In its Friday-posted “Letter from Apple Regarding iPhone 4,” Apple expressed its apology to the customers facing problems with the antenna-related problem in the newly-released iPhone 4. 

Users of the new iPhone have been complaining that the handset’s signal strength drops 4-5 bars when it is held tightly, and the black strip in the lower left corner of the metal band gets covered with their hand. Most of them are of the opinion that the weakening of the signals is an indication of the handset’s defective antenna design.

However, defending the antenna design of the iPhone 4, and saying that the wireless performance of the handset is the “best we have ever shipped;” Apple blamed the software and said that a faulty formula had been used for calculating the number of bars of signal strength shown on the handset.

In its carefully-worded letter, Apple said: “Upon investigation, we were stunned to find that the formula we use to calculate how many bars of signal strength to display is totally wrong. Our formula, in many instances, mistakenly displays 2 more bars than it should for a given signal strength.”

Though Apple refrained from making any comments about issue – pertaining to dropped calls - that iPhone 4 users have complained about, the company said in the letter that it intends shipping a software update for the iPhone 4, for displaying accurate signal strengths, “within a few weeks.”