Apple Inc.’s CEO Steve Jobs, after repeating that the company “wasn’t perfect”, has offered free cases and refunds for customers unhappy about the iPhone 4’s performance.

“We’ll send you a free case,” said Jobs at a news conference held in response to a tide of complaints about Apple’s latest product. “And if you’re still not happy, you can bring your iPhone 4 back undamaged for a full refund.”

Or, you can make a parody video.

So far, Jobs has the market on his side – the iPhone 4 has been selling like hotcakes, and only one half of one per cent of customers have complained about dropped iPhone 4 calls. Apple released the iPhone 4 on June 24 in the United States, the U.K., Japan, France and Germany. In the first three days, the company sold 1.7 million iPhones.

 “When we have problems like this and people criticize us, we take it really personally,” said Jobs during the conference. “But the data supports the fact that the iPhone 4 is the best smartphone in the world.”

As part of his defence of the iPhone, Jobs gave a run-down of other smartphones with the same problem as the iPhone 4. And, as a vote of confidence, he said that Apple still intends to release the iPhone to another 17 countries, including Canada, on July 30.

The situation still has the potential to backfire badly. Apple is not used to being open with the media, and likes to write its own playbook. This might explain why Jobs opened the news conference with a YouTube video blaming the media for hyping the problems.

Last week, iPhone became the only version of the device that Consumer Reports magazine refused to endorse.