What a week, in fact what a last few months for Apple Computer. It has had huge success with the iPad and the iPhone 4, selling three million of the phones in three weeks.

However, there are problems with the iPhone 4, and more and more customers and fans of Apple equipment are wondering why things in some ways seem to be turning sour. Is it serious, or just growing pains for a successful firm?

Comedian Jon Stewart skewered Apple at the height of its attention this spring, regarding a prototype iPhone 4 that was left in a bar by an Apple employee and then ended up in the possession of a tech website. The site then wrote about the phone.

Police were called in, and Stewart comments, "Hey Apple, and Steve, what has happened? You were the ones who were supposed to be the rebels; we were all counting on you. What has happened? Are you becoming the man? It was Microsoft that was supposed to be evil."

Stewart points out that concerns about Apple attitude and behaviour is of major importance to his younger audience. Stewart even used Apple's landmark TV ad from 1984, which painted Apple as the company that would tackle Big Brother.

The company appealed to those who wanted to be different. Then Apple bragged about making the best computer products in the market.

That brought videos on YouTube from people who said they did not like the way Apple computers worked, but still used them because they saw as better than PC's.

Others don't like the way Apple distributes and prices products in the rest of the world.

In fact it was just a decade or so ago when Apple almost collapsed. Microsoft even invested in Apple. Then came the iPod, iTunes, the iPhone, and the company was on a roll.

People began to tire of Apple's controlling efforts. The media was largely held in contempt; a public fight with Adobe and developers over acceptable software raged for weeks.

Then it was the antennae problems with the iPhone 4. The Consumer Reports agency bought things to a head this week by telling people to hold off buying the phone.

Mike Gikas of CR said, "The bottom line is we cannot recommend buying this phone until Apple has fixed the problem."

Then Friday, Steve Jobs announced a free protective case will be given to every iPhone 4 buyer, and he said there is no "Antennagate" – all cell phones have the same problem.

At Tech Insights of Ottawa, a reverse engineering firm, they pulled the iPhone apart.

Bill Farmilo, vice-president of global operations, said, "Some of the very creative innovations on the phone will likely improve performance, but I think we found that there is a problem they were not expecting."

Trevor Gere sells Apple products at Carbon Computing. He says, "I don't think they've jumped the shark, yet. I think they're struggling with their new position. They have always been the underdog, and now after a long battle they look up and they are the big dog."

Steve Jobs contends that nothing has changed. In a recent interview, he said, "The worst thing we could do is let things slide. I could not do that. If we did, I would rather quit. We are certainly more experienced, and we are worse for wear, but our core values – what we believe in – have not changed."

Co-founder of Apple was Steve Wozniak. Even he is upset with Apple when they fired an employee who showed Wozniak an iPad.

"Apple needs privacy, they need some secrecy, but they need to balance that off with the 10 per cent ‘niceness factor.' That was missing."

But the real battle may be at kitchen tables across the globe. Can Apple ensure that people like Jerry McGregor of Ottawa keep buying devices? He has an iPod Touch, and an iPad but you can't easily transfer data.

"It's kind of like the Wild West with them right now. Especially with software, it's really in an embryonic state."

McGregor says keeping data is key, but he lost it off the iPad with an operating system problem. Then he spent three hours on the phone with Apple support, and their advice led him to lose his data on the iPod Touch.

He says the honeymoon is over, but he won't sue for divorce.

"I wouldn't go back to any other system, like the Palm. Their (Apple's) stuff is unbelievable, and so I will stick with it. I will cut them some slack, and just cross my fingers, and hope they sort out their problems quickly."