Jobs Says “Antennagate” Over, Shows How to Hold iPhone 4

Apple invited a select group of journalists to Cupertino today to address the antenna issues, and in doing so Steve Jobs went on to rake certain media outlets (like the NYT nd Bloomberg) over the coals regarding the iPhone 4’s antenna problems. He must have said “we love our users” over a dozen times too. But to address the issue, Apple will be giving all iPhone4 customers a free “bumper” case along with an iOS4 software update that will hopefully make things better. Consumer Reports, which recently pulled its iPhone 4 recommendation had stated that the bumper solves the antenna problem.

But first, in typical Apple fashion, they rolled out  bunch of stats, which are summarized here:

• 3 million iPhone 4’s have been sold in 3 weeks
• Apple has a state of the art facility with 17 anechoic chambers, resulting in a $100 million investment (Author’s note- I’ve been in RIM’s chambers!”)
• There are 18 Apple PhD scientists and engineers working on “the issue”
• 0.55%of AppleCare calls have been about antenna or signal issues with the iPhone 4
• iPhone 4 return rates are 1.7% compared to 6% on the 3GS
• Additional dropped calls per 100 calls when comparing iPhone 4 to iPhone 3GS is <1
• iOS4 software update released today to fix reception bar issue and Exchange bug
• iPhone 4 will ship in 17 more countries by the end of July (sorry South Korea!)
• 60 million people visited Apple stores in the last quarter

Apple will give away free “bumper” cases to all customers buying an iPhone 4 through September 30, 2010, at which time Apple will reevaluate the situation. Customers can apply on Apple.com next week for reimbursement of bumpers purchased or to get one if they currently done have one. Apple is not supporting 3^rd party case makers because as Steve Jobs stated- “I don’t trust them.”

Jobs spent much of the morning making the case that the reception problem is a common one among all smart phones and showed comparison data for RIM, Samsung, and HTC, and noticably didn’t place the iPhone 4 on the slide. But I think the Consumer Reports news about pulling its recommendation is what forced this press conference. Jobs kind of admitted there should have been more testing, but then he went through the whole anechoic chamber pitch. And he went on to say how hard it is for AT&T to erect a new cell tower in San Francisco (3 years) but that they keep prodding the carrier about their network quality.

So no recall, just bumpers…hurry up and wait to get one, just like their devices.

Notable quotes from the Q&A session

Q: You showed people almost covering the entire phone up in their hand, but on the iPhone 4 the (signal) problem can happen with just a touch. Can you explain that difference?

A: When you touch the phone, you put yourself between the signal and your phone; so when you touch that spot you can attenuate the signal. If you grip the phone with your whole hand, you can attenuate it even more. We don’t build phones with an antenna on top…

Q: Are you willing to make an apology to investors?

A: (Jobs): To investors, you know, you invest in the company we are. To those investors who bought the stock and are down by $5, I have no apology. If we hit a bump in the road, it’s like having kids.

Q: Were you told about the design before the phone was released?

A: (Jobs) Are you talking about the Bloomberg article? That’s a crock, and we’ve challenged them to show proof that that.

- Randy Giusto

@randygiusto

#newdigitalcafe

randygiusto@newdigitalcafe.com

508-254-7975