Stop making excuses for not understanding technology.
Consider the following:
Some people can't keep their cars on the road, do we let them blame Ford?
Some people shoot themselves in the foot, do we blame Smith & Wesson?
Some people can't handle alcohol, do we blame the farmers growing the corn or wheat? Or for that matter do we blame Jack Daniels?
Some people smash their thumbs when driving a nail. Do we then blame the nail or the hammer?
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The point is iPhone 4 works fine when used properly just like every other cell phone. Sure there are idiots that can make it fail with regularity, but that is no different than running a car into a ditch and then expecting to drive out. It doesn't matter if you ended up in that ditch on purpose or by accident, sitting there blaming the car serves no useful purpose. Likewise finding a weak point on a cell phone and then dwelling on it as a flaw also serves no useful purpose. There is nothing made by man that is perfect, as such you are far better off focusing on the positive or good than the negative.
Dave
This must be the worst analogy I'ver read in months. For the discussion sake I will explain why.
I buy a phone to use it and I don't want to or need to worry about the way I hold it. Every person holds a phone in a different way and you can't force them to hold it differently. I don't hold my phone in a way that would cause me issues and I do have a bumper and also live in an area with strong signal so I have actually never had a dropped call with my phone nor with 3G one.
On the other hand, I know a lot of people I know hold the phone in a way that cause them to drop signal and eventually calls. You can't blame them for holding it wrong. You just CAN'T! They hold every phone before like that so they won't change it just for this one especially when its not comfortable for them. You buy a product because you want to use it not to think or worry how to hold it for the product to work.
In the early ages antennas were on the top of the phone with actual antenna sticking out of the phone. It was the best place to put them as people wouldn't be holding it there nor would they cover the antenna.
Now, Apple decided this insane thing to put it out and make it unusable for some people. I've actually tried it to hold the phone naked with just two fingers as a lot of people like to hold and the signal is gone in few seconds.
That is a fault in design no matter how you look at it. You can defend it all you want but you won't be able to reason it.
Your analogy is laughable because you are comparing abuse use vs normal use -> two different things.
As I said, I don't have problems with my phone as I have no issues on it but talk to people every day (my job) and I often hear them complaining about it. People love the phone, they just don't want the issue.
So, as someone said - "stop living in a bubble"