Apple's Death Grip Solution: Free Bumpers And Cases To All

Starting out directly by aiming at the iPhone 4's infamous "Death Grip" situation by kicking off the event with the "iPhone 4 antenna song" music video, Steve Jobs took the stage at Apple's press conference earlier today in Cupertino; promising to answer the longstanding questions about the iPhone 4's antenna dilemma.

"You know, we're not perfect. We know that, you know that. And phones aren't perfect either," Jobs said, after noting the record sales and the popularity of the iPhone 4. "But we want to make all of our users happy. If you don't know that about Apple, you don't know Apple. We love making our users happy. We've been working on this for just 22 days," Jobs said, suggesting that "Antennagate" caught Apple off guard the same way it caught everyone else as well. Jobs said that Apple "first learned that this doesn't just happen to the iPhone. Nokia, Motorola and other phones have this issue..." while citing internal tests (for some reason YouTube clips weren't adequate). He demonstrated how the BlackBerry Bold 9700 and the Samsung Omnia II similarly lose bars when held improperly, basically trying to make it clear that the iPhone 4 wasn't alone in the world of Death Grips.

This is life in the smartphone world. Phones aren't perfect. It's a challenge for the whole industry. Every phone has weak spots

"We had a reporting error," Steve Jobs said, finally bringing up the algorithmn and showing off the highly advanced $100 million facility in which the iPhone 4 was tested and re-tested over and over again. "We screwed up on our algorithm. Some of these other phones may be too generous. Our choice was to put the correct algorithm in. And we did that with the new update. You'll still see a drop as we haven't figured out a way around the laws of physics yet." He went on to note that "just one half of one percent" of iPhone 4 users have actually complained about the Death Grip, implying that the problem of the media going crazy over the issue was a bigger problem than the antenna issue itself. Comparing it to the iPhone 3GS, Jobs revealed that "in the early days of the iPhone 3GS, return rates were 6%, So for the iPhone 4, you think half the people must be returning their phones with what you read online. Well it's 1.7%, less than a third of the 3GS returns."

Jobs did admit (barely) to not being perfect either, indicating that While Apple believes the iPhone 4 is superior to the 3GS antenna, it actually drops more calls per 100 than the 3GS. "We're being transparent," he said, observing that the exact dropped call data can't be revealed as its within AT&T's discretion to withhold that info from competitors. But... "This is hard data... the iPhone 4 drops less than one additional call per 100 than the 3GS. Less than one." Here is what he said exactly about the issue:

Now when we look at this data, it's hard to escape the conclusion that there is a problem, but that problem is affecting a very small number of users.

So the big question arose: What is Apple going to do to try and resolve the big issue?

Steve Job's answer: iOS 4.0.1 (which was released JUST yesterday) AND.... free bumpers for all!

Here is what he said about the ordeal:

We think this has been so blown out of proportion. It's fun to have a story, but it's not fun on the other side. So here's what we're going to do to make our users happy. The first part is the software update, that fixes the way the bars report and other bugs, that's out now. Second, people said the bumper fixes everything... 'why don't you give everybody a case'? Okay -- we'll give you a free case.

Adding...

If you got one, we'll give you a refund.

For those of you wondering about what will happen if there aren't enough bumpers, he addressed that issue as well:

We're going to send you a free case. We can't make enough bumpers. No way we can make enough in the quarter. So we're going to source some cases and give you a choice. And if you're not happy, you can bring the phone back. We'll give you a full refund within 30 days. No restocking fee. We want to make everyone happy, and if we can't make you happy we'll give you a full refund.

To top it all off, Jobs mentioned that these cases will be shipped to you and the ability to order one will start late next week. Nearing the end of the conference Jobs mentioned news of the White iPhone 4 being available at the end of July. Hoping that the white iPhone 4 will be the biggest news from now on as opposed to more "Death Grip" situations. If reading all about it isn't enough, you can watch a video of the press conference which is now posted on Apple's site. Stay tuned for more info on the topic by following us on Twitter and/or subscribing to our RSS feeds.