“Apple watchers speculated that the company will offer a solution,” Kane reports. “‘Given the intense pressure and scrutiny Apple has come under on the problem with the iPhone 4, it’s going to be about some kind of fix or compensation for the owners of the phone,’ speculated Ed Snyder, an analyst with Charter Equity Research.”
“Even as the phone has continued to sell well at stores, it has been plagued with user complaints about dropped calls when the phone is held in a way that covers part of the antenna,” Kane reports. “Antenna-design experts have said that the phone design, while cutting-edge, was risky because it exposes the antenna to touch. While this problem can occur in all mobile phone devices, the design of the iPhone 4 makes it more susceptible than others.”
“What started out as a small number of users complaining about reception has now ballooned into a full-scale public-relations issue, potentially threatening to hurt the brand image Apple has so carefully built up,’ Kane reports. “Apple’s ability to maintain the brand image it has worked to hard to build will depend on how it addresses the issue going forward, said Allen Adamson, managing director for Landor Associates, a branding firm. ‘If they bury their heads in the sand, and don’t engage in conversation and act in an arrogant way they’re going to erode a bit of their brand,’ he said.”
Kane reports “A recall of the device is unlikely, because since the problem doesn’t affect safety and only occurs for some users in certain situations. But financial analysts said Apple could give away its $29 rubber ‘bumper’ case, which they said would solve the antenna reception problem. Analysts estimate that such action would cost Apple $1 to $5 a phone.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: A few points:
• If those Bumper cases are costing Apple $5 each, they need to renegotiate with their Chinese supplier(s).
• Apple needs to act because at least some (maybe all) iPhone 4 units can clearly be attenuated by placing a thumb or part of your hand over the lower left “gap” – especially in low signal coverage areas (where you can knock the iPhone 4 off AT&T’s oh-so-luscious network with your thumb). Place your thumb over the iPhone 4’s gap, wait 20 seconds or so and watch the bars. According to many reports, iOS 4.1 beta changes the signal bars display. It does not, of course, remove the ability to attenuate with your thumb. The negative PR debacle won’t stop until Apple provides adequate perceived recompense. Better than adequate recompense might even generate net positive PR for Apple after all is said and, most importantly, done.
• iPhone 4 does not attenuate in the same manner with an Apple Bumper case. We’ve tried multiple iPhone 4 units in Bumpers with all available iOS versions and cannot knock it off the network with the same thumb or hand placement as on a naked iPhone 4.
• As we’ve been saying throughout: If the iPhone requires a Bumper or some addition to the unit in order to operate normally when held in the hand, then Apple should provide a means for iPhone 4 owners to acquire said solution free of charge. Customers bought iPhone 4 units with the assumption that they would work when held in the hand; especially as Apple’s many promotional and demo videos, TV commercials, and their CEO have demonstrated holding the iPhone 4 in ways that cause attenuation on iPhone 4 units.
• Customers who have already purchased cases for their iPhone 4 units should be offered Apple Store credit or a rebate from Apple. We’ll see if Apple goes that far, as some people obviously bought cases for other reasons (cosmetics, protection, etc.), they might have an issue with the concept of paying for Paris Hilton’s Swarovski-encrusted iPhone 4 case.
• Apple should explore a hardware revision for future iPhone 4 units; clear non-conductive coatings, etc.
• There is no need for a recall. Apple’s iPhone 4 is the best smartphone on the market, bar none. 
• If and when Apple does right by their iPhone 4 customers, the unscrupulous can start looking for another issue to overhype for their short and distort schemes.
Here is the crux of the problem with Apple.
Apple made the bumper. Design, prototype, tooling, packaging design, contracting out the manufacturing and packaging, manufacturing enough to stock all stores, shipping and stocking all stores before iPhone release.
The whole bumper process started long before the iPhone release date and it fixes the ‘problem’ with the iPhone.
Why do the bumpers exist? If you are designing a new protective covering for the iPhone, you don’t end up with a bumper. If you fixing an antenna problem you do end up with a bumper.
All Apple had to do is talk up the advantages of an external antenna then include a bumper with every purchase and suggest that some users may need one if they find themselves shorting out the antenna and dropping calls during use without the bumper.
Why manufacture the fix and then not distribute it before the shit hit the fan?
I’ll say it ONE MORE TIME, Maybe someone will notice this time.
YOU SHOULD HAVE A CASE ON THE PHONE ANYWAY, YOU’RE CRAZY IF YOU DON’T. I can’t imagine this sea of people having this phone with no case onit, doesn’t make any sense at all.
