I knew that Consumer Reports' inability to recommend the iPhone 4 wouldn't sit well with Apple, but I definitely didn't see this news coming. Discussions on Consumer Reports' findings on the iPhone 4 started showing up on Apple's support forums yesterday, but last night they started disappearing. Up to six threads about the subject were deleted by Apple moderators. Luckily, some of the posts were cached by Bing before they were removed, one of which can be seen here. Consumer Reports stated in its review of the iPhone 4 that while the device is one of the best smartphones on the market, they couldn't recommend it because of the well-documented antenna flaw. Coming from such a large, mainstream organization, this news couldn't have made Apple happy, especially since Consumer Reports actually recommended customers purchase an iPhone 3GS.
This isn't the first time that Apple has deleted forum threads that spoke negatively about its products. However, this may have been a time for Apple to let the topics slide, considering all of the other negative press they've been receiving lately. The yellowing screens, proximity sensor issues, antenna flaws, and then the Consumer Reports review have combined to make the iPhone 4 launch somewhat of a debacle. That hasn't stopped Apple from selling over 1.7 million iPhone 4s over launch weekend, and I'm sure that number is quite a bit higher by now. Still, all of this negative press concerning the iPhone 4 and Apple is slowly staining the company's image in front of the mainstream and the hardcore fans, and deleting threads on its support forums certainly isn't going to reverse that negativity.
