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.
We'll see how this pans out.
Edited to add: My take on the Sept 30 date is that Apple had to put some sort of boundary on the free case program. It'd make no sense to make it open-ended and then have the media backlash when they changed or ended it. Easy enough to act generous and extend the offer; or close the program and start including a bumper in the packaging. To do a redesign that in any way affects the RF side would require recertification with the FCC and other governing bodies; I'd put that as much less likely than changing the package includes.
Maybe there's no fix and apple wants people believe there is so they won't have to give free bumpers anymore. As we all have seen, other smartphones show signal attenuation and if the "new" designed does as well, one cannot say the phone hasn't been fixed.
I got an iCrack...i mean iPhone 4 today, and even though I live in a spotty coverage area, I cannot recreate the "grip of death service killer" no matter how hard I try. I'm keeping her in a case just to be safe (and so I don't break it, it already got dropped once when the rep took it out of the box. She's lucky she's my friend!). Still ordered my free bumper from apple too. Just gotta say, even though it's not a BB I love it!
