At a press conference today, Steve Jobs announced that Apple would provide free cases or refunds on Bumper case purchases in response to the iPhone 4 antenna problems that have been plaguing some users of the new phone.
Because Apple is having trouble meeting demand for its Bumper cases, Jobs said the company would give users a selection of cases to choose from and mail them to users. Customers who already bought the Bumper case can get a refund. Both kinds of customer will be able to apply for these options starting next week. The offer is good for all iPhone 4s bought through Sept. 30, 2010.
Users can also return undamaged iPhone 4s for a full refund within 30 days of purchase.
Jobs said that Apple had been working on understanding the causes of, and finding a solution to, the problem for 22 days. In that time, the company learned that:
- drops in signal strength when holding the antenna are common to many phones, and showed this happening to models of the Blackberry, Droid Eris, and Samsung Omnia II (Consumer Reports came to a different conclusion)
- that the formula used by the iPhone to calculate signal strength was flawed (that was resolved in the iOS 4.0.1 update released yesterday)
- 0.55% of calls to the AppleCare help line were in regard to the antenna issue (kind of a deceptive stat, though, since it doesn't include people who read about the issue online and didn't call or Apple Store visits)
- 1.7% of iPhone 4 buyers have returned the phone to Apple or AT&T
- AT&T dropped call data shows the iPhone 4 dropping less than 1 more call per 100 than the iPhone 3GS.
Jobs suggested that some of the problem is due to over 80% iPhone 3G and 3GS models being used with cases, while only 20% of iPhone 4 owners are leaving the Apple Store with a case. Jobs chalked this up to Apple not being able to make its Bumper cases fast enough (I'd argue that they're priced too high, too, though that's not going to be an issue now).
The event began with a video and song about the antenna issues which the company said it found on YouTube, though the video seemed to me like a further (final?) tweak to those criticizing Apple for the problems.
Jobs spent most of the first 30 minutes of the press conference marshaling data to minimize the issue. While the facts as they're broadly understood do seem to indicate that this isn't a huge problem for most iPhone 4 owners, this seemingly defensive posture didn't do wonders for the perception that Apple has been slow to address this issue.
The projection behind Jobs showed a screen proclaiming "We love our users" for the last few minutes of his presentation, perhaps underscoring Apple's knowledge that it needs to appear more consumer-friendly on this issue.
Still, Jobs conceded that the issue was the result of a mistake. "We're not perfect ... and the phones aren't perfect either," Jobs said, according to Engadget's report. He also noted that the company has sold 3 million iPhone 4s to date.
Jobs also announced that the white iPhone 4 will ship at the end of July and that the iPhone 4 will launch in 17 more countries on July 30, including Australia, Canada, Italy, Norway, Singapore, and Spain. He also said the company is paying attention to reports of bugs in the new phone's proximity sensor and to expect a fix in the next iOS update.
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