Yes, he admits, there’s a slight problem with dropped calls when you cover the “soft spot” on the lower left-hand side in areas where the signal is weak. No, he insists, that isn’t something unique to Apple and, truth be told, they’ve gotten fewer complaints about the iPhone 4 than they did about the 3GS. (In fact, he claims they knew about the antenna problem all along and didn’t think it’d be a big deal.) Thus are conservative Apple fanboys like me left to contemplate a horrifying yet familiar possibility: Media witch hunt?

Jobs told reporters that the percentage of users who have called Apple about antenna or reception issues was “0.55%”…

Despite the controversy over the iPhone 4’s reception troubles, Jobs reported that Apple had sold over 3,000,000 units in the last week. What’s more, he added that iPhone 4 return rates were 1.7% compared to the earlier 3GS version, where the return rate was 6%.

However, Jobs did allow that iPhone 4 calls drop more frequently than calls made on the iPhone 3GS. He didn’t give out specific numbers but said that the rate was less than one additional call per additional 100 calls (compared to iPhone 3GS).

Via Greenroomer Diane, here’s the money bit from his presentation. This isn’t a direct quote, I believe, but rather a quickie paraphrase by a PC World reporter transcribing during the presser:

But I guess it’s just human nature when some organization gets successful, there’s someone who wants to tear it down. I see it happening with Google. Why are they doing that? Google’s a great company. Google invented all of this great stuff that we love to use. And I see them jumping on us now. Would you rather we are Korean companies rather than American companies? Do you not like that we’re innovating here in America?

Whether he’s addressing that to the press or to grandstanding media whore Chuck Schumer is unclear. As for the solution to the “soft spot,” watch the clip; we all knew it was coming, and now here it is. Certainly more cost-effective than a product recall, but I’m chagrined by the thought of my lovely metal-rimmed princess hidden away in a chintzy, cumbersome sheath. Dude, they burqa’d my phone.