After CEO Steve Jobs opened up the Apple press conference with optimistic announcements on their sales figures, they proceeded to deny that their phone is the only one having issues and that any phone will lose signal if held a certain way. Jobs said that the tests they have done internally with other phones prove that Apple is not the only one with the problem with the reception "Death Grip." He admitted that that the display of the bars was making the drop look a lot more drastic than it really was, and that the software update has fixed that.
According to Jobs, AppleCare has logged that only 0.55% of users have complained about iPhone issues. He claimed that the media is overblowing the problem, and that the customers are really happy. If people had a problem with the phone, AT&T has a great return policy, and the return rates are less than 1/3 less of the previous iPhone. He admitted that the iPhone 4 drops more calls than iPhone 3GS, but that it has nothing to do with the advanced antenna. Jobs said that more people bought cases at the same time they purchased the iPhone 3GS, and that's why they dropped less calls.
At the end, he announced that everyone will get a free case if you buy a phone through Sept. 30th. If you bought a case, you'll be given a full refund. After that, Jobs promised a fix for the phone. You will be able to pick the case of your choice from the website, and it will be sent free of charge. A financial analyst tells Neowin that the bumpers will cost Apple 45 million dollars.
Apple's stock has been fluctuating since the beginning of the conference, but it looks like it's going up now. At the end of the conference, Jobs advertised the other products in the Apple line up, and departed on an optimistic note about the company and its products.
In the post-event Q&A, Jobs said that the reason that attendees couldn't perform the "death grip" on campus is because there is very good coverage on campus. "We have both an AT&T and Verizon tower on campus." This statement is causing controversy as speculation abounds over Apple possibly giving the iPhone line to Verizon.
Jobs denied the claim by Bloomberg that a high ranking antenna designer told him about the antenna issue during testing. He said that he spoke to the engineer and he agrees that it was false.
in response to a question about an apology to investors, Jobs said that if the price drops $5, he doesn't owe investors an apology.
He said at the end that he's deeply sorry about the problems people are having with reception, that people will have the same problems with other smartphones, and that because they care about customers, they will be giving everybody with an iPhone 4 a free case.
Comments (138)
ReplyI think Apple needs to listen to Schumer..
iPhone 5 -- really slim! Really, no bumper case to defeat the purpose! And with MOAR ANTENNA!!!!!!!!!11111
iPhone 5 -- really slim! Really, no bumper case to defeat the purpose! And with MOAR ANTENNA!!!!!!!!!11111
I agree with you there.
The iphone 4 is no worse than any other? What Planet is Jobs on? The iphone 4 isn't even as good as the iphone 3 - let alone any of the competition that design their phones for USABILITY over STYLE.
bottom line is they would not be giving away cases for free if it wasn't any worse than the others. No one else has given away free cases because of antenna problems. If HTC RIM and Samsung have the same problems they should be giving away cases too! /sarcasm
I can't believe what I'm reading as this happens, they've let the issue get so overblown that they're able to actually put on a positive spin event instead of just releasing a statement. It's Apple marketing at its best and it's infuriatingly ingenius.
I don't buy it. Comparing it to HTC Android phones is useless because HTC usually has signal reading issues anyway. I have used different Blackberries in the past, Storm 2, Storm, Bold, Curve and I would hold it different ways for whatever reason and the bars NEVER went down. I don't buy Job's crap.
My HTC Touch Pro 2 never looses a signal when I hold it. Of course Jobs is lying. It's clear as day.
My HTC Touch Pro 2 never looses a signal when I hold it. Of course Jobs is lying. It's clear as day.
Neither does my HD2 or my wife's Nokia 5800. This is a big fat lie and only fanboys would fall for it.
I agree. I've had 3 different HTC phone's with at&t over the past four years. I've still got two.
The touch pro & the touch pro2. I've tried holding them every way possible and the calls never drop, but my friends iPhone 4 does.
I think Apple got caught "cooking the books" so to speak. They had their signal strength meter(bars) tweaked to show a higher signal strength than the phone actually has, so Apple or
at&t can say "more bars with the iPhone". So if you were in a poor signal zone, it would show 5 bars, and actually you only had 2 bars, then, grip it wrong and the call gets dropped.
