Week in review: Apple's handheld headache
Apple to give away cases to deal with its touchy iPhone trouble, while FCC's indecency rules get slammed by court. Also: Juggling passwords.
Apple's biggest product launch ever is turning into its biggest headache.
In response to complaints about declining call quality with the iPhone 4, Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced that it would give bumpers or some other type of case to every owner who requests one. Jobs announced the move during a press conference in which he again sought to illustrate that the antenna issues were common with other smartphones as well.
The bumper issue is a touchy one for Apple; it had previously instructed its AppleCare employees not to offer free bumpers to owners who complained about reception.
Perhaps Apple's wake-up call came when Consumer Reports announced that it can't recommend the iPhone 4 due to problems with its reception. According to a story posted on Consumer Reports' Web site, it was forced to withhold its recommendation after its engineers found that when you touch the gap in the antenna on the phone's lower left side, "the signal can significantly degrade enough to cause you to lose your connection altogether if you're in an area with a weak signal."
Though Consumer Reports' latest findings are significant, it is not alone in reaching them. Indeed, during testing, CNET and other outlets have discovered that the iPhone 4 call quality degrades when you touch the gap on the left side.
Some predicted the purpose of the press conference was to announce a recall of the iPhone to fix the problem. While a recall could be damaging to Apple's reputation, it would also be a costly endeavor. One analyst estimated that while "a full product recall of the iPhone 4 (is) highly unlikely," it would cost Apple $1.5 billion, or 3.5 percent of its total cash on hand.
Report: Jobs was told of iPhone 4 antenna problem
What we know about iPhone 4's antenna (FAQ)
Time for an iPhone 4 recall?
Spinmeisters sound off on Apple's communications breakdown
iOS 4.1 update released to developers
iPhone owners report iOS 4.0.1 installation errors
iPhone 4 signal bar software fix now out
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