The iPhone 4.It’s sad when I can sit down to type a column and not even have to worry about coming up with a fancy, eye-catching lead.All I have to do is type “iPhone 4,” and all of a sudden you’re hooked. That’s all it takes for my web hits to explode. Twitter will unleash its infamous fail whale because of all the retweets, and Steve Jobs will come after me because he’s not going to like what I have to say.As I’m sure you know — unless you live under a rock — the iPhone 4 released nearly a month ago, and release it did.It crashed servers, caused riots, required people to stand in line for 10 hours and made some people very rich on eBay.The iPhone 4 launch was so successful Apple sold 3 million units of the “Jesus Phone” in only three weeks.The phone has a gorgeous display, high -definition camcorder, LED flash, gyroscope and improved accelerometer, fully equipped with iOS4 and boasts two cameras with the ability to use “FaceChat” to visually talk with the person on the other line.I personally can’t wait for the ChatRoulette app to be released, but I digress.With all the amazing features Apple boasts about its newest iteration of the iPhone, it seems to have forgotten one important detail: It’s a phone — it needs to make phone calls.However, because the phone’s external antenna band, holding the phone certain ways causes lost reception and dropped calls.Many outraged customers called Apple/AT&T support, while others sent furious emails to Apple’s main man Steve Jobs.After some time without hearing from the turtleneck-wearing CEO, Jobs told irate iPhone owners to simply “avoid holding the phone that way.”To be fair, Jobs is well known for being blunt in his email responses. But this time it’s a little ridiculous.It was obvious there was a big design flaw in the phone — how many other cell phones have an external antenna so users can touch it?Oh yeah, none.Instead of admitting there was a mistake, it appeared Apple just danced around the issue instead of informing users a fix is in the works.Some users reported Apple stores were supplying a free iPhone Bumper — a rubber case which surrounds the edge of the phone, helping with the antenna issue — to all those with defective phones, on a case-by-case basis.
This obviously wasn’t enough. Soon lawsuit after lawsuit began to be filed against the iConglomerate.
Again, instead of admitting to the design flaw and properly doing something to correct it, Apple claimed everything can be fixed with a software update.Now I’m no programmer (I only have one semester of computer science under my belt), but I didn’t understand how a hardware problem could be fixed with a software update. However, I decided to play along.
Consumer Reports unveiled its review of the iPhone 4 last Monday. Unfortunately for Jobs and the rest of Apple, Consumer Reports stated they could not suggest the new Jesus Phone to customers due to its antenna issues. To drive the nail deeper, the magazine announced after thorough testing, the problem could not be solved by a mere software update as Apple suggested.With all this heat bearing down, Jobs announced a press conference would be held regarding the iPhone 4.This was it, I thought — time for Apple to admit its mistakes and fix everything. Replace all the defective phones and provide upset users with a brand-new handset.Sounds too good to be true, right? Well, that’s because it is.During Apple’s iPhone 4 conference last Friday, instead of admitting there was a major design flaw in the build of the phone, Jobs got on stage and explained how all phones have antenna problems, not just the iPhone.After spewing off other stats and bragging how great Apple is, Jobs announced all iPhone 4 owners would be entitled to a free Bumper — as long as it’s requested before Sept. 30.That’s it — a free case.No admitting a design flaw. No taking back phones that don’t work — although he did explain unhappy customers have a 30-day return policy. No recall. Just a free case and a knock at the competition.It’s reported the free Bumpers will cost Apple upward of $175 million. Given the amount of units already sold in the first month, along with what will sell in the future and the fact anyone will buy anything if they see the word “free,” $175 million is chump change for Apple.While the iPhone 4 is a damn good phone (if held correctly), this antenna issue cannot be ignored with the amount of complaints filed against it.
I’m sure Apple is correcting the problem behind closed doors as we speak. So, honestly, it may be better to hold off before buying your new Jesus Phone so Apple can get all the kinks worked out.
But if you do decide to jump the gun, don’t forget to go to Apple’s website to get your free piece of rubber to make your phone work. And don’t say I didn’t warn you.–Contact Adam Arinder at [email protected]