I've dealt with radios, antennas for over 30 years and I can tell you you don't put an antenna
in contact with another conductive material (say your skin) because it will change the resonance of the antenna, by several db's and cause the signal to drop. (on a 100watt transmitter it could also give you a nasty RF burn).
Job's & company got CAUGHT, and now they still want to blame everyone else.
People vote with their pocket books, so it is up to consumers to figure out if they want to continue to buy iPhones, or, go somewhere else. What I HOPE does not happen is that idiotic
senator Chuck U from NY tries to tell Apple to come to DC and stand before my committee.
Apple, for the most part, makes excellent quality products, people pay a premium for those
products, and expect them to work, not to have the CEO dance around the issue.
Neither my wife's phone or my phone has such issues.
I am pretty sure Steve Jobs showed some fake, doctored videos -- Just like they do in their Ads.
I am pretty sure Steve Jobs showed some fake, doctored videos -- Just like they do in their Ads.
Of course Steve Jobs is lying. Of course everything was faked. Not sure which ads, you are referring to, but it does not matter because they were all faked.
Wow, the anti-apple reality distortion field is strong with this one.
Of course Steve Jobs is lying. Of course everything was faked. Not sure which ads, you are referring to, but it does not matter because they were all faked.
Wow, the anti-apple reality distortion field is strong with this one.
Right, because Steve Jobs has control of my signal when I sit here at my desk and try to deathgrip my HTC Hero and nothing happens, right?
I love how people toss around the phrase "reality distortion field" as if they're totally clever and witty.
Right, because Steve Jobs has control of my signal when I sit here at my desk and try to deathgrip my HTC Hero and nothing happens, right?
Not sure what point you are trying to make with this statement? Steve Jobs did not mention the HTC Hero in his talk. Care to elaborate?
I love how people toss around the phrase "reality distortion field" as if they're totally clever and witty.
I am with you on this. The anti-apple drones say it non-stop.
Not sure what point you are trying to make with this statement? Steve Jobs did not mention the HTC Hero in his talk. Care to elaborate?
I am with you on this. The anti-apple drones say it non-stop.
Actually, every single comment I've seen of yours on all the Apple articles uses it. So might want to rethink that.
My HTC Touch Pro 2 never looses a signal when I hold it. Of course Jobs is lying. It's clear as day.
Neither does my HD2. It just works.
Lame, apple just reaffirmed their arrogance and willingness to rip people off with their press conference.
They never admitted anything wrong, dogged some issues and tried to point fingers at the competition.
If this company does not deserve a class action lawsuit and and complete melt down no company does.
They never admitted anything wrong, dogged some issues and tried to point fingers at the competition.
If this company does not deserve a class action lawsuit and and complete melt down no company does.
"dogged some issues"_______________no there`s a thought
They never admitted anything wrong, dogged some issues and tried to point fingers at the competition.
If this company does not deserve a class action lawsuit and and complete melt down no company does.
Yeah, I knew they were arrogant, but I'm still speechless.... Unbelievable...
I'm also confused. I admit I haven't been following this that closely (don't own an iPhone any more so don't care about the problems that much) but the videos highlighting the problem clearly showed that it wasn't just that bars dropped but that the call would cut out all together because the signal loss was so severe. So how can they sit and say it's not an ACTUAL signal loss problem, and if it's not a problem (and a software fix resolves it) why are they coughing up $45 million for people to get free cases?
It is obviously a problem and they simply won't come out and say they made a mistake. Or so it seems!
It is obviously a problem and they simply won't come out and say they made a mistake. Or so it seems!
I was thinking the same thing. They're really doing a disservice to their customers...
well 45M is much better for apple's bottom line than the estimated 1.7B of a full recall.
My thoughts exactly!
really? Cause my Blackberry has no antenna issues depending on which way I hold it...
Neither does any other phone except the iPhone.
Sure, in your reality distortion field. Interesting, even when presented with facts which prove the contrary, the anti-apple fanboys still believe in their fantasies.
Sure, in your reality distortion field. Interesting, even when presented with facts which prove the contrary, the anti-apple fanboys still believe in their fantasies.
Then present some facts. Steve Jobs marketing isn't facts, you realize that, right?
Fact is, I hold my Touch Pro 2 with my left hand, with my right, or with both in landscape, and I never loose a call. I even have a full HSPA signal.
I think you're in Steve's fantasy, buddy.
Then present some facts. Steve Jobs marketing isn't facts, you realize that, right?
