Apple: You’re holding it wrong

While we’re still waiting on a firm date from Vodafone for iPhone 4’s New Zealand debut, there have been several reports about the new model losing signal bars when held in a certain way.

The signal problems seem to arise when the hand is placed on the phone’s steel bands in the lower left corner.

Apple boss Steve Jobs is aware of the problem and personally replied to a customer email with, “Just avoid holding it in that way”.

Engadget managed to get a little more out of Apple though. But while Apple admits the drop in signal, it does little to offer any reimbursement to consumers.

“Gripping any mobile phone will result in some attenuation of its antenna performance, with certain places being worse than others depending on the placement of the antennas,” the statement read. “This is a fact of life for every wireless phone. If you ever experience this on your iPhone 4, avoid gripping it in the lower left corner in a way that covers both sides of the black strip in the metal band, or simply use one of many available cases.”

Bad design or a fact of life? The same issue has been reported with previous iPhone models. So should Apple offer up a free case?