According to Jobs, Apple has received complaints from only 0.55% of customers via Apple Care.  That number probably doesn’t represent the true number of customers affected, since many likely didn’t call Apple Care to report the issue because they already knew nothing was going to fix it for them.  In terms of dropping calls, according to data Apple received from AT&T, compared to the iPhone 3GS, the iPhone 4 drops less than one more call per every 100 calls.  So the iPhone 4 stacks up nicely when compared to previous iPhones.

To show that the antenna issue isn’t unique to the iPhone 4, Jobs demonstrated how he was able to get the BlackBerry Bold 9700, the HTC Droid Eris, and the Samsung Omnia 2 to drop bars by holding them.  Steve claimed that the issue will happen in every smartphone, and that no smartphone is perfect.  He added, “we havenâ€t figured out our way around the laws of physics. Yet.”

After presenting all the data, Steve Jobs announced that Apple will be fixing the problem by letting all users return the phone by September 30, undamaged, if they so choose.  Also, next week Apple will be offering free cases to everyone via the company’s website.  Since Apple has had a hard enough time just keeping the bumpers in stock, Apple will be offering a variety of cases for free to users.  For those who already purchased a bumper, they will be able to get a refund from Apple for their troubles.  To help with the issues with the proximity sensor that we’ve been seeing, Apple claims a fix will be in the next software update.

After the press conference, Apple held a Q&A segment with Steve Jobs, Tim Cook and Bob Mansfield.  During the session, all three men showed that they carry their iPhone 4s bare, without any sort of cases.  Jobs claimed that he gets reception in areas of his house where he didn’t before.  On why there aren’t that many cases available, Jobs said that cases makers have a tendency to leak their designs online, and Apple decided not to share the design of the phone with them before the release to help prevent that.

Full live-blogged coverage of the press conference can be found at GDGT.

If you’ve been on the web or consumed some sort of news in the past two weeks, you probably know about the iPhone 4 “Death Grip,” the reception issue that seems to stem from the phone’s design.  Apple said they’d fix the issue with how signal strength is portrayed on the phone in a new update.  Shortly after, Consumer Reports said it can no longer recommend the phone because of the issue.

Apple sent out the beta of iOS 4.1 to developers today, and of course the claims that it could fix the problems were going to be tested.  Well, it looks like Apple has certainly changed the way the bars are displayed, and has made the first three bars bigger to make them easier to see.  However, the issue isn’t going away with the update.  Placing your hand on the bottom left corner still causes bars to drop, which isn’t terribly surprising given that the problems always seemed to be more of a hardware issue. {Mobile Crunch}

Late on Wednesday, Apple did more than just release a beta of the next OS update.  The company has announced that it will be holding a press conference on Friday morning to discuss the iPhone 4.{NY Times}  There’s no other details about the press conference, but it is a highly unusual move for Apple.  Apple typically has press conferences to announce new products, and those are usually announced at least a week in advance.  Perhaps this could have something to do with the “silent recall” that Gizmodo is reporting.  Or perhaps, as one Mac Rumors forum user has speculated, Apple will announce that it will give current iPhone users Apple Store credit to buy a bumper, and will institute a new return policy for the iPhone 4.  It’s all speculation, but none of it seems too unreasonable.

Of course, this doesn’t mean the iPhone 4 is a terrible phone. Anecdotally, the issue doesn’t seem to affect every iPhone 4 to the same extent (i.e. rendering the phone unusable while holding it). It can definitely be replicated, but some phones do seem to be far less sensitive than others.   But the popularity of the iPhone means that even if 25% of the phones sold have the issue, it still represents a good number of users. Apple’s denial that any problem exists hasn’t helped, but  hopefully after this week the issue will be no more, or at least put aside.  It is starting to become tiresome.

Apple initially issued a statement that all phones have spots on them where holding them will cause signal degradation.  The newest response from Apple reads almost like a parody of the issues.  Apple is now saying that plenty of users are happy with the iPhone 4 and how well it picks up signal over previous versions.  It then goes on to say essentially “yeah, those bars aren’t right, so we’re gonna fix them.”  The claim is that the iPhone 4 as well as the iPhone 3G and 3GS report signal in an inaccurate manner.  The fix then will be to follow AT&T’s guidelines on how the bars should actually work. {Apple}

The fix will come via a software update in the coming weeks, and will apparently show users that where they thought they had great service is probably an area with fairly weak service.  Of course, this doesn’t mean that gripping your iPhone 4 won’t degrade the signal, it probably will, but at least it won’t decrease dramatically according to what Apple is saying.

After having an iPhone 4 since launch, the issue is definitely real.  It’s fairly easy to duplicate the problem that many are showing, even if just as a demonstration.  After buying a recommended Apple bumper, which was recommended (and also adds a nice bit of color) when the issue first arose, the Death Grip is no more.  The phone now gets perfect reception for both the cell network and WiFi (it used to lose one bar) no matter how it’s held.

Still, this points to a design/hardware issue. It’s great that the bumper, or a LiveStrong bracelet as some have found {The iPhone Guru}, can give an uninterrupted connection, but Apple should make it a standard, free part of the package.

After a terrible experience waiting 10 hours in line to buy 2 new iPhone 4â€s, the signal issue is a real problem on both of my phones regardless of how they are held. The two phones only get signal strength laying down untouched for regardless how they are held, the signal goes away. There is a serious issue with the conductivity of the antenna. Also the flash is making the picture blurry or rather non existent at all on both phones. I also have 5 Jawbone bluetooth devices and they keep getting disconnected all the time. Were these phones designed to be used or hung on the “right” wall of my living room ? Will they fall down if I hang them on the left wall ? Do I need rubber gloves to use the phones ? Iâ€m returning both of these devices and Iâ€m a dedicated Apple consumer having previously bought about 16 iPhones, 2 iPads, 8 Mac Books, 4 Mac Airs and countless Ipods. Very dissapointed.

From Val on iPhone 4 Problems Continue, Reception Issues Could Take a Backseat to Privacy Concerns

Do the reception and potential privacy problems of the iPhone 4 make it a dealbreaker for you? Let us know in the comments.