixed in today's 4.0.1 update) and the easily accessible weak spot.
"There is no perfect phone." - says Apple's CEO, Steve Jobs. This may very well be true, but we never heard of another phone dropping calls when held in the most natural of ways.
The iPhone 4 antenna issues were the press conference main topic
Afterwards they treated us to several slides, suggesting that only a minor portion of users were troubled by the iPhone 4 flawed antenna design.
According to Apple, the iPhone 4 issues are only troubling a small percentage of its users
Okay, let’s explain how this works – when it’s a design issue, it means that EVERY user will have it. Of course those lucky enough to live in an area with very strong signal will be less affected by it, but that’s a whole different story.
Obviously only about 0.5 percent of all customers complained directly to Apple about reception issues. But how about that everyone who opened a tech site for the past two weeks (or knew a guy who did) was perfectly aware what was going on and knew that this call will do them no good.
At least Apple decided to do the decent thing and give a free case to every iPhone 4 user. Plus they are willing to waive the restocking fee for everyone who wants to return the handset
in the next 30 days. Just bear in mind that it’s not the Bumpers that Apple is giving away but some other type of cases by another manufacturer. User will even have some kind of choice.
Every iPhone 4 user is eligible to receive a free case or a full refund
Steve Jobs also mentioned the other big issue with the iPhone 4 – its faulty proximity sensor. He promises they are already working on a fix for that and it will be coming with a future software update . Not much of a consolation really, as proximity sensor problems, unlike antenna issues have been troubling even people in areas with great coverage.
The proximity sensor is the next thing they are going to fix on the iPhone 4
Now you can bet that being treated like fools and being told that there is no problem when it’s pretty clear that a problem exists is not our favorite thing. Still we cannot see Apple doing much better than this – you didn’t really expect them to recall all phones and replace them at an indefinite time in the future when they come up with a better design, did you?
So that’s about it for now, we’ll keep you posted when we get more info about those promised cases. And of course we will continue hoping that Apple come up with a solution and fix the problem in some future batch of handsets.
P.S. Steve Jobs confirmed they're right on track with the next wave of iPhone availability scheduled for the 30 July. 17 more countries will get the iPhone 4 then. Plus the white iPhone 4 is expected to ship in the end of July too.
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