Telesite USA

Apple hosts surprise iPhone 4 press conference

July 16, 2010 – 1:55 pm

Apple’s Wednesday announcement that it would be holding a press conference today to discuss the iPhone 4 came only the day before an open letter by Sen. Chuck Schumer lambasting the company for deceiving its customers, and urging it to remedy its business practices. Obviously, this antenna issue has got a lot of people feeling antsy. Will today’s conference alleviate those concerns, or just provide more fodder?The conference, held at Cupertino Town Hall, started at 10:00 in the morning, when hundreds of reporters poured in hoping to see Steve Jobs apologize and instead were treated to a large canvas on which the iPhone Antenna Song was being broadcast. The video was surely intended to lighten the mood, with its reminder that if you’re upset with the iPhone’s capabilities, you don’t have to buy one. Jobs came on after the video and reminded everybody that no one is perfectbut that Apple is darn close, and except for this pesky “Antennagate” thing, everybody who’s got one seems to be satisfied. Obviously, that’s a big exception, but it also served as a reminder that to err is human, and to forgive is divine.Jobs also made it clear that, in his opinion, the iPhone was still the only option for smartphone consumers. Accompanied by videos of Nokia, Motorola, Blackberry, and Droid phones, he claimed that the signal weakness is a problem across the board, but that Apple’s 100 million dollars in antenna testing guarantee that it still provides the best bang for your buck. As far as lost calls go, the iPhone 4′s rates are higher than the iPhone 3′s, but only by 1 call in a hundred. Mathematically that’s an increase of 1.01.What is Apple’s solution? Currently, they don’t have one, except to hold your phone the “correct” way. But as a conciliatory gesture, Jobs is offering free cases to iPhone 4 customers. Will this be enough to stem the hate for now? It remains to be seen, but a little birdie is telling me some people will need more.