Saturday, September 11, 2010

Apple ending free case program for iPhone 4

From the Master's of the Universe themselves:

"We now know that the iPhone 4 antenna attenuation issue is even smaller than we originally thought. A small percentage of iPhone 4 users need a case, and we want to continue providing them a Bumper case for free. For everyone else, we are discontinuing the free case program on all iPhone 4s sold after September 30, 2010. We are also returning to our normal returns policy for all iPhone 4s sold after September 30. Users experiencing antenna issues should call AppleCare to request a free Bumper case."

Hmm.  Alright.  A brief refresher:  As first reported by Consumer Reports, the new iPhone 4 ran into some pretty serious problems when it turned out that, if you held your iPhone 4 just so on the lower left-hand side, you could degrade the signal and wind up losing a call completely.  Consumer Reports thought the problem was so significant that they didn't recommend the iPhone 4.

Apple responded quickly, holding a press conference and announcing how they were handling the issue - just four days after their initial report, Apple announced that they would give away free bumper cases for the iPhone 4

As you can see, the note from Apple does leave the possibility that they will continue to send cases on an as needed basis.  But, an interesting tidbit:  According to the good folks at Macworld, "An executive with Mexican iPhone carrier Telcel late last month claimed that Apple would be introducing revised iPhone 4 hardware by the end of September to address the antenna issue, but Apple has made no announcements regarding changes to its hardware or manufacturing process."

Here's what I want to know - how many cases were sent out?  Anybody have any ideas? 

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