Q: Are you doing anything else to address the issue? Perhaps changing hardware?
A: You know, the 3GS has the same problem. We're getting reports from customers that this is better than the 3GS. So I don't know changing the antenna design would help -- I don't know what our next antenna design will look like.
Q: I can't get my Bold to drop right now, maybe you can show me how to do it?
A: You may not see it in certain areas.
Q: You showed people almost covering the entire phone in their hand, but on the iPhone 4 it can happen with just a touch. Can you explain that difference?
A: When you touch the phone, you put yourself between the signal and your phone, so when you touch that spot you can attenuate the signal, and if you grip it with your whole hand, you can attenuate it even more. We don't build phones with an antenna on top...
Q: Were you told about the design before the phone was released?
A: Are you talking about the Bloomberg article? That's a crock, and we've challenged them to show proof that that. If anyone had said this thing has problems, we would have dispatched people to deal with that issue.
Q: Are you willing to make an apology to investors?
A: You know we hear from customers who love this phone and have a great experience with it, and we're doing a lot to help them with any issues they're seeing. To investors, you know, you invest in the company we are, so if the stock goes down $5... I don't think I owe them an apology.
Q: Do you think you're making users choose between form and function?
A: No, we strive to do both. For instance, we make the phone smaller, so it fits well in your pocket... the Retina Display... it's like a fine printed book, it blows away other displays. It costs a little more, but we made it work. The iPhone 4 is an exterior antenna, so it doesn't live inside the case, we have a larger battery for better battery life. We try to have our cake and eat it too, we try to have great design and great performance.
Q: Will there be refunds for AT&T contracts?
A: I believe so, yes.
Q: Is there anything you could have said in the launch keynote to lower expectations?
A: Not really. We could have said "hey if you hold the phone in this certain way you might see some signal attenuation..." We're human. We make mistakes, and we figure it out fast. That's why we have the best and most loyal customers in the world.
Q: On the September 30th date, is that to let people know that you'll have to buy a case?
A: Not really, we'll reevaluate then. Maybe we'll have a better idea. Maybe Eminem will come out with a band-aid that goes over the corner and everyone will want that.
Q: Will the refund include third party cases?
A: There's a very small number of third party cases out there. So no.
Q: Well it's interesting, there aren't any cases out there, and it's hard to get cases now. If the third party case buyers can produce a receipt, why not give them one?
A: It's really simple, if we tell people what our next product is, they stop buying our current products. Sometimes websites buy stolen property and they get out there... and case makers have a history of showing off their new cases for our new products. The case vendors haven't had a history of helping to keep our work under wraps.
Q: Do any of you use the cases? I don't.
A: Well I don't. And I get better reception, I hold it like this [death grip] and never see problems.
Q: Is there a hardware redesign in this generation that could fix this problem?
A: You can go on the web and look at pictures of Nokia phones that ship with stickers on the back that say "don't touch here" -- you can go on YouTube and see these. We should you three phones today, all good phones. So right now the state of the art of the entire industry is that no one has solved this problem. Would I like Apple to be first? Yes. Can we make it better right now? Maybe, we'll see.
If you want to downgrade your device, for one reason or another, you in for a fight form Apple. Luckily, though, Saurik hosts his own firmware certificates that will fool iTunes into thinking that your downgrade is accepted.
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