14 DAY TRIAL // Apple is planning to offer a free Bumper or a third party case for iPhone 4 owners experiencing antenna issues. The company suggested that the move was just so that customers are assured Apple is doing everything it can so that they are “happy”, and dismissed claims that its new phone actually has a big issue with wireless reception.
"We're going to send you a free case,” Steve Jobs said, during Friday’s press conference. “We can't make enough bumpers. No way we can make enough in the quarter. So we're going to source some cases and give you a choice." Customers will be able to just pick an item from the Apple Store and have the company ship one over to them.
Up until the July 16 event, Apple refused to issue free Bumpers to affected customers. Earlier this month, a leaked internal document allegedly instructed AppleCare staffers to say nothing about Apple giving away free Bumpers. Pressed by the likes of Consumer Reports to provide some kind of compensation to those plagued by the so-called “grip of death”, Apple now conceded to hand everyone a free Bumper, or a case that covers the phone’s external antenna.
Apple’s CEO also revealed that white iPhones are set to ship at the end of the month, noting that his company is also aware of a problem afflicting the phone’s proximity sensor. A firmware update is scheduled to arrive soon, packing the fix. At the end of the month, the iPhone 4 is scheduled to ship in 17 more countries, while the launch in South Korea has been postponed.
Ending his speech, Steve Jobs emphatically stated: "We love our users", he stressed. "They reward us by staying our users. […] We do this because we love our users, and if we screw up, we pick ourselves up and we try harder. And when we succeed, they reward us by staying our users. We take this really personally. Maybe we should have a wall of PR people keeping us away from this stuff, but we don't, we take it really personally. So we've worked the last 22 days on this trying to solve the problem. And we think we've gotten to the heart of the problem."
As of now, Apple is no longer selling Bumpers through its web site. Details on how to order a free Bumper or case will be available soon, the company said.