There has been no video of the big Apple announcement today but here’s what it comes down to. Jobs said the issue with the antenna is one that affects all smart phones with antennae. He showed video of similar loss of signal problems affecting Blackberries and Android phones and made a point of emphasizing that no phone is perfect. He then moved on to stats about how few returns and complaints they’ve had about the iPhone 4 and it’s issues.
And then he got into the bumpers. Something like 80% of iPhone 3GS customers had cases on their phones, in part because the case for the 3G will also fit the 3GS. But only 20% of iPhone 4 customers left the store with a case because it had to be a different case for the different shape of the phone. And as we know, the case prevents this problem of dropped calls.
So Jobs said that starting late next week, anyone who has bought an iPhone 4 will be able to get a free case. If you’ve already bought a case, you’ll get a refund on the case you’ve bought. This offer will be available until September 30. I’m still not clear if phones sold after that date will have a hardware correction or what. So that’s the news. We’re talking about it on Monday’s show.
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