Apple to give away free cases to iPhone 4 users
By Paul Miller 
posted July 16th 2010 1:29PM
posted July 16th 2010 1:29PM
This solution comes at the end of 22 days of Apple engineers "working their butts off," according to Steve, with "physics" ultimately being pinned as the main culprit. Apple claims you can replicate the left-handed "death grip" bar-dropping problem on the BlackBerry Bold 9700, HTC Droid Eris, and Samsung Omnia II, and that "phones aren't perfect." Steve also claims that only 0.55% of people who bought the iPhone 4 have called into AppleCare to complain about the antenna, and the phone has a 1.7% return rate at AT&T, compared to 6% with the 3GS, though he would cop to a slight increase in dropped calls over the iPhone 3GS. For this Steve has what he confesses to be a pet theory: that 3GS users were using the case they had from the 3G, and therefore weren't met with the horrible reality of a naked, call dropping handset. Hence the free case solution, which will probably satisfy some, infuriate others, and never even blip onto the radar of many of the massive horde of consumers that's devoured this product in unprecedented numbers.
Update: Our own Richard Lai just waltzed down to the Regent Street Apple Store in London with his iPhone Bumper receipt in hand. A few minutes later he left with cold, hard cash, and kept the Bumper to boot. Seems as if the refund effort is a go, at least over in the UK.
Update 2: We've heard from several tipsters saying Apple no longer does Bumper refunds at its stores; customers will now have to make an online claim instead. Looks like we got super lucky.
@GenericMessage
make sure you have your cargo pants on, to fit your ipod in there as well
@Revolutionary My iPhone 4 also has no problem with this. This is much ado about nothing.
@aubreyq Hey I squeezed the hell out of my iPhone 4 and couldn't get a bar to drop.
@lnm4444 This flame war is your fault now.........
@flintstones it's clear you've never owned a single product from apple
@GenericMessage Whats wrong with a bumper around the devices? It's on a thin bit of rubber. It's hardly a problem.
@DirtySocks85 im sure its unneeded because hes always holding it right!
@lnm4444
My Droid Eris has pretty epically crap reception overall, so I don't really feel that much sympathy for iPhone 4 users, just that if Apple knew, they should've fixed it or at least not treat us all like idiots and that they're so much better than us.
@Revolutionary 1 vs 3,000,000 The battle in your head must be neck and neck, lol
@TheZaccharaSyndicate
You are a douche.. Are you really happy with the condom? Really?
@Moo i don't want a refund. i'm keeping mine. all this whining and complaining is overblown. im not having any problems with mine.
@CJisohsocool
Its nothing like BP telling people that "there is no oil leak"
If you truly believe that, then Steve Jobs is right in saying that people are blowing the situation out of proportion.
@CJisohsocool
Its like BP saying "Hey, if you drill for oil, some of it is going to spill out. Buuuuuut, we'll clean it up anyway because we're nice. YOU'RE WELCOME"
A simple "We messed up but we're gonna make it right" would have sufficed :\
@Revolutionary
EVO losses signal if held covering the antenna! ALL CELLPHONES DO!
Watch for your self!
http://www.youtube.com/v/uh6pUNY_rv8&hl=en_US&fs=1
@Element115
ER, so what happens when Microsoft tanks and Apple hits 350 in stock value. It already makes more money than Nokia vs cell phones.
Just a thought there.
en
@angryshortguy
You point is flawed as your pretending to be Steve has one major caveat...he apologized twice...in reality he would not do it once so...yeah ^_-
@Apple Google Microsoft They already admitted that there is a problem, just not a universal problem. As an iPhone 4 owner, I have not experienced the antenna issue. Am I in the norm or the exception?
@GenericMessage i have the iphone4 32gb in the uk and i have no signal issues at all. I'll take the free case if that's all the same to you...
@Revolutionary *** AT LEAST the bumper will somewhat obscure the iPhone's rather effeminate design. lol.
Now consider the white one! Could it get anymore lady-like!!! lol!!!
:)
!!!!
Disappointing as usual.
@Revolutionary Are you kidding me?
