At the special iPhone 4 conference yesterday, Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs showed videos of RIM’s BlackBerry Bold 9700, HTC’s Droid Eric, Samsung’s Omnia II lose signal strength when they're gripped in a certain way.
Apple also published new pages on its website, where it is trying to educate users about smartphone antenna performance and their weak spots.
At the press conference, Steve Jobs explained that they’ve got to the heart of the problem, and that is smartphone have weak spots, which was a challenge not just for Apple but also for the entire mobile industry.
Not surprisingly, this hasn’t gone down too well with Apple’s competitors. RIM, Nokia, HTC and Motorola have fired back at Apple for drawing them into the antenna issue.
Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie, RIM’s co-CEOs issued the following statement:
Apple’s attempt to draw RIM into Apple’s self-made debacle is unacceptable. 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. RIM is a global leader in antenna design and has been successfully designing industry-leading wireless data products with efficient and effective radio performance for over 20 years. During that time, 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. One thing is for certain, RIM’s customers don’t need to use a case for their BlackBerry smartphone to maintain proper connectivity. Apple clearly made certain design decisions and it should take responsibility for these decisions rather than trying to draw RIM and others into a situation that relates specifically to Apple.
Nokia issued the following statement pointing out that it prioritizes antenna performance over physical design:
"Antenna design is a complex subject and has been a core competence at Nokia for decades, across hundreds of phone models. Nokia was the pioneer in internal antennas; the Nokia 8810, launched in 1998, was the first commercial phone with this feature.
Nokia has invested thousands of man hours in studying human behavior, including how people hold their phones for calls, music playing, web browsing and so on. As you would expect from a company focused on connecting people, we prioritize antenna performance over physical design if they are ever in conflict.
In general, antenna performance of a mobile device/phone may be affected with a tight grip, depending on how the device is held. 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."
HTC hasn’t responded with an official comment but Eric Lin, global head of PR at HTC revealed that they had very few complaints about signal or antenna problems on the HTC Droid Eris.
"Approximately .016% of customers, we have had very few complaints about signal or antenna problems on the Eris."
Sanjay Jha, co-CEO of Motorola said in a statement:
"It is common knowledge in the industry that antennas on the outside of products have known issues, and despite the fact that they lead to smaller phones we have avoided them because consumers don't like being told how to hold the phone.
While the whole industry has to deal with phones being held in different ways, it is disingenuous to suggest that all phones perform equally. In our own testing we have found that Droid X performs much better than iPhone4 when held by consumers."
We expect Samsung to respond as well as Apple had demoed Samsung Omania II drop signal strength when it is gripped in a certain way. We don’t think this will be the last we’ve heard from Apple’s competitors.
But one thing is clear, due to the iPhone 4 reception saga any smartphone that is released going forward will be closely scrutinized for antenna issues.
[via CrackBerry, Engadget, WSJ, CNBC]
this thing can b a blessing in disguise, u see if we want to avoid certain call, we juz do a death grip n then blame it on the phone=) if not we juz put on the free rubber=p smart move by S.J
just to add on, who doesn't buy a cover to protect their Iphone? they r trying to educate us to take care of our iphone. if u do not want to protect ur iphone u might as well not make a call. smart move again S.J
I have reception, Proximity sensor and heating issues with my iphone 4.
I called tech support for help and he offered me replacement phone to be picked up at store. But store GENIUS guy says he cannot give a replacement as his Iphone diagnotic report looks okay.
He asked me to re-create all the issues right there which i couldn't.
My issues:
1. reception issue.
2. Proximity sensor – When i am in a call, Iphone screen touches my face and puts caller on hold, mutes, goes to contacts, etc..
genius guy says- Proximity sensor is sensitive to light and i have to keep the surroundings dark.
. He kept proving proximity sensor works great by putting a finger over the sensor. ( i kept asking him hold it to ear)
It seems like i have to turn off the lights before i make a call
3. Heating- If you have apps (ex: Trapster) running in the background, it overheats and discharges the battery really quick.
genius's response – You have to get a Overheating message on the iphone to prove this.
My response – I cannot because before it reaches the overheat temperature, battery dies (goes to 0%).
Finally, I am sick of this Crappy phone. I am returning it.
Anybody else who had similar issues??
–
Torque 9p
Did anyone else notice that his rant is one long sentence, with no punctuation at the end as well? I am all for apple products and have thankfully been unaffected by the death grip reception flaw. I do however have the wonderful proximity sensor issue and just put most calls on speaker to deal with it.
It was pretty lame to see Jobs "blast" the other leading companies, many of which have been doing phones much longer than Apple has. Yes, most phones do in some degree have reception issues but an issue caused by a design flaw should just be admitted. I know many people have said this, but just because maybe if Apple sees it enough on the internet:
If Jobs had just admitted there was a flaw and they will fix it via bumpers now and a better design for iphone 5.0, I would have been fine and happy. Hell, make a coating that people with phones made in that "faulty" time frame (Say production weeks 18-25) can pickup or had applied in store and I'm sure most of us would be happy.
But coping out by saying everyone else does this too just comes across as lazy and insincere.
not really. the companies dragged themselves in when they started making ads and such about iphone's issue, claiming their phones wont drop bars when held a certain way, or any way. apple is just responding to those ads and comments.