Law firm Kershaw, Cutter & Ratinoff is issuing a call for disgruntled users as part of their investigations of "potential problems with the release of iPhone 4."
The lawyers write, "If you recently purchased the new iPhone and have experienced poor reception quality, dropped calls and weak signals, we would like to hear from you."
What's undisputed is that holding the new iPhone by its sides can decrease reception quality. As we reported the day before the device hit store shelves, since the metal sides of the device also function as the phone's antenna, call reception drops dramatically if the phone is held by its sides in two places.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs claims that "there is no reception issue," but he also cautions iPhone 4 owners to "stay tuned." We wonder if this means an iOS upgrade will fix these call quality issues and avoid the need to replace devices or deal with ongoing complaints from unhappy customers.
Last fall, the same firm went after Facebook, Zynga, MySpace, RockYou and others for advertising scams and allegedly unauthorized charges to users' Mafia Wars and FarmVille accounts.
This topic has caused a good deal of discussion in our own back channels; we're not completely sure what to make of the iPhone 4's reception issues. While we've been able to duplicate the same errors ourselves, we're not sure a lawsuit is the best answer. Some of our iPhone-owning writers simply think the fault may lie with AT&T, not Apple.