0.55% return rate.
The iPhone 4's reception "problems"—which it clearly shares with other phones—obviously aren't the massive problem the media like to imply. (That amounts to 16K customers out of 3 million. Not a tiny number, but given that this includes customers who have reported *any* reception issues, it's fair to assume that spotty coverage problems are also included in this figure.)
Frankly, I've never had decent reception from *any* of my smartphones in poor signal areas. (And I'm not just talking about my parents' place in Italy's countryside; there are still places in *London* with shocking coverage.)
And Nokia can seriously STFU about their oh-so-superior approach to design, because NONE of the Nokia phones I've owned have ever been that great in the reception stakes—and their charge indicators are worse than useless too, sticking resolutely to "maximum" until the charge has dropped *way* down, often leaving me stranded with a dead phone. Good design my arse.
Yes, the iPhone 4's signal degrades if you hold it a certain way. No, it's not a problem unique to the iPhone 4. Seriously: why the hell aren't Nokia, LG, Samsung and HTC being pilloried for this "problem" too? Could it be because it's now fashionable to 'bash' Apple and punish them for being pretty good at industrial design and marketing. Last time I checked, neither was a crime, and nobody's *forcing* you to buy their stuff.
I do not own an iPhone myself, but I've seen no *concrete* evidence to suggest it'll give me any worse performance and reception than any of the others I've owned over the years. Just lots of hearsay, shoddy reporting, and incessant whining from a tiny, tiny minority who barely represent *half a percent* of all iPhone 4 customers. This is therefore only a "major, widespread problem" for incredibly small values of "major" and "widespread".
Enough already! Apple has *actual* issues that are more worthy of criticism and debate; for a company so focused on design, iTunes and the increasingly fragmented "iStores" should be a massive embarrassment. The Apple TV has also performed poorly.
And that's just Apple. What about Microsoft's seeming inability to capitalise on its mammoth resources and R&D? Is it becoming the next Xerox PARC?
There's plenty of genuine news and analysis for the taking, but hardly anyone seems to be doing it.