Apple kicks off the iPhone 4 Case Program with help from Belkin, Griffin, Incase & Speck

iPhone 4 owners? You may now order the free bumpers Apple promised everyone at the Antennagate press conference. It doesn’t have to be Apple’s option either. Apple enlisted the top mass-market case designers as well. You’ll be able to snag a free bumper from Bumper, Belkin, Griffin, Incase or Spek all the way through the end of September 2010. But you may not like the options. It’s probably not what you were expecting.

Apple’s made it easy to order your free bumper. First, you’ll need to download the iPhone 4 Case Program app from the App Store. Funny, I know, but this app is probably used to take some of the confusion out of the process. Otherwise owners would have to input their serial numbers and that could get messy. From there it’s just a matter of selecting your bumper. That’s when you’ll discover the program’s nasty little secret.

While there are a bunch of different bumpers available, the only available color is black. Sorry if you were expecting to pick a color that will make you stand out from the rest of the iPhone lemmings. This is probably how Apple got so many manufacturers on board quickly as it’s sort of free advertising samples for the case makers. Once owners get tired of their black bumpers, they’ll likely head into an Apple Store and select a different color option.

But still, free is free and at least Apple is giving them away. The better option of course is to actually solve the death grip problem, but take what you can get — or return the phone.