Well, everybody who bought an iPhone 4 already.
That was the word today from Apple’s CEO. After Consumer Reports said that they couldn’t recommend the latest version of the smartphone that changed everything, Apple called a press conference to say “We’re not perfect.”
They didn’t say that the iPhone 4 was broken, they said it had an issue that some other smartphones have. Namely, your hand can degrade (the technical term is attenuate) the signal being received and thus lead to dropped calls and other kinds of bad performance.
The answer as I suggested it should be back on July 2nd will be to give out free “bumpers” to new iPhone buyers, and current owners who don’t have them already. If you already forked out the $30 bucks for the bumper already, you get a refund. (Apple promises full details by the end of next week.)
The reason I made this call early on was that I am a real world customer who was underwhelmed by the new iPhone until I got a bumper, and magically–almost all of my problems disappeared. The glaring one left is that the “proximity sensor” that determines if the phone is pressed against the cheek is not working as well as the previous models and often allows the cheek to accidentally put the phone on hold or do something else unintended. Apple promises a software update to come will address the sensor problem.
Here’s another prediction: the free bumpers (cases) will NOT make everyone happy and the serious Apple bashing that has been going on will likely continue unabated. But the fact remains that Apple has said that there is some kind of problem and they have said that they had to do something to fix it.
Chances are that if you bought an iPhone–you probably have had the problems caused by the “death grip”, which seems to be any way you put your fingers around the case of the phone and touch its metal antenna. Having a bumper seems to help with or solve the problem. If you still aren’t happy–you can return the iPhone 4, no questions asked.
Seems like a pretty fair deal, though Consumer Reports now says that Apple’s plans are good for its consumers, but they still can’t recommend the iPhone 4 until something more permanent is done.
No word on just what that might be.