In my eyes there's a huge difference, they just look the same if you don't bother to listen to what he said and don't pay attention to Apple's response in the context of the way they run their business.
It wasn't a friendly response, but it was the solution to the problem. And when they only gave out cases later after complaints (announced during a special event to talk openly about this issue, after they had taken the time to look into it themselves) it was because the only problem was the media reaction. Millions and millions of people bought and loved the iPhone 4 even after they stopped giving out free cases a few months later. They all had the option of returning it for a full refund.
How many companies do you do business with that provide this level of service, big or small? I honestly can't think of any.
Big or small? There are tonnes of small companies that provide and exceed this level of service - the one I work for (14 people) is one of them. A lot of small companies rely on very high levels of service.
Another example - a netadmin for a bank told me that the first they know about a failing hard drive - even before their own heavy monitoring picks it up - is the vendor calling them up and confirming the correct datacentre to send it to.
To say that Apple is the pinnacle of service anywhere suggests that you are either inexperienced or wilfully one-eyed.
Further, notably, the 4S for which they could have easily changed case designed if needed, uses this same essential external antenna design. I never owned a 4, but my 4S works fine.
Yes, it has two antennas and it also, unlike the iPhone 4, is both a CDMA and a GSM phone. Hence it needs multiple antennas for the different networks.
The antenna is still on the outside. You can still attenuate the signal by holding the phone with just the right death grip, as you could the iPhone 4, and every other phone on the market.
There was no problem to fix. This is a perfect example of how people spread lies -- with the help of media who wants to latch onto anything that might show controversy about Apple- to create these false impressions.
Reality: Every phone, if held in the right way, with have signal attenuation. This is basic physics.
Reality Distortion: There's a problem with the iPhone 4! It was fixed in the 4S!
What I can't understand is the persistence in constantly repeating these falsehoods, even after the truth comes out. I state the truth (the same design in the 4s) and then someone spouts the claim that it was "fixed" because the design did improve.
Well, every iPhone is going to improve on the last. That doesn't validate a false claim that the previous version was defective because it lacked future improvements!
With, critically, one important difference: it now has two cellular antennas. This way if one loses signal, say, due to being accidentally bridged, the phone switches to the other. This is why the gaps in the metal band are different between the 4 and the 4S. (Compare them.)
It's also why Consumer Reports endorsed the 4S but not the 4. Because it doesn't have the problem. Because they fixed it.
It is useless to argue with nirvana. He is like a conspiracy theorist. He made up his mind that the iPhone 4 and 4S have the same antenna design and would rather declare PC World and Consumer Reports and you anti-Apple liars rather than admit he was wrong. This is precisely how RDF works, the story that it's Apple against the world and thus anything bad said about Apple is never true and is said only by haters.
It wasn't a friendly response, but it was the solution to the problem. And when they only gave out cases later after complaints (announced during a special event to talk openly about this issue, after they had taken the time to look into it themselves) it was because the only problem was the media reaction. Millions and millions of people bought and loved the iPhone 4 even after they stopped giving out free cases a few months later. They all had the option of returning it for a full refund.
How many companies do you do business with that provide this level of service, big or small? I honestly can't think of any.