Comms: don't take notes when using your iPhone 4

The iPhone is set to become iconic for all the wrong reasons.

First, it is not subject to a recall, despite a mainstream UK newspaper reporting that Steve Jobs had announced on Twitter that the phones are to be sent back for repair. Jobs has, it is somewhat more reliably said, told users that if the phone doesn't work too when when it's held in the bottom left corner, to simply hold it in a different way.

It has emerged that holding the same corner masks the antenna and weakens the signal. The official Apple fix is ''avoid gripping it in the lower left corner in a way that covers both sides of the black strip in the metal band.''

So, ignoring for a moment that using a phone while driving is both illegal in many countries and outright dangerous everywhere, the first problem is that right-handed drivers habitually hold the phone in their left hand. For the benefit of Apple and other phone manufacturers, that means that for around a third of the world's drivers, that's the hand that usually operates a gear stick.

The second problem is that anyone who is right handed holds their phone in their left hand when they are making notes of the conversation: the right hand is needed for the pen.

Apple suggests buying a case to keep the hand away from the antenna.

Of course, the much hyped reason for getting an iPhone is that it's 4G ready. Unfortunately, in the vast majority of the world, the comms systems are not.

It may be that the latest iPhone is cute, and has some nice new features but it's beginning to look as if its design is driven by fashion rather than the most important thing of all: it's supposed to be a phone and if the signal is rubbish, then it fails in its primary objective.

With grey imports arriving in Hong Kong last week at a serious markup - having been bought retail in the UK - there is no doubt that early adopters have moved in on the product in a way that the iPad created a cult status as soon as it was launched. All they need now is a signal.

What is most ironic about this is that the iPhone 3G S has startlingly good performance in places where other phones do not reach. That phone continues to sell at a significant premium - especially if unlocked to allow network switching.