Apple just came out and said they're wrong, they're going to offer free cases. The only thing they could POSSIBLY say to satisfy most haters is this statement: We're stopping the iPhone and making everything opensource.
Those statements won't be heard for a LONG time.
@Revolutionary If they have to X just to Y, they blew it.
@Revolutionary seriously weak. pathetic actually. they called an emergency press conference just to explain how the entire world is wrong and they are right.
If you need a case on your cell phone to avoid dropping calls, you blew it.
@Revolutionary There was no way they were gonna do a recall. I think this is an adequate kinda-fix.
@Revolutionary They proved a point & are giving you a free cheap product.. It doesn't NEED a recall if their stats are correct.. Apple is not Jesus, they are a rookie phone maker that happens to sell the most of one single product.. You don't HAVE to like them but I think they are making a half-decent effort to appease the public.. Even if it's not good enough for the less than 1%.. You can't please everybody.
@AKBlade13 Umm where did they do that exactly?
What they should have done today is, saying:
"There are two kinds of phenomena
1. You can attenuate a signal by shielding the antenna. This can be done like here (sample cell phone of other manufacturers). This is a fact of life for every cell phone. Ours too!
2. You can attenuate a signal by touching (grounding) the antenna. This can only be done with our phone because we put it in a place where it easily can be touched.
Now you are fully informed and everybody can keep it and get a bumper or return it. Now nobody can sue us because every body knows everything."
But they didn't they are delibertly hiding facts and when the return period is over and it gets out that it is two different things u can not return it. ---> See you in court Steve.
DISAPPOINTED.
*waves hand* every phone has this problem
*waves hand* it only drops
less than 1 call per hundred than the 3GS...
*waves hand* it's all in your head
*waves hand* this is still the phone you're looking for... have a case
*waves hand* now make me a sammich
@skyblaze
Here's your sammich sir.
@skyblaze
I have a cheap little nokia phone and I'll notice sometimes after I make a call it'll be at one bar when It had five bars when I started. But it never drops a call that's the difference. The bars could start dancing around for all I care as long as it doesn't drop the calls.
@skyblaze
So bring your iphone bacl. Oh, wait, you don't have one. You just want to bitch.
@DTJ
*waves hand* you're taking me way too seriously...
They'll tell you "You put the case on incorrectly."
That is some amazing customer service.
@MrFairladyz
LOL yeah a 50 cent cost case is cheaper then a recall. Great customer service.
@Benjamin09 Well, they could do what Palm did, and just release a new model and tell you "the new one does not have this problem, buy this".
My Palm Treo 600w kept crashing because they had not put nearly enough memory in it to run both WinMo and an app at the same time. Their solution for me was to purchase the 650w with more memory, which came out a few months later.
@fragmit There is definitely no such thing as a Treo 600W
@Benjamin09 You expect them to recall 3 million devices? and then what? it needs to be redesigned to solve the issue, hence the job opening for antenna engineers.
I have a 3GS, yes I wanted a iPhone 4, but I am glad I didn't get it.
Maybe the I will get the next Android, if there isn't anything better available.
Anyone notice Steve Jobs wearing a belt?
@adamorjames
Not just any old belt... a utility belt complete with an escape pod should things at the press conference get ugly.
So, they could not figure out the problem. Their flagship design antenna is a failure.
@VGPOP
You are right. Steve said it himself.
Q: Are you doing anything else to address the issue? Perhaps changing hardware?
Steve: You know, the 3GS has the same problem. We're getting reports from customers that this is better than the 3GS. So I don't know changing the antenna design would help -- I don't know what our next antenna design will look like.
I think that's great - a choice of case too!
NICE GOING APPLE - WAY TO COVER UP YOUR MESS!!
STILL NO FIX! Thnx a lot!
@Juggernaut408 Yeah it's not like you've never had a problem that took you a while to figure out... LOL people like you are absurd. The issue is 22 days old and they are working on it... If you're that riled up about it, why don't you take the next 22 days and try to fix it yourself... see how easy you think it is then...
Good Move Apple..
@Tuan X
/s
The Wars on this thread are going to be epic.
*Grabs popcorn.