Apple CEO Steve Jobs speaks at a July 16 press conference held at Apple’s campus in Cupertino, California. PHOTO SOURCE: Apple.com Press Conference video

Speaking in deliberate — and at times passionate, but winded — tones, Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs on Friday delivered a robust response to the so-called “Antennagate”, criticisms raised by some consumers and the media regarding failure of the iPhone 4 antennae signal.

The emergency press conference was held at Apple’s campus in Cupertino, California, after problems surfaced when consumers held the iPhone 4 device in such a way that caused it to appear to lose significant reception — called the “Deathgrip” by Apple’s critics.

“We started getting some reports of people having issues with the antenae system, which is a very advanced new antennae system,” Jobs said. “People were touching, ‘x’ marks the spot, here, and they were seeing a large drop in bars. This has been since dubbed ‘Antennagate’.”

Apple’s top boss said that, while any known product issue is a concern for the company and needs addressed, media reports have greatly exaggerated the extent to which the reception problem exists.

Jobs said the company sold over 3 million devices since the iPhone was launched about three weeks ago. According to Apple’s customer service program, the hard data suggests the problem is not widely impacting users as less than one percent — or 0.55% — of all iPhone 4 users have called about antenna or reception problems.

Apple began receiving reports of antennae problems about twenty-two days ago, Jobs said, and their engineers and scientists have been working to come with a solution to the problem.

“We’ve been working our butts off for the last twenty-two days to understand what the real issues are here, so that we can come up with real solutions,” Jobs said.

The team embarked on an aggressive path of analyzing data, testing and determining what could be learned from the product failure.

It quickly became clear that the problems experienced by a small number of iPhone 4 users were not unique to Apple.

Testing revealed that other smart phones on the market had the same problem — from the Blackberry Bold 9700 made by Rim, the HTC Droid Eris known as the Android Phone, to the Samsung Omnia II Windows mobile phone. These models dropped, respectively, from five to one signal strength bar, four to zero bars, and four to zero bars.

Jobs said all the phones were tested in areas of relatively weak signal strength similar to tests conducted on the iPhone 4.

“This is life in the smart phone world,” the CEO lamented. “Phones aren’t perfect. It’s a challenge for the whole industry, and we’re all doing the best we can. But every phone has weak spots.”

A flaw in Apple’s algorithm used to display signal strength was also identified which may have unintentionally compounded the problem on the iPhone 4.

“We had incorrect bars,” Job explained. “You thought you were dropping from five bars to one bar, when in reality you were probably dropping from two or three bars.”

The company released an updated algorithm on Thursday in the iOS 4 Version 4.0.1 which fixes the bars and an Exchange bug issue.

Jobs said the company was aware of the weak signal vulnerability, as the iPhone 4 was tested in a state-of-the-art antennae test facility that represents a $100 million investment for Apple. There are seventeen anechoic chambers where 18 PhD scientists and engineers conduct fully-automated testing on all the phone models.

“We knew if you gripped it a certain way, the bars are going to go down a little bit, just like every smart phone,” Jobs said.

In addition to the release of the updated software, Apple is giving consumers a free Bumper case, or a refund if they already bought one, for every iPhone 4 purchased through September 30. Consumers can visit the Apple website next week where they will offer a choice of cases.

For those who still aren’t satisfied, Apple is waiving re-stocking fees and will issue a full refund for undamaged phones returned within 30 days.

“There is a problem, but that problem is affecting a very small percentage of users,” Jobs concluded. “I’ve gotten over 5,000 emails from users telling me how their iPhone 4 works perfectly and they can’t figure out what all this is about.”

Jobs said media reports that suggested the problem was much bigger may be fun, but it’s less fun when you’re on the other end of the story and urged the public to understand the scope of the problem.

“But we want to make all of our users happy. If you don’t know that about Apple, you don’t know Apple. We love to make our users happy.

In a less serious moment before the presentation and press conference began, Apple played a popular YouTube video that parodies the iPhone antenna problem.

“If you don’t want an iPhone 4, don’t buy it,” the lyrics say. “If you bought one and you don’t like it, bring it back.”

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