wraggster
July 17th, 2010, 21:19
Apple has promised to send a free case to everyone who has purchased an iPhone 4, and will also bundle a case with devices sold between now and September.
The measure was announced at a press conference today, called by Apple after mounting criticism of iPhone 4's antenna issues.
Apple will also refund people who've already bought one of its official 'bumpers' for their iPhone 4, and offer a full refund to anyone who wants to bring back the handset itself.
CEO Steve Jobs apologised to users for the antenna issues, but nevertheless claimed that loss of reception when the handset is held in a certain way is not unique to iPhone 4.
Indeed, one section of the press conference was set aside for showing videos seeming to show the same problem with the BlackBerry 9700, HTC Droid Eris and the Samsung Omnia.
"iPhones aren't perfect," said Jobs. "It's a challenge for the entire industry."
He went on to say that 0.55% of iPhone 4 buyers have called Apple's technical support department to complain about reception issues, and only 1.7% of buyers have returned the handset - compared to 6% for the iPhone 3GS at this stage.
Why is Mobile Entertainment writing about this? Well, app developers have been following antennagate closely - they're judging how to allocate their resources in terms of supporting the iPhone 4's specific features, like its Retina Display and gyroscope.
With that in mind, there was another big stat in the press conference: three million iPhone 4s have been sold so far.
That's the addressable base, although it's too early to tell how antennagate - and today's announcements - will affect the sales rate in the coming months.
Those sales will be boosted by the fact that iPhone 4 is going on sale in 17 more countries on July 30th.
http://www.mobile-ent.biz/news/37874/Apple-promises-free-cases-to-iPhone-4-users
The measure was announced at a press conference today, called by Apple after mounting criticism of iPhone 4's antenna issues.
Apple will also refund people who've already bought one of its official 'bumpers' for their iPhone 4, and offer a full refund to anyone who wants to bring back the handset itself.
CEO Steve Jobs apologised to users for the antenna issues, but nevertheless claimed that loss of reception when the handset is held in a certain way is not unique to iPhone 4.
Indeed, one section of the press conference was set aside for showing videos seeming to show the same problem with the BlackBerry 9700, HTC Droid Eris and the Samsung Omnia.
"iPhones aren't perfect," said Jobs. "It's a challenge for the entire industry."
He went on to say that 0.55% of iPhone 4 buyers have called Apple's technical support department to complain about reception issues, and only 1.7% of buyers have returned the handset - compared to 6% for the iPhone 3GS at this stage.
Why is Mobile Entertainment writing about this? Well, app developers have been following antennagate closely - they're judging how to allocate their resources in terms of supporting the iPhone 4's specific features, like its Retina Display and gyroscope.
With that in mind, there was another big stat in the press conference: three million iPhone 4s have been sold so far.
That's the addressable base, although it's too early to tell how antennagate - and today's announcements - will affect the sales rate in the coming months.
Those sales will be boosted by the fact that iPhone 4 is going on sale in 17 more countries on July 30th.
http://www.mobile-ent.biz/news/37874/Apple-promises-free-cases-to-iPhone-4-users