Apple has announced it will give all new and existing iPhone 4 owners a free bumper case to solve the much-hyped “death-grip” problem. And if you’ve already purchased this case, Apple will reimburse you.
At a press conference on Friday, Apple’s Steve Jobs pointed out that the iPhone 4 is far from being the only phone that suffers from reception problems when held in a certain way. Jobs said the company actually knew about the drop in bars during testing the iPhone 4 and didn’t think it would be a problem as it s a common problem among smartphones.
Playing a video that showed a variety of phones’ signal strength dropping when held in a certain way, it’s not hard to see why Apple isn’t viewing this as a huge deal. With all the interest and stories about the antenna problem the iPhone 4 was experiencing, it was inevitable that the company would need to address the problem, which is just what it did on Friday.
The free bumper offer will apply until September 30, 2010. At which time Apple says it will re-examine the situation. Whether this means the company plans a hardware fix isn’t clear. With the iPhone 4 set to hit an additional 17 countries on July 30, Apple is no doubt hoping the free bumper offer will help generate some positive press to offset the recent negative coverage.
Published on July 21, 2010
