Apple Makes it Official, No More Free Cases for iPhone 4 After September 30th

It doesn’t seem like it but Apple’s free case program is coming to end soon. September 30th is the date Steve Jobs announced as reevaluation date and now Apple says that indeed the program will (sort of) fall by the wayside on that date.

The official statement reads as such:

We now know that the iPhone 4 antenna attenuation issue is even smaller than we originally thought. A small percentage of iPhone 4 users need a case, and we want to continue providing them a Bumper case for free. For everyone else, we are discontinuing the free case program on all iPhone 4s sold after September 30, 2010. We are also returning to our normal returns policy for all iPhone 4s sold after September 30. Users experiencing antenna issues should call AppleCare to request a free Bumper case…

So they are sort of getting rid of? Perhaps it will be much more discretionary when calling Apple Care and not everyone who calls gets a case though I doubt it. Basically the statement just aligns with what Apple said all along which was “No big deal, here take a case”.

Of course we just reported that no one seems to care about the antenna issue however they might care if they stop getting free cases that are said to help the signal strength. Apple was basically forced to start such a program after media, specifically Consumer Reports, reported that putting a case on the iPhone 4 alleviated the Antennagate debacle.

So how will this affect users when they call up Apple Care for a free case? Do you think the iPhone has been secretly altered and perhaps a clear coating was applied to the antenna area? Give us your conspiracy theories in the comment box below.