Apple gears up for the iPhone 4 Bumper giveaway

Few days after Apple’s promise to distribute iPhone cases dubbed ‘bumpers’ to counteract the ‘death grip’ antenna syndrome, bumpers were removed from the Apple online store  in what appears to be a step towards the logistics of streamlining  and coping up with the demands of an estimated 3 million users worldwide.

In a show of generosity and business acumen last Friday Apple CEO Steve Jobs  acknowledged  the Iphone 4 glitch that caused signal  degrades when the iPhone is gripped in a particular manner and promised to roll out free bumpers to to soften the hysteria over the so called antenna-gate.

Steve jobs was quick to generalize the signal issue hampering iPhone  to a broader domain of smart phones of various brands, an opinion that did not go down well with HTC, Motorola, Samsung and HTC as they retorted by defending their products.

For loyal early adopters of iPhone  history is littered with outcries from an insignificant percentage of users who constantly reported signal issues with different models of iPhone and the OS, but it grew a little louder when IPhone 3GS came out in mid 2009.  However introduction of iPhone 4 mid June 2010 triggered the “death-grip”  frenzy  as forums and video sharing sites were inundated with discussion and demonstration of the alleged iPhone flaw, a claim that looked more legitimate than ever before.

The issue became magnified when American watchdog Consumer Reports came up with report slamming the product. The pressure was mounting with media attention and it was at this juncture  Steve Jobs made the important announcement  at the news conference last Friday.

To Apple’s credit,  iPhone’s aesthetic and user friendly design was too good for the ‘death-grip’ syndrome from deterring iPhone loyalists from embracing iPhone 4.  It also appeared that majority of the iPhone users were unaffected by the signal issue as any excellent network coverage and high signal strength was likely to a mask minor antenna fault.

By pampering die hard iPhone fans with a free case and  addressing disgruntled users as well, Apple seems to have resolved technical issue in a pragmatic manner. However it is yet to be seen how well this goes from an aesthetic perspective as bumpers could be seen as unnatural obtrusion marring the inherent beauty that one associates with the iPhone.

Online News Heard Now,

Arun Arunagiri

Short URL: http://www.onlinenewsheardnow.com/?p=294

Posted by Crazymcnick81@yahoo.com on Jul 21 2010. Filed under Business, Featured, New. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.