Apple has been inviting journalists to a press conference on its Cupertino, Calif., campus at 10 a.m. Pacific time Friday, the subject being the iPhone 4. But what about the iPhone 4 would require the company to summon the press on such short notice? Could Apple be introducing a new case for its smartphone? Will the company make it in colors besides black and white? Is Apple on the verge of finally granting some techies' fondest wish by introducing a push-to-talk iPhone for Nextel?
No, it has to be the same Topic A as yesterday, the day before and the week before: the possibility that the iPhone 4 has a design defect that causes it to lose or drop AT&T's signal when held with a hand covering a gap between two antennas on its lower left side.
Why do you all care?
I'm not trying to be snarky or insulting. I am simply puzzled to see every story we post on the iPhone draw the sort of Web traffic normally associated with naked pictures of celebrities (or, perhaps, pictures of celebrities wearing nothing but iPhone armbands). What gives?
First, the iPhone 4 constitutes a tiny minority of the smartphone market today, and all iPhones combined still represent a minority of the business. I doubt that every reader clicks on these posts because they're on the fence about buying an iPhone 4. Some certainly are -- but still, why act as if this possible reception issue represents a tragic fall from grace? Were you expecting this phone to depart from the prior history of manufactured products by shipping in a perfected state?
Second, the sight of Apple possibly screwing up, then trying to blame somebody else, should not amount to a shocking development. It hasn't been that long since journalistic shorthand labeled the company "Beleaguered Apple Computer, Inc." and some Mac user groups functioned more like support groups. Apple may have just scored an own goal, but that's nothing compared to the damage it repeatedly inflicted on itself in the '90s.
Then again ... drawing more Web traffic has become a career-enhancing move around here. So maybe I should pursue a different line of inquiry: Was this post as irresistible as other iPhone stories we've run? Are you not entertained?
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