Apple’s realized something I’ve suspected all along – the iPhone 4 antenna issue isn’t as widespread as everyone thought. I know I’m a bit of an Apple fanboy, so no one listened to me, but I hadn’t met a single person with the problem, and as loud as the complaints were, it would have been a complete shitstorm if it was actually the huge epidemic people wanted you to believe it was. That’s not to say it didn’t happen, or that it wasn’t a big problem – it is, especially for such an expensive device that is the cornerstone of communication in most of our lives today – it just wasn’t every single phone.

Unfortunately, this means Apple is ending the free iPhone 4 program. After September 30th, you’ll only be able to get a free case if you do a bit of complaining.

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.

There you have it, folks. This seems like the solution Apple should have offered the second there was talk of an issue. There was no reason to give them to everyone, other than to fix the screw up that was waiting 3 months to do anything about the people having problems.

I placed the order for my free Apple Bumper case last week and it’s already here. Having the Bumper on the phone makes me appreciate the flat surfaces on both sides. I would have killed for a case like this on my 3GS – it’s small and unobtrusive, it still looks great, and you aren’t covering up the Apple design that has made the products so coveted.

The best part, of course, is that it was free. I would be hard pressed to drop $30 on one of these things, even with how much I like it. I should probably also mention, if you make a habit of dropping your phone like a good friend of mine, you should either invest in a good, sturdy case, or just assume that you’ll be paying a couple hundred bucks every few months to replace your phone.

Which free case did you go for?