Apple boss eats humble pie over iPhone glitch
An internet campaign was launched following complaints about the so-called “death grip” – a phenomenon which could see the phone’s signal drop when grasped in the left hand.
But at a press conference at Apple’s base in Cupertino, California, yesterday Jobs promised iPhone 4 customers a free rubber case – which protects the phone’s in-built antenna and cures signal fade – or a full refund.
“We’re not perfect. We know that, you know that,” Jobs said yesterday.
It follows a saga which has rumbled on since the new iPhone 4’s launch last month.
Apple initially responded to signal strength complaints by telling owners of its latest generation iPhone to be mindful of how they hold the handsets.
Two weeks ago Apple issued a statement blaming software and promised a patch.
Jobs also repeated an explanation made previously that Apple had “screwed up” with an algorithm that shows the signal strength on the phone.
But earlier this week an influential American consumer magazine said independent testing proved the phone’s hardware was at fault.
“We were stunned and embarassed” by the Consumer Reports review, Jobs said last night.
Jobs said three million iPhone 4s had been sold since its launch three weeks ago, with only 0.55% of customers reporting problems.
He apologised to users who have been having problems with the iPhone 4 but denied that accusations of “antenna-gate” were accurate.
Numerous smartphones have displayed signal attenuation when held in a certain way, he said.
These “weak spots,” he said, are just a fact of life in today’s smartphone market. “We knew if you gripped it in a certain way the bars ware going to go down a bit just like every smartphone,” he said. “We didn’t think it was going to be a big issue.”
Apple has not “figured out a way around the laws of physics – yet”, Jobs said.
He said only 1.7% of US buyers had returned their iPhone 4 to US carrier AT&T, less than a third of the return rate for the previous model, the iPhone 3GS.
Apple has sold more than 50 million iPhones since the device made its debut in 2007 and Jobs said yesterday that the iPhone 4 was the company’s best-selling model ever.
Mobile phone industry expert Ernest Doku, at Omio.com, said Jobs’s performance at the press conference was enough to restore faith in the brand.
“It was as close to an admission they failed as we are likely to get, and by giving away free cases and offering a refund Apple has managed to come out of this looking like the good guy.”
Meanwhile, the Apple iPhone 4 could well be available in Ireland in the coming weeks, according to mobile operators.
Vodafone said it will launch iPhone 4, which is the thinnest smartphone in the world, in the coming weeks. O2 said although no date has been set it expects the phone to hit the market at the end of this month. Also 3 mobile said it will launch the iPhone 4 in the coming weeks adding that its pricing structure will be “very competitive”.
