Customers who were able to get their hands on one have been complaining about losing reception and dropped calls.
"I love my new iPhone 4 (nice work) but when I put my hand on the steel bands I lose all reception," an emailer with an Arizona State University account emailed to Jobs. "It appears to be a common issue. Any plans to fix this?”
Apple chief executive Steve Jobs responded, “Just avoid holding it that way.”
Apple has conceded that there are in fact reception issues with the new iPhone, namely, if you cover the bottom-left corner of the phone and bridge the gap between the notch there with your skin, you can see the signal fading.
The company has suggested costumers move their hand position or get a case which covers that part of the phone.
Apple’s official company statement said, “Gripping any mobile phone will result in some attenuation of its antenna performance, with certain places being worse than others depending on the placement of the antennas. This is a fact of life for every wireless phone. If you ever experience this on your iPhone 4, avoid gripping it in the lower left corner in a way that covers both sides of the black strip in the metal band, or simply use one of many available cases.”
Spencer Webb of AntennaSys told PCMag.comthat the iPhone 4 has two symmetrical slots in the stainless frame and if they’re shorted out by a hand, the antenna performance will suffer.
“There is no way around this, it's a design compromise that is forced by the requirements of the FCC, AT&T, Apple's marketing department and Apple's industrial designers, to name a few,” Webb said.