iPhone 4 Reception Issue: Case Makers Rejoice

The Internet has been flooded by stories of the iPhone 4 having a reception problem when one holds the phone with their hand covering the antennas in the lower quadrant. There are hundreds of videos and articles showing people gripping the phone, which covers the antennas, and the AT&T bars slowly go down and calls being dropped. The way the grip the iPhone is a normal grip, although you have to squeeze a bit to see the problem. People are obviously upset at this issue and Apple has acknowledged it, by saying putting a case on the phone will solve the immediate problem. That is just what case companies wanted to hear.

The iPhone case market has been a jackpot ever since the first iPhone came out in 2007. With people spending $500-600 on their new investment, they obviously wanted to protect their phones. In came the market of cases. Companies had been making cases before the iPhone for other phones, laptops, and mp3 players/ iPods. These cases did exactly what they were meant to do, which is protect your device and not much else. These cases slowly evolved, and the market boom became what it is today. There are hundreds of case manufacturers, most specialize in Apple products, and the cases today bring nifty features and amazing designs that will let your phone stand out in the crowd as well as add some extra features.

With the new antenna problems on the iPhone 4 that has been causing distress to everyone can easily be solved by putting a case on your phone. Apple makes a case that suspiciously only covers the metal surroundings, where the antennas are. Now, I do not think Apple knew about the issue when testing, so I do not think they made their Bumper case just to sell to people to fix this problem. This would be a sly marketing move by Apple to send the iPhone off knowing about the antennas, as this would force customers to buy a case, including their own. The average consumer will buy a case made by Apple rather than searching for a third-party case, so this antenna issue if it is not fixed shortly, will help Apple sell their Bumpers.

Again, while I do not think Apple would meddle with the core of their product just to sell a case, this problem is going to help all the case makers everywhere, at least, until it is fixed. As everyone else sweats over their knew iPhones dropping calls, case makers will be rejoicing as sales numbers increase day after day. This problem will be fixed eventually, but for now let all case makers celebrate!  I would definitely be interested to see any numbers that case makers would be willing to provide since the iPhone 4 launch back on June 24th.