iPhone 4.1 in the works?

We are never going to get Apple to admit that some things went wrong with iPhone 4’s design/development process. The issue of death grip threatened to become a major disaster for Apple early on. Apple bounced back from it by throwing together a conference and blaming everything but its design team. Apple may have not admitted iPhone 4’s design flaw, but it did get rid of one of the top people behind iPhone 4 team. It seems the company is ready to start shipping new iPhone 4 models with better antennas. According to multiple sources, iPhone 4.1 will start shipping right after September 30th. That’s the last date of eligibility for those free bumper cases for iPhone 4.0 owners.

Telcel’s director of value-added services, Marco Quatorze discussed this news just recently. While Apple has spent a lot of money giving away free cases to its customers, it seems to have found a way to solve its antenna issue just before the start of the holiday shopping season. This is a rumor at this point, but all signs points to an upgrade being in the works as far as iPhone 4 is concerned.

MacRumors does not fully buy this story. After all, Apple may be just stopping the free case program as it sees no issues with iPhone 4’s design:

The veracity of Quatorze’s claim is unknown, as it is unclear whether a carrier executive at his level would even be privy to such information, and it is possible that he may simply be mistaken in his understanding of Apple’s September 30th expiration date for the free case program.

One should not expect Apple to publicly admit there has ever been anything wrong with iPhone 4. It will be interesting to see how early adopters respond to this move. Apple has had issues with early adopters in the past (especially when reducing its prices). How is the company going to convince people to become early adopters of its products when it is giving the shaft to early iPhone 4 owners?

Apple gets a lot of flak for being stubborn and not admitting its mistakes. No one can question the fact that the company cares about the experience it offers to its customers. Releasing iPhone 4.1 will upset a few iPhone 4 owners, but it is the right move in the end.