The incorrect left-handed way, which even Steve Jobs has been known to use, apparently can cause attenuation of the phones antenna performance, the Apple spokesman Steve Dowling told me on Thursday. When I asked Mr. Dowling whether Apple knew about this before the iPhone 4 got into the hands of hundreds of thousands of consumers, he declined to answer.
Here is a theory of why the company may not have detected the problem. Apple engineers tested the iPhone 4 on and off Apples campus. On campus, Apple presumably has good enough reception to mask any problems. Apple is, after all, AT&Ts most important handset partner. And when Apple sent prototypes for off-campus testing, those handsets were concealed inside cases that made them look like the iPhone 3GS. That, at least, was Apple how sent out the now-famous iPhone 4 prototype that walked into a bar in Silicon Valley and got lost. And as Apple said Thursday, a case is one way to get around the problems with the antenna.
Its just a theory, but one that seems plausible. I reached out to Apple for comment and will update if I hear back from them.
