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Apple's Free iPhone 4 Case Program to End September 30th
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Who decides? Me. I'm the customer.
"for the most part" & "for most people" - Enough said really.
Each customer decides by buying the stuff they think is worth the asking price. And not buying the stuff they decide isn't. Every customer can decide for themselves and come to their own individual conclusion.
If more customers decide a product is worth it than the manufacturer can profitably produce, then the product is an absolute success. Doesn't matter how many billions of people don't think so, because there's not enough product to sell them anyway, no matter what their opinion is.
But it's been good for comedy - how many times have you heard "you're holding it wrong" or a variation of that?
October 1. 2010 Apple silently releases the iPhone4+
I'll upgrade from my 3GS then, and I still will buy a bumper. I always have a case of some kind
I'll upgrade from my 3GS then, and I still will buy a bumper. I always have a case of some kind
Umm..I just bought a pair of sneakers from Walmart for $10. I can buy a Livestrong wristband for $1 in a 100 pack, and most of that goes to charity. You're telling me that those bumpers cost $10 to make? You're out of your mind. When you're producing these things somewhere in China at hundreds of thousands at a time, they cost pennies to make. Apple's gross margin on them is downright ridiculous.
Wrong. Plus you have to include development costs as well.
Sorry but they don't cost pennies to make.
I bought the iPhone 4 on day 1. This really has been a non-issue for me. Never noticed any dropped calls.
I was happy to get a full refund for the bumper though.
I was happy to get a full refund for the bumper though.
I got a case even though I didn't have any issues. I guess it works for Apple to stop the program.
I just don't like the screen touching a table or something directly and the bumper helps with that. Also helped protect my phone against a dozen drops onto the sidewalk when I first got it.
I just don't like the screen touching a table or something directly and the bumper helps with that. Also helped protect my phone against a dozen drops onto the sidewalk when I first got it.
I find it hard to believe that it is as 'small' a problem as they claim.
I can, any time, even right now with full bars, actually DROP calls by touching the bands. I've done it, many many times, and when you do it by accident it's very frustrating. It has nothing to do with grip, or sweaty hands or anything, I can barely touch the two bands together to drop the bars to nothing and end calls.
Lucky for apple, I use a case regardless, which came in the mail last week finally, so the problem is resolved for me.
I can, any time, even right now with full bars, actually DROP calls by touching the bands. I've done it, many many times, and when you do it by accident it's very frustrating. It has nothing to do with grip, or sweaty hands or anything, I can barely touch the two bands together to drop the bars to nothing and end calls.
Lucky for apple, I use a case regardless, which came in the mail last week finally, so the problem is resolved for me.
Honestly there wasn't much damage at all. If anything a glancing blow that Apple spun well to educate that the "more bars" bull that some carriers use has no quantitative value.
To this day, there is no widely adopted standard to what these "five bars" actually mean. It is a graphic concept that has a semi-official recognition of the CTIA but nothing that is enforceable. It like like the infamous Spinal Tap line "It goes to eleven." It is just a symbol that has no regulated quantitative meaning.
As seen so far, none of the major carriers wants a quantitative signal quality unit displayed outside professional network analysis equipment. Thus, we are stuck with "more bars" and "less bars" where you might well look at tea leaves to determine network quality.
You have to be a Chevy man. Ford in fact is the most healthy of all the American car manufacturers. They didn't need a government bail out. They have very good earning over the past few years and they have a great product line from sub-compact economy cars to full sized trucks.
At times, I swear this board lowers to the level of just a bunch of monkeys throwing their dung at people cause they didn't get laid the night before.
people who actually own an iphone 4 should be the people to talk about how much the atenna is bothering them.
I own one and i don't get the issue with or without the bumper because i don't grip my phone that hard when i hold it
I'm still a proponent that there is a "sociopath personality" detection device in the iPhone 4 that intentionally screws up reception to keep these jerks away from Apple products. If you have a social and constructive attitude, the phone works for you. If you wear too much black, hang out on /b/ and wear a Guy Fawkes mask to science fiction conventions, it turns off and wants you to go away.
