I'm sure you've heard the joke that goes something like this:
Patient: Doc, it really hurts when I do this. Can you help me?
Doctor: Don't do that!
Steve Jobs and the Apple minions seem to be taking that approach to customer complaints about the new iPhone 4 and it's signal reception issues. When the iPhone 4 was announced, Mr. Jobs described the integrated antenna as "really cool engineering", but it seems that customers are experiencing severe signal degradation when they hold the phone... yup, you read that right! It seems as though the phone works great if it's not in your hand but if you hold it, particularly in the lower left-hand corner the signal reception drops significantly. I find it really inexcusable to tell a customer who has just paid several hundreds of dollars for your product, and is likely to spend much more over the next several years through their contract and the purchase of apps, that their only option to remedy the issue is to "not hold your phone that way" or to drop more money on a case to insulate the phone from your hand. I also find it interesting that a company known for it's design and quality would not have noticed this through testing. Not a stellar start to the release of this one! Add to it the fact that pre-orders where a total mess and that white iPhone 4's are more difficult to manufacture?
See this BBC article or do a simple google search for more info.
