Taking Apple’s lead, Chinese carrier China Unicom will head off iPhone 4 trouble at the pass by giving every customer a free case with their purchase in an effort to prevent the controversy that sprung up here in the United States over the handset’s antenna design.
AppleInsider is reporting that state-owned carrier China Unicom will give every iPhone 4 customer a free case when the handset launches in China next month. According to Caixin, all iPhone 4 customers will receive a “free gift” when the popular handset goes on sale in mainland China on September 16.
Apple finally relented in July and gave iPhone 4 customers a free case after the media barrage known as “Antennagate,” which popularized the term “death grip” in reference to the handset’s external antenna design. When held a certain way, signal attenuation would cause an apparent loss of signal bars, even though it rarely caused any actual drop in calls or data.
In Apple’s situation, they made the free cases available through an after-purchase mail offer which is initiated by a free app from the App Store. The Chinese report doesn’t indicate whether the cases will be handed out at the time of purchase or mailed afterward.
Follow this article’s author, J.R. Bookwalter on Twitter