This correlates with my experience as well. Although I can make the signal drop with a death grip (more possible when using my iPhone4 for data or as speakerphone--it's hard to "naturally" hold it that way when held to ear), even WITH the drop, it's a more reliable performer than my old 3GS (and my wife still has her 3GS so I can tell it's not a tower improvement).
Bottom line, even with the problem, it's the best RF performing iPhone that Apple has shipped.
That said, in NYC, SF and (to a lesser extent) Philly, I still see way to many drops, that seem to be little related to signal strength. THAT points to continuing capacity problems by AT&T in high-density areas.
I'm stuck with AT&T with contract commits, but it'll be interesting to see comparative performance on Verizon once that phone ships in January (as I believe it most likely will).
They are NOT updating the hardware because there is nothing wrong with it. As you yourself have seen and testified to.
The issue is one of perception (being that the bars mean squat to actual call quality) and ATT sucks, hard for some folks. They just did the case thing to shut folks up. total PR stunt.
And as you say, even if they tried to do a secret change, every teardown site in the world will be grabbing phones after Oct 1 to see if anything is different and would publish it right away.
Also, the article is wrong. The return policy for iphones in the US has been 30 days no restock since the 3g was released. the change was that they let folks return after 30 days during this 'program' (although there might still be an ETF since that is ATTs thing not Apple)
This article is a little misleading re: the return policy.
This is the only part of the article that I don't understand. Ever since the release of the iPhone 3G the return policy (at least in the US) has ALWAYS been 30 days with no restocking fee. The customer gets 30 days because that's the length of the AT&T contract evaluation period. There is no restocking fee because the phones have to be activated AND opened in store. This was the second notable exception to Apple's 14-day return policy, the first being Bose products (30 days at the request of Bose).*
In fact, the press release from Apple on July 2nd (prior to the announcement of the case program) references their "normal" return policy quite plainly:
The iPhone 4 Case Program website only references a return to the "normal" iPhone 4 return policies, which this July 2nd press release would indicate are the same policies as they currently have.
So why does this article claim otherwise?
*I'm not sure if Bose products still get 30 days, but I would imagine that they do.
This is the only part of the article that I don't understand. Ever since the release of the iPhone 3G the return policy (at least in the US) has ALWAYS been 30 days with no restocking fee. The customer gets 30 days because that's the length of the AT&T contract evaluation period. There is no restocking fee because the phones have to be activated AND opened in store. This was the second notable exception to Apple's 14-day return policy, the first being Bose products (30 days at the request of Bose).*
In fact, the press release from Apple on July 2nd (prior to the announcement of the case program) references their "normal" return policy quite plainly:
The iPhone 4 Case Program website only references a return to the "normal" iPhone 4 return policies, which this July 2nd press release would indicate are the same policies as they currently have.
So why does this article claim otherwise?
*I'm not sure if Bose products still get 30 days, but I would imagine that they do.
so that's it huh? they aren't going to do anything at all after sep 30th? i think my iphone, even with a free case, still loses signal pretty bad
All I ask for is the white one to be released.
Your carrier's fault, not the iPhone's.
Your carrier's fault, not the iPhone's.
sorry my friend.......they do cost pennies to make. I do international manufacturing in china ( importing and exporting ) and simple plastic molds are the easiest products to manufacture. Couple that with a production output in the neighborhood of 10+ million units of bumpers being produced.....i'd bet the actual cost to produce a bumper is between 10-20 cents a piece. Develpoment for something like this would probably cost about $2500. Thats for tooling and molding applications......its very cheap to do.
If my professional input doesnt satisfy peoples curiosity into the cost to manufacture a plastic bumper for a few cents. Go on ebay and buy one for $1.99 with free shipping from china. They sure as **** aint losing money on the transaction, otherwise they wouldnt be selling it at that price.
noupf said:
I've used the 2 dollar rubber bands and the apple bumper. The bumper is built way better. It's a combination of rubber and hard plastic plus metal buttons instead of just rubber bulges for volume and the hold switch.
Those bands might cost pennies but the bumper is built about as well as other 20 or 30 dollar cases that people have been buying happily for years.
So, y'know, maybe it costs a buck to produce, instead...