There are reports that Steve Jobs was aware of the iPhone 4 design flaw well over a year ago and decided to go ahead with the flawed release anyway. Appears Herr Jobs was so impressed with the design he decided that the phone function wasn’t really all that important after all. In case you have been living in a cave or just using your iPhone 4 to communicate with the outside world the new billion dollar plus iPhone 4 has a sleek antennae design that causes you to lose your signal when holding your iPhone 4 in a certain way.

When consumers complained to Apple Steve Jobs famously replied by email, “Just avoid holding it in that way,” he wrote.  Apple was hoping the entire mess would go away but then Consumer Reports refused to give the iPhone 4 its recommendation and blessing citing the antennae design flaw (there are 3 separate antennaes in the iPhone 4).  They then recommended, horror of all horrors, that people use duct tape to fix the flaw.

Talk about form over function! And that’s why I have been commenting so much because this entire fiasco is so indicative of a materialistic, consumer society that finds personal validation in the brand of electronics they use. Hell, it’s not like I’m a troglodyte. I use a Blackberry and rely on it for email, meeting info, contacts, texting and the occasional odd phone call. Hell, I even browse, take photos and once even listened to music on the damn thing. But it’s not the core element in my social life like the way Apple fantards treat the iPhone.  Nor will I stand on line with the other tards for hours so I can posess my precious.

The only recommendation I can make is that Apple should come clean and do so very quickly. Otherwise,  Apple will be joining the likes of Toyota and BP in terms of having prickly consumer perception issues to deal with in the years to come.  And once you lose that it’s hard to regain.