Oh dear. The web is awash with reports that some of those who have managed to get hold of an iPhone 4 today are finding that it may have a fundamental problem: when you hold the phone in your hand in a natural way, with your fingers around the edges, touching the steel antenna band that runs around the outside of the phone, the signals strength falls away and then eventually disappears. Allegedly.

Gizmodo has a great video demo of the problem that it found on Macrumors Forums, while Business Insider reports that the problem only occurred on its iPhone 4 when held in the left hand. When the phone was held in the right hand, with the fingers in a different position, the signal strength remained constant. And a report on the BBC website quotes one Richard Warner, who bought his iPhone on Wednesday morning, saying that the phone is “useless in its current state”.

It all makes the statement Apple issued on Wednesday saying that white models of the iPhone 4 had proved more challenging to manufacture than expected, and as a result, would not be available until the second half of July, look like small beer. What amazes us is that anyone has bought an iPhone 4 with the intention of using it to make phone calls.

Nothing from Apple yet on this, but we’ll have more as the story develops.