Fact is, I hold my Touch Pro 2 with my left hand, with my right, or with both in landscape, and I never loose a call. I even have a full HSPA signal.
I think you're in Steve's fantasy, buddy.
This!
Then present some facts. Steve Jobs marketing isn't facts, you realize that, right?
Fact is, I hold my Touch Pro 2 with my left hand, with my right, or with both in landscape, and I never loose a call. I even have a full HSPA signal.
I think you're in Steve's fantasy, buddy.
+100 Exactly.
I have a Samsung Omnia and have never had issues like this at all. I have a friend with an Omnia 2 and they do not have this problem either...
To be quite honest though, I'm glad that I'm not an Apple customer here, because they've made clear how little they appreciate their customers. I am utterly disgusted that they would attempt to twist this story into that this is a problem with every phone, and not theirs with some shiny marketing... Appalling...
Sure, in your reality distortion field. Interesting, even when presented with facts which prove the contrary, the anti-apple fanboys still believe in their fantasies.
Seriously? Stop with the reality distortion field bull$hit, it's getitng REALLY pathetic. If I had the money, I would love to buy you an HTC Hero just to send it to you and tell you to squeeze it as hard as you can on all sides during a call and try and get it to drop.
It's pretty clear which end of the Apple spectrum you lie on.
Sure, in your reality distortion field. Interesting, even when presented with facts which prove the contrary, the anti-apple fanboys still believe in their fantasies.
When did Steve let you out of the laundry room?! His underwear isn't clean yet! Get busy! Get that brown out!
People will stop buying their phones or anything else. He is stubborn and foolish. Apple was known for making reliable products.. Guess not anymore.
So, if there's nothing wrong with it, why offer a future fix?
"Q: Ryan from GDGT. You can cause the signal drop with one finger, not a whole grip. A from Mansfield: On any phone, your body is a signal absorber. And none of us has a walkie-talkie style antenna anymore.... "
He should really consider moving into politics, his ability to completely dodge a relevant question is up there with the best of them.
He should really consider moving into politics, his ability to completely dodge a relevant question is up there with the best of them.
LOL! Indeed.
The rest couldn't make a call through their iPhone.
The rest couldn't make a call through their iPhone.
That's only through AppleCare as well. God only knows how many complaints have been made to AT&T, Best buy, Walmart, etc.
The rest couldn't make a call through their iPhone.
+1
People need to just return the phone back where they got it and select a cell
phone that works ... Verizon and T-Mobile both have new smartphones out
now.
This is the time to get rid of AT&T .... return the iPhone 4 and cancel your
service with AT&T ... Make a big stink about drop calls and goto someone
else ...
NOW.
Umm, I had a smartphone on T-Mobile about a year before the first iPhone was released. It even had multitasking, can you believe that Apple also didn't invent that!
I have both the iPhone 4 and a Blackberry bold 9700. I cannot like the person in the audience make my Bold bar drop, but on the iPhone all I need is to touch it with one finger on the problem area and bar drops. How can Steve explain this? Using the same carrier in the same location. Steve (APPLE) just admit there is a problem.
Nothing but lies and spin, shame on you Apple.
+1
+2
Of course but are you really surprised? this has been going on for years - anyone remember the iMac G5 capacitor fiasco? the PowerBook broken DIMM slot fiasco? the PowerMac G4 SMP bugginess? MacBook Pro overheating?
It isn't just isolated to the iPhone but also all of Apples products but what makes the situation worse is their flat out denial of these problems even existing in the first place. If Apple were forth coming and honest about the problems you wouldn't see the sort of backlash from the enthusiast community who then advise their technically illiterate friends not to purchase Apple products.
why a software iussue needs a case to be fixed?
Terrible way of dealing with the issue. Big let down
Agreed.
Agreed.
what issue? the facts clearly show there is no issue.
what issue? the facts clearly show there is no issue.
LMAO! Your comments have been hilarious to read... LOL Do you only see the world through Apple Goggles?
Absolutely. This is no way for a company to respond to an issue like this. It's a shame.
what issue? the facts clearly show there is no issue.
Are you really that completely and utterly stupid? You call people out for being blind to the "facts" but you totally dismiss all the real world tests done to show the damn thing DOES drop calls.
