Patrick Kerley, a crisis communication expert for Levick Strategic Communications, says that Apple should have responded faster to the uproar over the iPhone 4's reception problems. In spite of the evaluation, Kerley, whose official title is "senior digital strategist" for the Washington D.C.-based firm, gave a positive evaluation of Steve Jobs, the electronic company's CEO, for his handling of the press conference in which Apple announced that all iPhone 4 buyers will get free cases.

"For the test, I'd give Apple a B+ or A-, but for the entire semester, they get just a C," he said in an interview with Computerworld.

"Apple got caught flat-footed.. By waiting as long as they did, they created a vacuum of news, and others stepped in, like Consumer Reports, to fill that vacuum."

Consumer Reports, the product reviews magazine, set off a wave of criticism on Apple when it said that the iPhone 4 would not be one of its recommended products due to weakened reception whenever the external antenna is touched. Complaints about dropped calls had poured in hours after the smartphone's launch last June 24. Media attention peaked after the Consumer Reports review and its subsequent resolution that an Apple-manufactured bumper case solved the reception problems.

Kerley was positive on how Jobs started the press conference. "That was a good way for him to walk into the conversation," he said.

At the beginning of the press conference, the Apple CEO demonstrated similar instances of signal loss using Samsung, BlackBerry and HTC and Samsung phones. "All smartphones have weak spots, this is not unique to the iPhone 4," Jobs said.

"That's a pretty classic way to try to talk about a situation... The idea is to soften the focus on Apple," Kerley said.

However, the crisis expert says that Apple should have done more when it first learned of the complaints. "Not a lot of other companies can wait weeks to respond," he said.

"They didn't have to have a solution, but they needed to get out in front of it with a statement that they were working on it. They should have simply acknowledged the fact that the iPhone 4 has reception problems, said 'We're getting reports of problems, and we're invesitigating,' then sit on that message throughout."