The release this week of US Consumer Reports (think Choice, but in a US accent) testing into the iPhone 4's reception issues reveals the gulf between what Apple would have liked folks to think -- that iPhone 4 reception woes were software based -- and the reality, which is that they're hardware based, relating to where the antenna is on the band around the phone and how you hold it. Nice try, Apple, but some credibility is shredded by this whole debacle.

What really surprises me, though, is that Apple didn't seize on this as an opportunity to make good by simply throwing a few hundred thousand of its bumper cases at iPhone 4 buyers. Tie it in to registering the phone (or if you're particularly control mad, an iTunes software update that identifies the phone) and deliver en masse. Apparently covering the affected area with a case removes the problem entirely. An easy solution, and given a small rubber case purchased in sufficient quantities can't cost Apple more than a few cents each, a particularly cheap one. I doubt the lawyer fees will be quite so affordable, even for a company with Apple's deep pockets.

Accessories for any smartphone are obviously an area where money can be made by the bucketload. After all, it didn't take a day of official iPhone 4 release for cases to be announced. If you want a case, sock, speaker or battery for your smartphone, there are more than enough places willing to sell them to you, even if your smartphone of choice isn't an iPhone at all.

I recently had the chance to buy an iPhone 4 -- or quite probably a fake -- which I've documented at MacTheMag. Leaving aside the fake argument for a second, I didn't buy one anyway. Not because I don't believe in importing, but because I didn't want the fuss of having to stay a step ahead of the curve in jailbreaking terms and the known reception issues in one package, especially when the "real thing" is technically due within two weeks. That's presuming Apple doesn't pull an iPad on us and delay the iPhone 4 launch due to the popularity of the device in the US.

What it does give in the portable space is yet more ammunition to the competing camps, especially Android. I'm awash in Android review phones right now, and it seems not a day passes when a new announcement isn't made. Apple's marketing strategy has long demanded eyeballs by being noteworthy, but I suspect that letting Android handsets shine this bright this wasn't part of the overall game plan.