Popular tech blog Engadget has reported that Apple is set to hold a press conference this Friday, July 16. There isn’t a lot of information available – all we know at this time is that the conference has something to do with the iPhone 4.

No one is certain about what will happen; the guys at Engadget claim to be looking for a price drop: “we’re secretly hoping for a price drop such as the one announced shortly after the original iPhone was released.” However, they aren’t dismissing the idea of a recall announcement in light of the now infamous antenna issue that is causing users to have low signal strength and dropped calls.

According to a report by CNet, research analyst Toni Sacconaghi estimates that a recall would cost Apple about $1.5 billion, which in turn is estimated to be about 3.5% of Apple’s cash reserves. In his report, Sacconaghi writes “While it would force Apple to ‘acknowledge’ a design issue with the iPhone, we believe that consumers are increasingly aware of the antenna issue, and remedying it rather than dismissing or ignoring it appears most appropriate.”

Apple recently attempted to address the concerns with a software update which they claimed would fix a bug in the formula used to determine signal strength. Unfortunately, it was found that the update did not resolve the problem which most still believe to be a hardware defect.

With Consumer Reports ultimately deciding that they would not recommend the iPhone 4 because of the problem, I think a recall might not be the worst thing. Overall the iPhone 4 is a great, feature-packed device. I think consumers would respect the decision and be happy to get a new iPhone 4 which correctly fixes the problem as opposed to getting the run around from the company.