You can hear the laughing from Mountain View and Redmond from here
This will become what BSODs are for MS
This will become what BSODs are for MS
BSODs come form your bad hardware and bad drivers. Most of this problems have been addressed in Windows 7. If you see BSODs in Windows 7, the first thing you should do is to test your hardware faulty. I have just remove a defect RAM, and BSOD is gone.
This will become what BSODs are for MS
I think you meant were.
I think you meant were.
BSOD/RROD etc all from Microsoft. You windows fanbois remember when XBox 360 had the heating issue RROD on it right? Didn't really make a big deal. But when it comes to anything non-Microsoft you blow the crap out of proportion.
BSOD/RROD etc all from Microsoft. You windows fanbois remember when XBox 360 had the heating issue RROD on it right? Didn't really make a big deal. But when it comes to anything non-Microsoft you blow the crap out of proportion.
Linux has the same exact thing as a BSOD, just calls it kernel panic. Also happends due to faulty hardware or drivers.
Offcourse it happends less, for all the 1,5% people in the world using it.
Linux has the same exact thing as a BSOD, just calls it kernel panic. Also happends due to faulty hardware or drivers.
Offcourse it happends less, for all the 1,5% people in the world using it.
Damn, you're optimistic on desktop Linux usage
BSOD/RROD etc all from Microsoft. You windows fanbois remember when XBox 360 had the heating issue RROD on it right? Didn't really make a big deal. But when it comes to anything non-Microsoft you blow the crap out of proportion.
Cry now?
All tech companies will get their turn of bad press. Microsoft had it, and now it's Apple's turn. Deal with it.
Linux has the same exact thing as a BSOD, just calls it kernel panic. Also happends due to faulty hardware or drivers.
Offcourse it happends less, for all the 1,5% people in the world using it.
1.5% try more about 5-6%. And you say that likes it's a bad thing?
At least we don't have dumb n00b users on our OS unlike Windows which has mentally handicap people in mind. At least with Linux you need to have something working in your head in order to be able to use it. Also, Windows is for lazy users who don't care about shelling out money for half arse done programs, cannot even get their users to stop using XP, and charges expensive price for a OS that you can't even much customise it, and what you can customise you are paying out the arse for that.
At least in Linux, more quality and don't have to pay a cent. Linux may not have 60% market share, proprietary applications. But do realise a lot more companies are coming to Linux and ditching Windows (Like Google :>, governments, schools). But anyways, maybe us Linux users actually don't care about having 100% market share, it's still here because it's community driven not corporate made.
Jealous or something pumpkin?
All tech companies will get their turn of bad press. Microsoft had it, and now it's Apple's turn. Deal with it.
But the difference is that Microsoft accepted there was an issue, Apple on the other hand has gone into denial mode. Apple will continue denying and denying until they release a new version that apparently fixes a problem that they claimed never existed in the first place.
My 9700 doesn't drop from full signal to one bar no matter how I hold it. But more importantly, even if it did drop to one bar, at least I could still make a call with it.
My iphone 4 will not drop from full signal to one bar no matter how i hold it either. Even when my iphone 4 has one bar, i can still make calls and surf the web.
My iphone 4 will not drop from full signal to one bar no matter how i hold it either. Even when my iphone 4 has one bar, i can still make calls and surf the web.
That's fantastic for you. I guess the rest of all the other iPhone owners must be complete and utter idiots.
That's fantastic for you. I guess the rest of all the other iPhone owners must be complete and utter idiots.
Don't forget Consumer Reports and Engadget and CNET and...........too.
Don't forget Consumer Reports and Engadget and CNET and...........too.
Yeah, we mustn't forget that Speckles is god and the rest of the world are complete nimrods.
That press conference was full of bulls***.
I agree that the death grip thing was blown out of proportion. A lot of knows have known for YEARS that if you cover the place where the antenna is supposed to be, it can affect reception. But apple goes and makes the antenna external and bars drop when you hold the device the way you are supposed to hold it with your left hand (if you are right handed).
And apple had a taste of their own medicine. They rely on blogs and press (and people commenting on those blogs and press to other people) to feed the balls of hype each of their product launches are. Before the ipad was even confirmed, we knew there was an ipad. Same with iphone and ipod video. They know how to work the media. The whole death-grip thing was blown out of proportion the same way their products are over-hyped beyond reason.
But this press conference was just pure BS.
