Responding to negative press, irate bloggers and flighty investors, Apple will hold a press conference Friday to address, in some unspecified way, the controversy over its antenna on the iPhone 4.
Some users and, more critically, Consumer Reports, say that the otherwise much-lauded device drops calls if a user's hand covers the lower-left corner of the wraparound stainless-steel antenna, as we
re-reported yesterday.
The Merc News' John Boudreau writes that Apple
reportedly will apply a nonconductive coating to the iPhone 4 to reduce the reception problems. If it repairs or recalls existing units, RBC Capital Markets estimates a cost of as much as $900 million
to Apple -- with an additional $200 million tacked on every week the problem is unresolved.
In the Wall Street Journal, Yukari Iwatani Kane reports that a recall is unlikely since the
problem doesn't affect safety and only occurs for some users in certain situations. But, she writes, Apple could decide to give away its $29 rubber case, solving the problem for $1 to $5 per phone.
The larger issue, though, is the price being paid by "the brand image Apple has so carefully built up" as the controversy festers.
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All this said, it should be pointed out that there is
still three-week wait for the device, which is already in the sweaty, antenna-blocking palms of 1.7 million consumers.
Read the whole story at San Jose Mercury News, The Wall Street Journal »