by The Foundation | Twitter.com/thefndtn
Over the past three years, the iPhone has become one of Apple’s flagship products, a cash cow of sorts. The iPhone 3G & 3GS have received praise for the handsets’ revolutionary design and build quality. With the announcement of the iPhone 4, Apple saw record breaking pre-order and first day sales. Apple found themselves at the center of every media outlet’s attention and Consumer Reports rewarded Apple’s latest iPhone with the highest rating ever given to a smartphone. Their recommendation was quickly retracted as issues with the handset trickled in over both Engadget and Gizmodo just hours after the iPhone 4 hit shelves. Apple could no longer ignore the issue.
Seemingly out of their nature, Apple just wrapped up a press conference in response to complaints about iPhone 4 reception. The popular handset suffers from signal degradation when held in a way that covers its lower left hand corner. The design flaw sparked a PR firestorm that included everything from a negative Consumer Reports review to Whoopi Goldberg throwing her phone from a moving vehicle. What did Apple have to say about the problem?
“We aren’t perfect. Phones aren’t perfect.”
Steve Jobs took stage and began with a number of sales figures, statistics and even a video that poked fun at Apple and the iPhone 4. He then demonstrated that reception degradation is not unique to the iPhone 4. It happens to the BlackBerry Bold, Droid Eris and Samsung Omnia as well. Apparently, only .55 percent of all iPhone 4 users have called AppleCare to complain about the issue. Only 1.7 percent of early adopters have returned the phone. That is in fact less than one third of early 3GS returns. While optimistic about the iPhone 4′s performance, Job’s did admit that there have been a greater number of calls dropped (fewer than 1 more per 100 calls than the 3GS to be exact).
Apple has already addressed iPhone 4 issues with the release of iOS 4.0.1 and their Microsoft Exchange fix. So what are they going to do about the reception issue? Steve spelled it out crystal clear – Free Bumpers. If you purchase an iPhone 4 through September 2010, Apple will send you a free case or bumper. If this isn’t enough, Apple will accept returns and provide a full refund. Steve closed with these words of sentiment: We love our users. We try very hard to surprise and delight them.”
What are your thoughts on the iPhone 4 and how Steve handled the reception issue? If you have any questions or just need help picking out a case, head over to our twitter page @theFNDTN.