@ Bumpercase
agreed.
none of my accessories worked with the bumper case.
Not crap from China, but name brand stuff.
Luckily, I found the perfect case for my iPhone elsewhere.
@Joe,
Yeah, you know all the answers. I say you’re full of guano.
Who are they to tell us what to expect? They don’t know. I can wait 24 hrs for the real thing.
it’s all overhype on this issue. I bet you don’t see anyone turning in their iPhone for another company’s inferior phone. the iPhone is superior to them. I also use my iPhone for phone calls about 2% of the time.
There is no need for a recall because everyone should still be within their 30 day return window anyway.
Wow. So many left handed people out there eh?? Lol
I don’t think Apple will give away bumpers. Their bumpers are a premium case. The after-market case makers are charge $30-$40 for similar products. No reason to give away a case of that quality.
If apple is going to give away something to insulate the antenna from your hand, I think it will be something much cheaper. Maybe a thin plastic/rubber/silicon band that you can put around your phone if you have the issue. Definitely no metal button extensions for volume and such, like the bumper case. Just a cheap band with cutouts.
@ RL
I want an iphone 4 that works properly. If the choice is between returning the defective one and having no iphone, or keeping it and having an iphone that is inconvenient to use, I’ll choose the latter. That doesn’t mean a recall is not in order.
actually i think they should recall them
mines got the issue and i had to buy a case for it and it looks crap.
plus if future models are gunna be fixed and ive got a crap one which needs a case to work i think thats unfair, especially when here in the uk if you bought one on launch day not all the networks had them and therefore it costs you more tariff wise.
i’m happy to wait till they’ve got it sorted but ill be pissed if its just a case, apple need to bite the bullet recall it and say there was an error. They should then offer people who have one already a new fixed model in either white or black !
If they give you a case they are gunna be a laughing stock, they’ll be adverts like ‘theres a case for that’ mocking them. Its not like it cant take the hit.
iPhone 4 is my first apple product i bought myself and if they dont fix it altogether its going back. A phone should work first and foremost and whilst i love my iphone and am prepared to wait for a new one without the problem i arent happy paying all that money for one that is essentially defective.
I’d have way more respect for apple if they admitted it and solved it. If i had any other phone it would have gone back already.
The only reason I do not have an iPhone 4 is I could not get my hands on one!
A disappointment that may be fortunate. All the publicity about bad signal and dropped calls I was prepared to ignore as the tendency for those with a problem to shout more than those who are not having trouble. Plus AT & T seems to get a lot of criticism so maybe it is not entirely a phone problem.
This afternoon I changed my mind. I was sitting opposite someone on a train in the middle of London – not a poor signal area. She dropped her phone call 4 times in about 10 minutes. She was not actually holding the phone in her hand it was lying flat on her lap and she was using earphones. It did not have a case fitted but no hand was touching. I asked her if it was giving her much trouble – the answer was an emphatic yes and she was thinking of returning it! Her last words were “Don’t buy one!”
I hope Apple sorts out the PR and if necessary the engineering pretty quick.
Better to admit a mistake even if it means an expensive recall than trying to bluff it out and let your competitors seize the initiative. A big short term loss maybe but an enormous long term gain in consumer trust.
I am now convinced and will wait and see what happens
All the hysteria puts the iPhone 4 in the limelight. Ever since Fizzmondo stole exploited and extorted the prototype, committing several blatant felonies, this iPhone 4 launch has been a soap opera.
In 3 months the iPhone 4 will bust all sales records internationally and go on to conquer the globe. Even a pygmy in Zombobway has heard all about it by now and will want to get his hands on it.
I love my iPhone 4! I don’t care “if I have to hold it with a pair of salad tongs to use it”. I have a bumpper on it and I have no issues what so ever. Not only that but it feels right with it on there. It’s not as slick so I don’t have to worry about it slipping out of my hands. I can’t stand all the BS about this nonissue, if you don’t like it don’t buy it and go get a subpar phone with a slew of other problems. F’n morons!!!!!!
@Dmitri
Every time Apple gives away a case they could have sold, it costs them the full $29 they would have sold it for.
If they sell 10 million iphone 4s, and 1/3 would have bought bumpers, that’s 3.33 million X $29… That’s $96.6M.
Pushing 100 million dollars… Yeah, apple does NOT want to do that, I assure you.
Irrelevant. Don’t use RIAA/MPAA math, you’re better than that. Unsold product should never ever count as “lost” revenue.
