Apple iPhone 4 recall?

Cnet reports that a newspaper named the Daily Mail accidentally quoted a fake Steve Jobs Twitter account as saying that there would be an iPhone 4 recall.

While they didn't quote the real Steve Jobs, with the many early reports of reception problems, and the need to hold the iPhone a certain way, this brings up an interesting point: What will it take to have an iPhone 4 recall?

iPhone 4 recall - the iPhone 4 reception problem

If you didn't see Apple's comments the other day, they did make a statement about the iPhone 4 reception problem:

"Gripping any 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 Phone 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."

Really?

Really??

Apple iPhone 4 recall and marketing spin

Stuff like this is why I could never work for a marketing department. Where I'd want to say something like, "Hey, 99% of our phone is really great, but it looks like we missed this reception problem. We apologize, and we're working on it." Instead, a marketing person wants to say, "No, the emperor has clothes on", or in this case, "Our phone is fine, you're just holding it wrong."

(Which makes me wonder, isn't anyone at Apple left-handed? Steve JobsJonathan Ive? The guy in the bar? And what about Apple's business philosophy and mission statement, where Tim Cook says, "we have the self-honesty to admit when we're wrong"?)

Okay, let's assume what the marketing guy said is true to some extent, but have you ever had a problem holding a cellphone before? Personally, I've never had a problem like this. Call me crazy, but I've managed to switch a cellphone from my left hand to my right hand (during the middle of a phone call!), and back again, without losing any calls because of the way I held my phones.

iPhone 4 recall and the "death grip"

I look forward to all the pictures from people holding the iPhone 4 in bizarre ways, or seeing how many iPhones are damaged when people drop them as they try to "avoid gripping it in the lower left corner in a way that covers both sides of the black strip in the metal band".

Some people are reporting that this is a software problem, and if so, I hope Apple comes out with a software patch asap. Otherwise, I wonder, how many consumer complaints will it take to have an iPhone 4 recall?