I told myself I would refrain from commenting anymore on the ‘Antennagate’ Presentation, but some feel inclined to beat the dead horse. Though it may be overhyped and ridiculed, I do not have a problem with people discussing the “mysterious” signal loss when holding the iPhone 4. It has turned into a neat party trick people want to show to their friends. My problem lies with the people who insist on rewriting Friday’s event. Jean-Louis Gassée from Monday Note writes:

[Steve Jobs] proceeds to demo the phenomenon. Indeed, within ten seconds of putting the heel of his left thumb on the gap, the iPhone loses two bars. Just to make sure, he repeats the experiment with his index finger, all the while making a live call to show how the connection isn’t killed.

This of course is just wishful thinking, and this of course was not the issue. I am not sure Gassée has even seen the event with his own two eyes. The keynote was about presenting facts; not proving the iPhone 4 can make a phone call – we all know it is fully capable of handling this task [Please, no ridicule is needed]. In case you missed it, here are the facts provided by TUAW:

0.55 percent: This is the percentage of iPhone 4 users who have contacted AppleCare regarding antenna or reception issues. This comes out to only 16,500 AppleCare cases. We are not sure if this includes issues related to the proximity sensor; however, Jobs later acknowledged in the press conference that the proximity sensor will be addressed in a future software update.

1.7 percent: This is the number of iPhone 4s returned to AT&T since the initial release 22 days ago, which comes out to roughly 51,000 returns. By contrast, 6 percent of iPhone 3GS were returned in its early days — and the numbers of those sold are lower than the iPhone 4.

The final number is that AT&T is reporting that less than one more call per 100 placed is dropped compared to the iPhone 3GS — more calls are dropped than the earlier model, but it’s only one more per one hundred.

I have stated this before, there is absolutely nothing Steve Jobs could have done that would have made everybody happy. Steve decided to wait until all of the facts were in, and to let them speak for themselves. I would have shown the press a Unicorn, and watched as the headlines changed from “Antennagate Plagues Users” to “Steve Jobs Owns the First Unicorn Known to Mankind.” Again, wishful thinking.