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When a possible flaw was reported iPhone 4.0, an Apple press conference was called for. There can be no iPhone recall. However, iPhone 4.0 owners can get a free case for their phone to counteract the antenna problems. Apple CEO Steve Jobs addressed the antenna as well as some other issues at the Apple press conference.
Hardware issues dubbed Antennagate
A partial transcript is available on the Wall Street Journal site. Steve Jobs began the Apple press conference by referring to the issue as Antennagate and saying the issue is common to all smartphones, not just the iPhone 4.0. There was analysis of other phones with the same problem. Jobs did admit the iPhone 4.0 dropped more calls than the iPhone 3GS, but less than one more per 100 calls.
What’s Apple doing about this?
There are bumpers for the phone, but there aren’t enough to go around. Instead, Apple is offering a free case to everyone that owns an iPhone 4.0. The offer is good until Sept 30, and also you can get a refund if you bought the bumpers. Those who bough third party cases for their iPhone 4.0 won’t get refunds. For the next 30 days, people who nevertheless aren’t happy with the iPhone 4.0 can get a refund for the phone.
What Antennagate was all about
What happened in Antennagate was that first, a design flaw common to all smartphones was discovered in the iPhone 4.0. There’s barely any difference between it and the last iPhone. Half of one percent of iPhone buyers complained about the flaw. It was then exploited by the media.
Rest assured, Apple is working on it, as they spent $ 100 million designing the antenna to start with. AT and T reported that under 2 percent of iPhone 4.0 buyers returned their phone, but 6 percent of iPhone 3GS buyers did.
More information on this topic
blogs.wsj.com/digits/2010/07/16/live-blogging-apples-press-conference/
