Judging by the lines at Apple stores across the country, many of you bought an iPhone 4 last Friday. But a new rumour and a hint on the Apple website make us think buyers in October will receive a slightly different version of the handset.
The hint is obvious, and relates to Apple’s free bumper and skin program for the iPhone 4. It says:
“To qualify for this program, you must purchase your iPhone 4 by 30 September 2010.”
Given the late September cut-off date for a program that fixes a problem Apple has acknowledged, we’re wondering just what card Apple has up its sleeve.
Adding to this is a new rumour that surfaced today. It suggests that Apple has a production line working on new versions of the iPhone 4, possibly with different configurations of the problematic antenna.
But while reports of antenna issues were in abundance from the US, we’ve yet to hear of many complaints from Australian users. In our tests with an iPhone 4 connected to the Telstra NextG network, the death grip affecting iPhone 4 antennas caused only a single bar drop in reception – hardly a result to raise an eyebrow.
Apple Australia told us that they “will be reviewing the situation with regards to iPhone 4 and the response from its customers”, and had “no further details at this time”.
We’re going to be testing the issue between carriers shortly, but it seems likely that Australians won’t suffer from antenna issues to the extent that American Apple customers have endured.
