Other Smart Phone Makers Slam Apple's Antenna Claims

Steve Jobs Claims Apple's Problems are Common to Smart Phones (Photo from Apple Video)

Before he announced he was giving every iPhone 4 user a free case and an opportunity to return the phone for a free refund if they weren't happy, Steve Jobs took several minutes to make the case that the problems with the iPhone 4's antenna are no different than those of other smart phones. (Click here to video Apple's press conference)

Do all Smart Phones Suffer from Grip of Death?

To make his point, he showed videos of people gripping a Blackberry Bold 9700, an HTC Droid Eris and a Samsung Omnia II that showed all phones lost signal strength if gripped in a certain way. The Blackberry Bold's signal strength meter dropped from 4 to 1, the HTC Droid Eros from 4 to 0 and the Samsung Omia from 4 to 1. When the person in the video released his grip, the bars went back up.

Other Phone Makers Beg to Differ

Jobs demonstration didn't convince makers of other phones. Research in Motion, which makes the Blackberry quickly retorted that "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." (Scroll down for full statement)

Other phone makers also chimed in. All Things Digital quoted HTC saying "[Apple] apparently didn't give operators enough time to test the phone." Motorola, according to the site says that it has avoided using external antennas "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."

Nokia issued a statement that "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."

RIM's full 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."

iPhone Antenna Song

Steve Jobs began Friday's press conference by showing a video that makes fun of people who are complaining about the iPhone 4's antenna problem to the refrain "If you don't want an iPhone 4, don't buy it. If you bought one and don't like it, bring it back."

 

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Comments

[Whinger]

09:18 AM on 07/21/2010

Yeah well, I didn't buy a iPhone, I bought a HTC, best phone I ever owned.....

No antenna detuning problems and very rarely drops a signal, happy days!

[garder54]

08:05 AM on 07/21/2010

None of this matters, Apple could put their logo on a brick and kids would be carrying those around in their pockets. Their buzz will get them through any hiccups they come across.
The arrogance this guy (Jobs) has shown throughout this whole process makes me personally STRONGLY dislike apple. But I'm sure the teen-boppe­rs don't care about this at all. As long as they can play Angry Birds.

[iamvalid]

09:57 AM on 07/21/2010

Fanned. Been saying the same thing for thirty years. Just wait until Apple comes out with the Motorola 68030 processor. Microsoft and Intel will be finished. Thirty years later and nothing has changed.

BTW, today is Wednesday. Who is Apple going to blame today?

[LelandHendrix]

01:55 AM on 07/22/2010

Your confession of being an Apple hater immediatel­y invalidate­s your comments, as you have stated your views are immediatel­y skewed!

If you could have just kept that to yourself, you might have been able to slip in your comments and people might have considered them.

Your views=null

Shot yourself in the foot, eh?

[theGreatWavespeaks]

11:35 PM on 07/20/2010

Given their unreliabil­ity, and need for a plastic shroud which circumvent­s their thinness and glossy glass case, it is clear only the very dumb and young would even consider buying an iphone when
Androids phones are infinitely superior on any count. By August the choices out there should be startling. The idea of an android phone being a wifi hub is seriously appealing to me. Connectivi­ty for my laptop anywhere for a single charge. How cool can you get. APPLE IS
SO RETRO IT IS AMAZING THEY CAN EVEN SELL ONE.

[JasonMcl]

11:07 PM on 07/20/2010

When you go out of your way to so universall­y praise a company so unconditio­nally regardless of what they do, things like this happen.

Apple has made a very critical mistake here in a department that people are not accustomed to seeing. Hardware. Apparently this has been happening for 3 generation­s of phones because most other AT&T devices do not drop calls in this manner.

The reason this mistake slipped past was because the media and Apple's followers spent way too much time praising the product and not enough time trying to make it better. All this time it has been dropping calls and people pinned the problem on AT&T, I mean even Jon Stewart mentioned the very same thing when he scolded them recently.

During all this time, all it would have taken was enough people to stand up and say "Hey, why are my other phones working fine on this network but not the iPhone?" and maybe something would have been done about it before the launch of the 4.

If you guys really care about Apple and want to see them continue to be successful­, then be sure to actually throw some criticism at them every now and then when they do something worthy of it.

Or you can just continue to buy everything they make until they are wrapping bricks in silver and stenciling their logos on it.

[LelandHendrix]

01:56 AM on 07/22/2010

Correction­: iPhone 3GS drops fewer calls than smartphone industry standard.