LOL, the spanish press is giving it it's own spin
"Apple: we make mistakes". lol
I can't see Apple's distortion field, PR spin and bull deterring the class action lawsuits. Apple really have messed up and they deserve to face the consequences for it - just like any other company who messes up!
+1
Mr. Job's attitude is really starting to make me dislike him. I can't believe how arrogant he is being about this ...
but it dosnt matter, people will still bow down to him.
dont care how much apple try to sugar coat this matter, they screwed up big time and saying you dont owe your invisters an applogy is just crazy.
the "leader" isnt so grate this time.
Exactly. It's no way to treat your customers...
Exactly. It's no way to treat your customers...
Steve Jobs -- making Microsoft look better by comparison!
Oh c'mon Steve!
Admit it.
Apple screwed up.Happens to everyone.
Admit it.
Apple screwed up.Happens to everyone.
+1
Wow, I read the live blog of the whole event as it was going on. When Unkie Steve started to show the other brand phones, I knew this was going to be a huge song-and-dance. And it was. Trainwreck, weaksauce are a few words that seem to accurately describe that conference.
"According to Jobs, AppleCare has logged that only 0.55% of users have complained about iPhone issues. "
That's because of the extremely widespread news coverage of the issue, at least here in the UK. People aren't going to call Applecare about an issue that affects most if not all iPhone 4s.
lawl.
That's because of the extremely widespread news coverage of the issue, at least here in the UK. People aren't going to call Applecare about an issue that affects most if not all iPhone 4s.
lawl.
And if apple care is like any other customer support, they will be completely useless.
That's because of the extremely widespread news coverage of the issue, at least here in the UK. People aren't going to call Applecare about an issue that affects most if not all iPhone 4s.
lawl.
Not to mention that they usually take the "please contact your carrier before calling us" approach
I'm confused. They spent the past month insisting that the iPhone4 had better reception than any previous iPhone. Now he says that yes, the iPhone4 is dropping more calls than the previous iPhone.
Case or no case, my head hurts.
The two are not necessarily mutually exclusive. You can have great reception but also still have a flaw that causes dropped calls under certain circumstances. So long as those circumstances are not present, you could still have better reception than another phone.
So it'd be like advertising a car that can accelerate to 60mph faster than any other, but will never go faster than 65mph.
You can hold my BlackBerry any way you want and it wont lose signal. You're a liar Steve.
+1
I just tried again. I can hold my moto droid in such a way that completely covers where the antenna is said to live and it doesn't drop even one bar. I can even sandwich it between my two hands and still not have any issue. So Mr. Jobs you are full of ****.
My Dash also works any way i hold it. Amazing little feature that is.
My Dash also works any way i hold it. Amazing little feature that is.
LOL!
It's no worse than any other phone? It's certainly not better either...
haha, you get what you pay for I guess.
Steve Jobs is just doing what we all know he excels at. It's just business as usual.
heh, Maybe we should cover Steve Jobs in rubber and see if that fixes him.
Apple did bring up a good point only 0.55% were reported to AppleCare. I am just curious and ask those on here that have been complaining about the problem since day one. Did you contact AppleCare about the issue? Reason I am saying this, is that if more people were to have made it known to them, things may have turned out different, moaning on a forum will not solve the issue.
That is pretty much a useless statistic. How many are actually going to dial a 1-800 number when the issue & apple's stop-gap 'solution' is well known all over the web. Most people must have just read the news/forum and expected Apple to deliver a full fix since it effects so many people.
That is pretty much a useless statistic. How many are actually going to dial a 1-800 number when the issue & apple's stop-gap 'solution' is well known all over the web. Most people must have just read the news/forum and expected Apple to deliver a full fix since it effects so many people.
Spot on. My own Samsung Moment has some issues with data lock-up if you use WiFi for a while and then turn it off. Not consistently so, but it's something frequently brought up in forums (and an issue some of the hackers want to address). I've encountered it a handful of times, and I admit it's frustrating. But I've never once actually spoken to anyone at Samsung or Sprint about it.
I've long thought that people like being unhappy. It's actually easier to be unhappy and complain than it is to take an active role in pursuing a solution. I don't know if it's just laziness. It could be a result of putting effort into similar things in the past and having zero luck. No doubt we're used to feeling pretty helpless when it comes to our wireless carriers. The idea of trying to approach them for support for anything less than a dead phone leaves most of us with a feeling of dread, hah.
