He didn't say this. Wired, however, did.
If you go to the source, Apple/Jobs took accountability. But Wired got clicks.
If you go to the source, Apple/Jobs took accountability. But Wired got clicks.
I think you got most of this wrong. The "you're holding it wrong" meme started on MacRumors, not Wired. MacRumors forum user samcraig emailed Steve Jobs about the low signal issue he (and many others) experienced while holding the new iPhone 4 in a specific way. He asked "Question - What's going to be done about the signal dropping issue. Is it software or hardware?"
Steve Jobs himself emailed back to samcraig:
> Non issue. Just avoid holding it in that way.
He also later responded back with the following statement. This was the first "official statement" from Apple at the time, sent to tech news outlets.
> “Gripping any mobile phone will result in some attenuation of its antenna performance, with certain places being worse than others depending on the placement of the antennas. This is a fact of life for every wireless phone. If you ever experience this on your iPhone 4, avoid gripping it in the lower left corner in a way that covers both sides of the black strip in the metal band, or simply use one of many available cases.”
So literally neither Jobs, nor Apple, took any accountability.
Screenshots of that email exchange with Steve Jobs are still available online[0]. Furthermore we don't have to doubt the veracity of the screenshots because just one week later, Apple PR disputed[1] a different fake email chain with Steve Jobs, but Apple PR never disputed this email chain, publicized only one week earlier. If it was fake, they would have told outlets it was fake at the time.
0: https://www.macstories.net/iphone/steve-jobs-on-iphone-4-rec...
1: https://techcrunch.com/2010/07/01/steve-jobs-emails-fake/?gu...
People forget that at the time, there were a number images circulating around from instruction manuals for Nokia and BlackBerry phones that explicitly mentioned the same thing.
Note that "25% capacity" is usually calculated from steady-state output voltage. The voltage of a battery generally drops slowly as it gets used. But when the battery gets older and its internal resistance increases, it can no longer output the same current at lower voltages. The energy is still there, but can only be accessed either by sipping it slowly for a long time at a useful voltage, or pulling the energy out quickly at a uselessly low voltage.
So two solutions could be: Let peoples phones randomly die sometimes at 20% charge. Or set 25% to "0%" and never let anyone use those extra few hours for idle texting/etc. Or throttle the CPU after the battery falls below 50% so the phone can't cause fatal battery voltage drops with short bursts of high CPU utilization.
I thought Apple made the right choice for consumers, it's the solution I would have wanted on my Samsung, and I was jealous iPhone users didn't have to deal with a phone that said "25% full" but could randomly shut off at any moment in your pocket or hand without warning.
*I believe it is flak, not flack.
Later this was resolved by having multiple antennas but the original 3G spec didn't allow this. These days with MIMO multiple antennas may be active.
https://www.wired.com/2010/06/iphone-4-holding-it-wrong/
I find a contemporaneous account of your backstory here (edit: your edited in MacStories link points to this):
https://www.engadget.com/2010-06-24-double-stevemails-on-iph...
Which does contain your quote*, and is indeed a day earlier than the Wired story that got wide coverage.
However, the meme quote that is repeated today is from the Wired headline.
* Attributed to "Tipster" Rory Sinclair and his posterous blog.
Which is like Frank Lloyd Wright’s answer to a leaky roof at Fallingwater: “put a bucket under it.”