Apple has announced that it is waiving the restocking fee for the iPhone 4 in response to reception issues with the device. Purchasers wishing to return the product—within 30 days of purchase—will be granted a full refund for the device sans the typical $20 restocking fee for the 16GB iPhone 4 or the $30 restocking fee for the 32GB version.

The problem at hand—dubbed the iPhone's "death grip"—is software issue plaguing the iPhone 4, as confirmed by an announcement by Apple on Friday. According to the company, users experiencing significant drops in coverage when holding the iPhone 4 in a particular way are actually the victims of a software formula that, itself, misrepresents the strength of coverage one actually has.

Or, in layman's terms, the lost bars are erroneous—they shouldn't exist in the first place.

"Our formula, in many instances, mistakenly displays 2 more bars than it should for a given signal strength. For example, we sometimes display 4 bars when we should be displaying as few as 2 bars," says the Apple release.

"Users observing a drop of several bars when they grip their iPhone in a certain way are most likely in an area with very weak signal strength, but they don't know it because we are erroneously displaying 4 or 5 bars. Their big drop in bars is because their high bars were never real in the first place."

Since, according to Apple, a phone will normally receive a drop in signal strength when gripped in any fashion, a user on one or two bars of coverage could very well block their phone's ability to make or receive calls. Since the number of bars is being over-reported, however, it explains why one might see a five-bar signal suddenly drop to anywhere from absolutely nothing to one bar's worth of service.

Apple plans to release a software update in the coming weeks to address the formula it uses to actually determine signal strength.

"The real signal strength remains the same, but the iPhone's bars will report it far more accurately, providing users a much better indication of the reception they will get in a given area," writes Apple. "We are also making bars 1, 2 and 3 a bit taller so they will be easier to see."

Multiple class action lawsuits against Apple are in the works regardless of the company's mea cupla, each suggesting—in its own interpretation--that the company shipped defective products to consumers or otherwise defrauded them in some capacity.