"Free Bumpers" Costs Apple $175 Million..hahaha

Apple may just have posted its best ever earnings, but it's not all good news on the financial front over at Cupertino. The ongoing 'Antennagate' debacle has resulted in the company promising free bumpers to its iPhone 4 customers, a move that will cost Apple somewhere in the region of $175 million. That's the figure from Peter Oppenheimer, Apple's CFO, who said that's how much the free bumpers would cost.

"We will be deferring revenue corresponding to the value of the cases that have yet to be ordered by or delivered to eligible customers under this offer as of the end of the September quarter. We expect the cost to be $175 million and we expect the September quarter deferral to be recorded as revenue in the December quarter."

$175 million is a huge amount of money, but it's dwarfed by how much analysts estimate a full recall would have cost Apple ... around $1.5 billion, or 8.5 times the cost of the bumpers.  Even so Apple are unlikely to pleased at having to spend $175 million, especially when it appears many, perhaps even a majority, of customers are still not satisfied.