Even though Apple now suddenly claims that the iPhone 4’s antenna problems are even less of an issue than it originally stated, Consumer Reports cannot agree with that statement.
Apple’s comments came yesterday when it announced it would not be extending its offer to give customers a free bumper case. The case wraps around the device to protect the antenna, preventing it from losing reception or dropping calls due to an unintentional “death grip” around the phone. The company has still never admitted any sort of fault for the faulty design of the device.
Consumer Reports wants consumers to know that even though Apple says everything is hunky dory, its stance hasn’t changed.
In a blog post, the customer advocacy group wrote, “Putting the onus on any owners of a product to obtain a remedy to a design flaw is not acceptable to us. We therefore continue not to recommend the iPhone 4, and call on Apple to provide a permanent fix for the phone’s reception issues.”
The entire “antennagate” debacle was blown out of proportion because of Apple’s sheer lack of customer concern. When reports first popped up of calls being dropped just because users held the phone a certain way, Apple CEO Steve Jobs said it was the customers’ fault.
In a later press conference, even though Jobs admitted there were more dropped calls on the iPhone 4 than any other iPhone, he tried to make it sound like there weren’t any problems. It was this stubborn attitude that outraged many people far beyond any actual fault with the phone, and led to the media frenzy that may have actually caused Consumer Reports to change its mind in the first place. CR had nothing bad to say about the Apple device when it first launched.
Apple has not commented on Consumer Reports’ latest statement, probably because it’s too busy counting all the money that the iPhone 4 is still raking in.