You have 30 days to decide whether or not you love your phone. After that, see you in 11 months.
Awesome, you get what you pay for from this company it seems LOL. They offer a short term band aid, and hope you will keep the phone long enough that when the long term effects start to affect you, it will be too late to do anything but upgrade to their next POS non-working-phone-iphone. Have fun dumping your money into this douches wallet ,guys, cause everything has been explained and exposed, and it's only you who will have to put up with this crap.
Steve Jobs is the biggest con man for all time.
In this day and age, we no longer have Bonny's and Clyde's. We have Enrons, Banks, and Apples. The new mobsters, suckering peoples money with new tactics.
+1
The man is like a, little boy who thinks he can never do wrong or care for any problems but himself. Steve has a way of marketing so well, and people believe him. Apple will crash and burn, just like in the 90´s. MS will laugh and so will I. Steve Jobs I present to you the slow and painful death of Apple Inc. It may be far away but its creeping up.
+1
The man is like a, little boy who thinks he can never do wrong or care for any problems but himself. Steve has a way of marketing so well, and people believe him. Apple will crash and burn, just like in the 90´s. MS will laugh and so will I. Steve Jobs I present to you the slow and painful death of Apple Inc. It may be far away but its creeping up.
This time Microsoft wont be there to save their asses.
So they are not actually fixing the problem? Just covering it up with some rubber?
Basically. I guess I'm wrong here, but I REALLY thought Apple's customer relations was better than that... I'm really shocked by their stance on this issue...
bull****, if all phones do this how come the Iphone4 is the first phone to expose this issue? Total bull**** from Steve trying to say that this type of thing has been happening all along and for some reason we just never noticed.
A lot of phones will see the drops in the signal strength when you hold them a certain way. Apple is not wrong with that. My old nokia's manual recommended not to grab the phone by the top (which is kind of a very unusual way of holding the phone).
But apparently the issue with the iphone is much worse, with calls dropping and data connections failing when you touch the weak spot. IMO it's being blown out of proportion because of the crappy reception in the US.
Europeans probably don't notice much.
Juz can't help but wonder why no one blames AT&T for the poor cell infra in States.
I bet iPhone 4 is going to be a big hit in some Asia countries, where the telco cell infrastructure is way better than those in States.
For countries with poor cell infra, even other phones (eg. Nokia) also have 'death grip' problem.
I bet iPhone 4 is going to be a big hit in some Asia countries, where the telco cell infrastructure is way better than those in States.
iPhone is actually a total flop in the big cellphone markets of China & India.
iPhone is actually a total flop in the big cellphone markets of China & India.
Not just in China but the Asia-Pacific region over all; why buy an iPhone when you can choose from the huge number of vendors that Americans don't have - and unlike America, out phones aren't locked to a particular carrier; we can choose what ever phone we want and go with what ever carrier we want.
This story just keeps getting better, nice spin on it Steve...
Good Lord how does a problem like this get past the testing phase...
Good Lord how does a problem like this get past the testing phase...
I read an article that came to the conclusion that the cases they housed the iPhone 4 in during testing to hide the device may have helped it go unnoticed...
Sorry, I mean not to troll, but was Steve speaking or was the stock options having a say?
If you'll start to lie, you'll start with statistics...
From live coverage:
1:
"Antennagate -- Not unique to iPhone"
vs
"iPhone 4 is the best smartphone in the world, and there is no Antennagate"
2:
"We get email from people all over the world about issues. We're really serious about this. We try to figure this out. "
vs
"So what percentage have called AppleCare? 0.55% Just one half of one percent."
(After deleting forum post about the issues and burning out customer care call logs)
3:
"We're an engineering company. We think like engineers". Yeah you TRY to think LIKE engineers.
What a shame that Apple started to suck more and more everyday.
"No worse than any other"... Is that supposed to justify the issue? Sigh...
"No worse than any other..." It's just a sentence he said amongst a lot of them. He's talked about the whole issue itself a lot if you follow the news. Giving away free bumpers, and investigating the problem, hardware-side, and encouraging people who don't like the phone, to return it.
Are other phone's signals affected by the body and other fluctuations... Yes.
However, is there any phone that be touched or held in a consistent way that drops calls... No.
