All you have to do is look at the blogs and commentary about the event.

However, as I've stated more than once, for roughly 98% of users, the antenna issue was--no issue. You practically had to force your grip to reveal any effective signal loss. This doesn't mean it didn't affect anybody, only those whose bodies have a lower skin resistance due to any number of acidity or sodium problems. I, for one, can't wear a standard wristwatch of any kind--windup, battery, whatever--because they simply die after a few months. Pocket watches last longer, but rarely more than a year. I have one of those body types yet even I could not force my iPhone 4 to lose signal after I purchased it and to be honest I chose to buy a protective case (with battery backup by Mophie) simply to keep the phone in pristine condition. Compared to a lot of phones I see--especially Android phones--my iPhone 4 still looks brand new after almost 2 years of use. The only dropped calls I ever had with it were specifically my fault for carrying it into no-signal areas. Yes, even with modern technology there are still places even close to cities that receive no signal due to terrain or going underground.

I do blame those users for pitching such a row. It was a very small contingent that complained and those complaints got picked up by anti-Apple zealots to the point it became a media feeding frenzy. Apple made no change to the hardware and the iPhone 4 is still one of the top-selling smartphones around the world, though obviously not as much so as the current 4S. It wasn't a "spin tactic" simply because it wasn't an issue in the first place.