San Francisco: Apple chief executive Steve Jobs said Friday the company will offer free cases to iPhone 4 buyers following reception complaints but said the problem had been exaggerated.
Dow Jones newswire also quoted Jobs, speaking at a press conference for invited journalists at Apple headquarters, as apologising to iPhone 4 owners who experienced antenna problems with the company's latest smartphone.
Jobs said Apple will provide free cases to iPhone 4 buyers to remedy the problem and refund buyers who purchased the bumpers which fit around the phone already.
Jobs also played down the seriousness of the issue saying other smartphones experienced antenna problems and the iPhone 4's problems had been blown "so out of proportion, it's incredible."
He said the iPhone 4 had received the highest customer satisfaction ever for an Apple device but admitted "we're not perfect."
Jobs said Apple had sold more than three million iPhone 4s since the device was launched three weeks ago and that only 0.55 percent of buyers had called Apple support about the reception issues.
Jobs said only 1.7 percent of US buyers had returned their iPhone 4 to US carrier AT&T, less than a third of the return rate for the previous model, the iPhone 3GS.
Investors were looking for a fuller explanation of what analysts call a minor issue, but which has managed to cause a media firestorm.
A growing furore over iPhone 4 signal-strength flaws has hurt Apple's shares ahead of its quarterly results this week. The stock fell as much as 2.1 per cent on Thursday, before closing down 0.5 per cent at $251.45 on Nasdaq.
Apple has blamed a software glitch but others have said the antenna is at fault.
