Yesterday, we learned that Apple is in the process of hiring iPhone antenna engineers to help with, what most news outlets assume to be, a very real reception issue with the iPhone 4. On that note, Boy Genius Report has posted, what they claim to be, an exclusive back-and-forth email conversation between one of their readers and Steve Jobs himself. Keep in mind, it"s possible that the email responses from Steve Jobs could have been from someone in customer relations. Either way, it"s still coming from Apple.
The reader, Tom, had posted a video on YouTube about the signal degradation issue that occurs when the iPhone 4 has its bottom left-hand corner covered up. As the story goes, Apple saw the video, contacted Tom, said the so called problem is just "rumor hysteria," and asked him to refrain from posting any more videos on the matter. In a moment of frustration, Tom decided to send an angry email to Mr. Jobs himself. BGR has verified the email headers and their legitimacy. Below is the conversation (all a direct copy from BGR):
First email:
[Apple engineer name redacted],
When we spoke, you would not tell me that there is a fix for this phone?
A friend just sent me this: https://www.boygeniusreport.com/2010/06/29/leaked-apples-internal-iphone-4-antenna-troubleshooting-procedures/
I assume there is no fix then. If this is legit, I have lost all respect for apple and just want to go back to Verizon and get a nice Android phone. And don’t tell me they have the same issues, all our co-workers with Androids are just mocking us right now…. “Hey, I am going to go in the basement and continue my call. You can use my office on the 2nd floor so you can get a signal”. You are going to kill your brand over one product. Apple is coming off arrogant and rude. If there is no fix just tell people so they can return their phones. We have work to do. I have bought just about every apple product made in the last 20 years and this is the 1st time I am ashamed to be a MAC fan.
This is just sickening,
[Tom]
Here is Steve Jobs’ reply:
No, you are getting all worked up over a few days of rumors. Calm down.
Our reader’s response:
I am really insulted… “Calm down”…. “rumors”… What arrogance. This is will be marked as the begging of the end of Apple. Seriously, DO THE RIGHT THING. I just had dinner with 3 people who had iPhone 4s we all cant make calls without dropping. There is no rumors it is reality.
Steve Jobs counters:
You are most likely in an area with very low signal strength.
Our reader again:
Stop with jackass comments. I have has every iphone made. They all had a bad signal but this is the so much worse X3. The whole country is is in a “low signal strength” in reality… all but apple campus and your house it seems? AT&T maps are a joke. I am in “excellent” to “good” coverage and on my iPhone 1, Iphone 3G, and my iPhone 3Gs, I could at least make a telephone call. After all, it is a phone. Iphone 4…. 5 bars….. touch the phone… ZERO bars call drops.
Steve. IT DOES NOT WORK! Geezzz I hope this this is not really you. Are we on a different MHz? I have yet to see an iPhone [4] work in Richmond when you hold it in your hand. It is not “isolated”. I was a big fan. But I am done.
Steve responds once again:
You may be working from bad data. Not your fault. Stay tuned. We are working on it.
Sent from my iPhone
And lastly, Steve emails in again even though our reader didn’t respond to that last message:
Retire, relax, enjoy your family. It is just a phone. Not worth it.
Update: This exchange of emails has been confirmed as a fake by Apple.