Why “Antennagate” was never an issue

After all the fuss about iPhone 4′s faulty antennas, Apple just announced a 78% increase in profits, thanks in part to the sale of 8.4 million iPhones (a rise of 61% from last year).

This may have beat Wall Street’s estimates, but we weren’t surprised. We’ve been monitoring the iPhone 4 in social media and, somewhat surprisingly, antennas were never that big an issue.

Since 23 June, there have been over 26,000 mentions of the iPhone antenna, which sounds like a lot. But that’s only 8.3% of total iPhone mentions (roughly 310,500).  What are the rest of people talking about?  Video calling, the Android, and a myriad of mobile carriers just to name a few, but not the antennas.

In fact, it was only Apple’s promise of free bumper cases that sparked a notable rise in conversation.  This even led to a bump in sentiment towards the iPhone.

Apple’s first response to the iPhone 4 could have cost the company a sizeable chunk of its third quarter profits.  But with a few free bumper cases and a little bit of magic from Steve Jobs’, Apple managed to save itself from catastrophe and may have even benefited from the process.

Now, can we move on to what’s holding up the white iPhone 4? …