Amidst all the issues and hype over the iPhone 4′s antenna problem, Apple have come out strong with the surprise press conference. So I’m going to go through what I see in this, and what was said

Make no mistake, I am posting this not as an apple fanboy, nor as an apple aficionado, whilst I very much like Apple and it’s products, I don’t hold a loyalty to any particular operating system or device. I have an iPhone because it fits my life in the way I want it to. I have a Mac because I’m using it to learn Mac OS for later support roles that might approach me and it has great UNIX and SSH capabilities which are essential for me and my web server, I have an iPad because I like to sit on the couch and browse the web and I didn’t need a keyboard, it fits me. It fits me perfectly. I use Windows 7 in work, Linux, Windows and Mac at home but I have an appreciation of Apple products which I firmly believe are well thought out

First and foremost lets make one thing clear. As much as other blogs and news journalists would have you believe, the iPhone is NOT the only smartphone in the world with this problem. Granted it may seem slightly worse on the iPhone because of the external antenna but believe me, it really isn’t as bad as you might think it is. I can, and have been able to replicate this on a Nokia N series phone, a Blackberry 8800, my iPhone 3G and my iPhone 3G S. It happens on all of them.

With a look on his face that had all the signs of deep emotion, embarrassment, regret and remorse Steve Jobs got up on stage and publicly admitted that it had a problem, that they are and have been working on it, and they have fixes in the works

I am no psychologist, but even I could see a look on Steve’s face that is reminiscent of sadness, regret, humiliation and to some degree, anger. It has been speculated that, because Apple don’t like to reveal their products until they release them, that when testing in the great outdoors, the phone is always in a case, so it’s entirely plausible that field test engineers did not see the signal dropout issues that everyone is raving about

On the other hand, apple tested this in their specially built labs. Even I can see that Apple may have overlooked something here, but on closer examination, if your holding the phone to your head naturally, are you really going to grip that antenna band? Given the way your fingers part naturally, it’s likely that in their testing, they held the phone naturally, and found no loss. It is impossible to gauge everyones ‘grip’ but it is conceivable that in ergonomics testing, they could have overlooked this.

At todays conference, Steve said “We have been working our butts off for 22 days”. In engineering and software terms, 22 days is not much. On stage it was very evident that Steve was pleading with the audience, absolutely begging them to realise that they really have been working as hard as they could and that they needed a chance. Given what I said before about testing, it is plausible that Apple genuinely did overlook this, and that they have indeed been working flat out for 22 days. In engineering, and software programming terms, it really is a short space of time and the fact that Apple have already found an issue and have released a software fix is really quite impressive, especially when your changing code in the core of the operating system.

The fact is that yes, Apple did overlook something. That much is clear and it’s very clear that Steve Jobs agrees with that. The fact is as well that Apple have realised their mistake, and they are doing what they can to put this right. The other fact, is that because it’s Apple, the press have jumped on the bandwagon and as Steve said, it’s been blown out of all proportion. Apple have proven that this isn’t isolated to the iPhone 4. The press need to calm down.

Apple has also always maintained that they are still a ‘startup’. Despite the fact it’s a huge multi national company. Apple has also always maintained that they will remain personal to their customers, and today I believe they did just that. Unlike some companies, Apple has reacted quickly, the CEO has stood up on stage and publicly admitted fault, and said what they are going to do to fix it.

So here is what they are going to do to fix it
- Continually work on the problem
- They’ve already released a software update to help fix the issue>
- They are giving a free bumper case to anyone with an iPhone 4 and will refund the price of anyone who has purchased one>
- They are waiving restocking fees so that if you do want to return the phone, you can

Thats a pretty major investment on the case front. A couple of million easily. Waiving restocking fees? Thats quite a big amount as well. Would other companies have done this? I don’t know, but I do think if another company did have this issue they would be taking a lot longer to deal with this.

I personally feel that Apple has acted responsibly, and acted as quickly as they could. Pulling a press conference off is no easy feat, and it’s not cheap either. Arranging this much in a short space of time, is also very hard to do.

Fanboy or not, Apple has shown itself in more ways than one. They’ve shown that they are affected by this, and taking proactive steps, they’ve taken action, which is going to cost them money and publicly stated that there is a problem, that alone is going to cost even more in sales revenue. Yes, Apple made a mistake, however they admitted to it, and are doing what they can to fix it. As well as all of this, Steve reportedly came back from a vacation to deal with this. Steve was also visibly shaken, embarrassed and unhappy. It’s absolutely fair what Steve said about it being “Blown Out Of Proportion”.

I do not personally believe that any other company would have responded in this way, and as well as Apple have, and whilst this is going to leave a black mark on Apple’s file for some time to come, and no doubt there will be utter idiots who don’t read the full story and don’t realise that this can happen on just about any phone, but I’ve a feeling Apple is going to come out strong from this.