I just wish we knew if every iPhone 4 was affected. Based on the evidence thus far, all units should be affected because it looks like a design flaw.
A case is also not a fix. No way. Having to use a case in order for a unit to function properly is not a fix. It’s just an admission of guilt. And no, we’re not “crazy” for not using a case as some people have suggested. Some of us hate cases. And after owning 2 different iPhones and using them without cases, never had a problem. No scratched screens, no damage… I just use the phone naked because I get to experience the real design that way.
If this affects every unit, the phone is flawed and it needs to be recalled. Period. I don’t care how much more sensitive the new antennae is. It doesn’t matter if when you hold the phone it dumps the signal. It’s totally moot.
People are just delusional over this issue. Everyone is an expert. So many different ideas floating around. But the sad reality is that it’s likely a design flaw and Apple screwed up. Period. No excuses.
@ UM True, and some people will have insurance – i got it so i can live without the worry if i break it, so i don’t need to worry about putting it in a case. If it was meant to have a case apple would have supplied it in the box. To say it needs one makes apple look like a joke, it ruins the design (a big factor with any apple product) and ultimately it shouldn’t need one to work. I mean why don’t they just redesign the bumper and release it at WWDC every year.
The real issue is if its a fault they need to halt production and amend it (it cant be a massive fix). They should then swap all the faulty ones to the fixed ones and carry on.
Even though the return period of distance selling laws in the UK has passed min (7 days) i reckon anyone in the UK wouldnt have a bothered getting it taken back contract or not, as the phone is ultimately not fit for purpose.
It bugs me there are somee propper die hard apple people saying stuff like everyones a fucking idiot for questioning it when really apple shouldnt have got into this mess anyway. Its not about – wanting a different phone its about wanting an iphone that works simple as.
I love my phone, i like apple but i don’t buy something to then have it not work correctly, or have to buy or be given something else to solve it. The fact apple made it and i trust they’ll fix it means i’m happy to wait… for now.
I think apple has got off fairly lightly so far. I spoke with my phone company about it and advised them I’m happy to wait for now to see if it gets fixed. They told me apple was working on the issue blah blah. If it doesn’t get fixed or i’m given a bumper then i’ll give it them back and go on a 12month contract for a 3gs and wait till iPhone 5. I reckon a lot of people are waiting to see what apple come up with, 12-24 months is a long time to be with a phone that isnt working as it should.
I do wonder what the return line at Apple stores will look like 29 days after the launch. Might be pretty long I would guess. Right now earliest adopters are likely waiting until the last minute. Those who sold their old phones need to have plans about what to do I would imagine. I am keeping mine but it does sound like many will not.
I have a bumper and can more easily lose all my bars with it in place than without. But, here’s the really odd thing: I conducted a test yesterday holding the phone in the death grip sans bumper and with no bars. I made seven calls friends and Continental Airlines, told each my purpose for the call. I conversed for five minutes on each call asking each to keep in mind, the clarity of my voice, static, loss of voice, etc.
Then I called each back and repeated the exact process.
RESULT: with no bars at any time, no dropped calls, no loss of clarity, and the calls clearer than any phone, iPhone or not. So there seems to be an attenuation problem, no doubt, but why no loss of calls. Why all this hue and cry especially over CR’s rather flawed report, an organization better reporting on vacuums and washers and dryers.
Finally, hen I do hold my phone for conversation, I never use the death grip. There’s a far better way and maybe SJ was right all along–hold it differently–uh, I mean correctly. There is a better and more correct way. It’s just too bad that his response seemed snooty and uncaring when I think it was an honest, heartfelt reply that went wrong. Maybe he needs some new spin masters.
Before commenting about the cost of the bumpers, perhaps one should see one first.
It is not a penny rubber band.
• If those Bumper cases are costing Apple $5 each, they need to renegotiate with their Chinese supplier(s).
No shit. Monoprice has cases starting at $1.44!
A sensible and measured take from MDN this time. Well done.
@ Neomonkey
You have no idea about what the Bumper looks like or how it is constructed.
To compare it to a piece of plastic shit…you need another asshole.
@Bongo
Isn’t is bedtime? Go away.
@UM
You sound suspiciously like a self-proclaimed expert with *the one and only valid answer*
Since you will not be satisfied with any response other than an iPhone 4 redesign, I strongly suggest that you return your iPhone 4 for a full refund while you still can. You can either go back to a 3GS, or go with Android or Symbian or whatever. But just go. I can (and will) make my own non-delusional judgment on the matter, thanks very much.