Are antenna grip problems universal among smartphones? Even if they are, handset makers RIM, Nokia, and HTC are not happy with Apple for insinuating that the iPhone 4 isn't alone in suffering from signal loss when gripped in a certain way.
During a press conference on Friday, Apple CEO Steve Jobs called media coverage of the iPhone 4's antenna problems overblown. Jobs said that reception issues were something common to all smartphones, playing a video that showed smartphones from HTC, Samsung, and other manufacturers dropping signal when held in various ways.
Apple's attempt to paint other smartphones with the same wide brush didn't sit well with RIM, makers of the BlackBerry. Calling the whole saga "Apple's self-made debacle," RIM co-CEOs Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie didn't mince words. "Apple's claims about RIM products appear to be deliberate attempts to distort the public's understanding of an antenna design issue and to deflect attention from Apple's difficult situation," they said in a statement obtained by CrackBerry. "RIM has avoided designs like the one Apple used in the iPhone 4 and instead has used innovative designs which reduce the risk for dropped calls, especially in areas of lower coverage."
The co-CEOs also slammed Apple for its free case program, pointing out that all BlackBerrys can maintain "proper connectivity" without having to resort to cases and bumpers. They concluded by criticizing Apple for shirking responsibility for its design choices by accusing other hardware makers of making similar antenna tradeoffs.
HTC was more restrained, even though a Droid Eris was shown dropping from four bars to zero during Apple's video. Instead, HTC highlighted user satisfaction and a corresponding lack of complaints about the Eris' design. "We have had very few complaints about signal or antenna problems on the Eris," a company spokesperson told Pocket-lint. He said that only about 0.016 percent of Eris owners have complained to the manufacturer about dropped calls and signal weakness, compared to 0.55 percent of iPhone 4 owners.
Jobs also singled out Nokia, highlighting models from the Finnish company that ship with stickers on the reverse saying "don't touch here." Nokia defended itself, saying on its corporate blog that it considers antenna design a "core competence for decades."
Nokia says it designs its phones to account for real-world usage, including a variety of grips. "In general, antenna performance of a mobile device/phone may be affected with a tight grip, depending on how the device is held," the company said. "That’s why Nokia designs our phones to ensure acceptable performance in all real life cases, for example when the phone is held in either hand. Nokia has invested thousands of man hours in studying how people hold their phones and allows for this in designs, for example by having antennas both at the top and bottom of the phone and by careful selection of materials and their use in the mechanical design."
In the same way that widespread user and media criticism of the iPhone 4 antenna problem touched a nerve within Apple, the iPhone maker's saying that its latest gadget is just one of many smartphones with signal loss problems has aroused the ire of its competitors. All handset makers are faced with antenna design challenges, but only Apple has managed to bring its antenna design decisions so spectacularly into the public consciousness. That's not something Cupertino should feel good about.
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