Apple Inc. on Friday said it will give iPhone 4 users free protective cases to address the smartphone’s signal problem.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs made the announcement at a press conference held at the company’s headquarters in Cupertino, California.

"Every iPhone user is going to get a case. There will be refunds to people that already got a bumper," he said.

The protective case, or so-called bumper, now sells at 29 U.S. dollars on Apple’s website. The free cases will be provided to all iPhone 4 buyers through the end of September.

After iPhone 4 went on sale on June 24, consumers have been complaining of a drop in reception when they hold the phone in a certain manner.

At Friday’s press conference, Jobs said that one reason the new phone has had more problems is that fewer people have cases in the new model, and old cases don’t fit.

In addition to the free case, Apple already released an update to its iPhone operating system on Thursday.

Apple earlier blamed the reception problem on a wrong method to calculate signal strength, and promised to fix the glitch with software updates.

Jobs said that if customers are still not happy, they can bring their iPhone 4 back within 30 days of purchase.

"We’re not perfect," The CEO said. "It is a challenge for the phone industry, and we are all doing the best that we can."

While Jobs emphasized that the reception issue was not exclusive only to the iPhone 4, demonstrating signal strength loss in other phone models such as the Blackberry and HTC phones when held in certain ways, he acknowledged that the newest iPhone model did have more dropped calls than its predecessor, the iPhone 3GS.

The iPhone 4 drops less than one additional call per 100 than the iPhone 3GS, said Jobs.

He also revealed that the return rate of the iPhone 4 to AT&T, the phone’s exclusive U.S. wireless carrier, was 1.7 percent, lower than the 6 percent return rate for the iPhone 3GS.

The offering of free cases came as Apple is facing mounting pressures over the iPhone signal issue, which has been nicknamed " death grip" by bloggers.

On Monday this week, influential product review magazine Consumer Reports said it could not recommend the iPhone 4 before Apple comes up with a permanent fix for the antenna problem.

"Consumers deserve answers and fairness. Providing free bumpers and cases is a good first step toward Apple identifying and finding a solution for the signal-loss problem of the iPhone 4," Consumer Reports said in a statement issued Friday after Apple’s press conference.

Source: Xinhuanet