Apple, the company that has found itself in the limelight over recent weeks for the antenna trouble experienced by some iPhone 4 users, has said that it will hold a news conference this Friday, according to The Wall Street Journal. While the company has kept tight-lipped about the conference, it has acknowledged one thing – that the iPhone 4 will be at the center of attention.
Within hours of the iPhone hitting owners’ doorsteps last month, the reports and YouTube videos showing the then-unconfirmed issue began showing up all over the Internet. The issue came to a head this week when Consumer Reports said it wouldn’t recommned the phone and the R-word – recall – started being heard. Although Apple has said the issue could be found across various cell phone models and was due toa software error in how the phone reported signal strength, the hoopla over the antenna issues has continued to grow. This week, the iPhone 4 debacle (which some are now calling “antennagate”) hit mainstream audiences when it made it on to David Letterman’s Top 10 list.
Now Apple has called a conference to speak with the press. After all, while some have said that the company will get away with nothing less than a full recall, even Consumer Reports confirms that the bumper case offered by Apple “alleviates the iPhone 4 signal-loss problem”. The only sticking point? Consumer Reports thinks that Apple should offer the bumper to its customers for free and not put the onus on the consumer to fix a design flaw.
Many people are offering their predictions of what Apple is going to say at Friday’s 10 a.m. conference in Cupertino, and we’re going to have to agree with Fortune that the company will bring out Steve Jobs to tout all the good points of its latest mobile offering (which, despite not recommending it, Consumer Reports scored better than all other phones on the market) before offering the bumper free to its customers. Apple has released its software fix into the wild, as a beta version for developers, and we’re already hearing that it does nothing to fix the reception issue.
Whatever happens, we’ll be sure to bring you the details tomorrow.