This is Steve being disingenuous with facts.
Apple consumers too often let flaws be overlooked because they are Apple products, and this will also be dismissed by the majority of users.
Well done Steve
Shares up by 0.6% already 
Am I the only one that noted that "Speckles" has only 27 posts, no information on their profile and joined July 13th? Ummm...Steve, buddy, quit trolling the Windows boards. Your Apple iVista 4 phone is a POS. Take care of your customers...bottom line.
This means that apple will update the iPhone 4 after the 30th of September.
Actualy Steve Fail Jobs your Phone is actualy worse than others and at least the others are willing to fix any problems unlike you which only makes excuses instead of being smart and fix the problem.
Fiery hot issue and also the in-denial Apple Fan boys. Shame on Apple along with SJ
Yeah, Steve? Your phone is no worse than anyone else's phone? Then why do you CHARGE SO MUCH for yours? I thought Apple products "demanded" a high price because of their QUALITY.
Maybe you should ship strips of iDuct-Tape with the phones, for 29.99 also. The fanboys out there would be standing in line so you could continue to shake your head and say SUCKERSSSS!!! and laugh all the way to the bank.
Yes... Maybe some phones drop signal then holding a corner, but.... none goes down so badly.
Some might have drop call, but its it all the time, or 1 out of 100 times?
Steve Jobs is just lying to people...
The thing I would have asked was, on the market of smart phone is there any other that can have its signal decimated by a single finger (I have one and can do that)?
have some balls ,, steve jobs !! accept that u blew up!!
The sad thing is, a lot of people will probably believe what jobs said as the truth.
I have to admit of all the phones ive owned and supported in a work capacity (nokia, iphone, blackberries etc etc) not one lose a signal when you hold a phone to make a call, what a fool that man is (lets deflect the negative issue from apple and claim everyone else does the same so its not an issue....err ok you ****), I cant think of any other company who could spin it in their favour for a defective product released to market, he has balls of brass,
one thing he cant deny or comment on is how this made it through their QA process before release, to me that shows they really dont give a chuff about their userbase and perhaps they rushed it out to generate more income for this financial qtr????
"We're an engineering company. We think like engineers". What poppycock, engineers would have raised this issue and resolved it before releasing the device to the QA dept for approval and release to the final Beta testing/release to market.
My Nokia 3300 has no signal drop no matter which way I hold it, and this was one of Nokia's first "internal" antenna phones, from what, 10 years ago I think?
Steve Jobs is a great bullshatter.
I really wanted to type a response but I realised it's not really worth it. Apple users will continue to live in denial and love to mock other platforms to feel better even though Windows 7 crashed every competitor and Android is catching up with the iPhone really fast
Here check this out apple haters. , if you don't like the iPhone 4 don't buy it simple as that ,give it a rest already ...http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=969750
I don't see why people make such a big deal out of it. You have to hold it a specific way (touching black band) and do it for 20-30 seconds to totally lose connection. Just don't do it? if you feel the band, slide your finger up. People bitch and moan as if it makes the phone completely useless. Sure it's a design flaw, but it doesn't render it useless.
It's like people constantly sniffing bad smells. If you don't like it, stop smelling it. If touching the black band makes you lose bars, don't do it.
Thats what I took away from the press conference. They have a problem, a bad one, and they admitted it. Other phones have similar problems, although not as bad. If you don't want it to happen, use a case or just don't touch the black band. If thats too much for you, return it.
It's like people constantly sniffing bad smells. If you don't like it, stop smelling it. If touching the black band makes you lose bars, don't do it.
Thats what I took away from the press conference. They have a problem, a bad one, and they admitted it. Other phones have similar problems, although not as bad. If you don't want it to happen, use a case or just don't touch the black band. If thats too much for you, return it.
+1 right on!!
The issue is rather, at least for me, that they went from "There is no problem with reception" to "The problem is the software algorithm" to "Yes, there is a problem, but you'll get free bumpers to". It's obvious they knew about it all along and deliberately lied to us.
duplicate
i wish this idiot company would implode and go away. Actually no, it's the idiots that buy this crap that need to stop.
iPhone 5: We will add an expendable antenna feature? Remember the days when you could pull your antenna out for better reception? Guess what, those days are back!
Trying hard to drop my HD2's reception with no luck. I feel that my device isnt up to Apple standards