[JasonMcl]

08:20 AM on 07/22/2010

The industry standard must be a lot of dropped calls!

When Jon Stewart himself says it drops too many calls, it probably drops too many calls. Why do you think all that AT&T hate existed for so long?

This thing has always dropped calls, the difference is that you used to just blame At&t.

[drywdragon]

10:54 PM on 07/20/2010

None of these phone makers actually deny that their phone will lose signal strength if gripped a certain way. Why isn't anyone demanding a recall of those phones? Why isn't the media investigat­ing apples claims about these other phone models instead of just printing company talking points? Doesn't that seem like a double standard or is it okay because no one cares about these other phones? Isn't the fact that very few people are actually returning their iPhones a pretty strong argument that antennagat­e has been blown out of proportion­? I'll stick with the best smart phone in every category (according to consumer reports) and simply not hold it with a death grip.

[Ryan Thompson]

02:56 AM on 07/21/2010

You sound fair and/or balanced.

[Mwenda Kobia]

04:46 AM on 07/21/2010

The thing is, no one else is really complainin­g about death grips as much as Iphone4 users who have experience­d it.

The praise and over-exagg­errated accolades that accompanie­d the phone during the release has obviously raised the expectatio­ns of the product to much higher levels- the design flaw of the antenna isn't really a big deal, but when you proclaim to be the best that there is, and perfection in its simplicity­... such a simple flaw becomes a big deal. You cannot call yourself the best phone in the market when it has a hardware defect!

Apple only have their own hype to blame for this fiasco- Android was plagued with serious security issues and flaws when it first came out... but without being in the global limelight- they all got smoothly resolved and now have a little time to boast/poke fun/advert­ise their product shamelessl­y.

This will all pass and be forgotten with- once Apple unveils their magic trackpad (finally!)

[RattleCat]

06:18 PM on 07/20/2010

Wow - like them or not, Apple blew past the street's expectatio­ns for Q2, and announced sales of iphones are continuing to exceed supply.

[rcpmac]

10:57 PM on 07/20/2010

I like them.

[Ryan Thompson]

02:58 AM on 07/21/2010

If customers are willing to live with problems they would normally report for any other product, all for the sake of image- its not hard to make 'THE BUCKS' as they say. I'm not knockin em- they can buy what they want- but as companies continue to move the quality control needle in their favor, we'll have to sleep in the crappy rickety leaky bed thats shooting sparks that we've made.

[RattleCat]

08:16 AM on 07/21/2010

Consumer enthusiasm is common in the tech world. Microsoft, Sony, etc. all have their own followings that buy year after year.

But I will say this about Apple - more times than not they've done the right thing. You can still walk into an Apple store with a laptop battery and walk out with a new one at no cost. Wish I could have done that with Windows Vista. :)

Now that being said, past performanc­e is not a guarantee of future performanc­e, and once this antenna issue is resolved, it will be very telling to see how they approach current product owners.

[LelandHendrix]

02:04 AM on 07/22/2010

Why do you and so many others think owners of Apple products are consumed with "image"???­?

For crying out loud, can't someone just like a product? Like it for what it does for them, for features, and maybe for software that's available for that device?

Regardless of what their marketing people do to try and make the phone look "cool," to a young demographi­c, there is no way that so many of these would sell if it were only about image or the logo!

Look at the numbers, the facts, the creative profession­als who swear by Macs! I mean, they actually make a *PRODUCT*, you know!?

[PeterOregon]

05:27 PM on 07/20/2010

The one difference between Apple acolytes and the rest of us: We hate Gates and treat our phones and computers as necessary tools rather than fashion statements­.

Oh, we also have a lot more money in our pockets.

[RattleCat]

06:02 PM on 07/20/2010

"We hate Gates.....­."

One might say that makes you worse than any "acolyte".

[Caru]

03:23 PM on 07/20/2010

Why is it called the iPhone 4? As I recall, there was the "iPod", the "2nd Gen iPod", and then the "iPhone". We're missing 2 generation­s of "iPhones".

[RattleCat]

03:28 PM on 07/20/2010

Originally the '3G' described the network, rather than the revision of the phone.

Who knows what the 4 means - other than just an increment over the 3.

[Caru]

03:35 PM on 07/20/2010

It's like the razors. Three blades aren't enough, we need four, no, five blades!

[LelandHendrix]

02:08 AM on 07/22/2010

Really?

Here is the history of iPhones, in order:
2007 iPhone
2008 iPhone 3G
2009 iPhone 3GS
2010 iPhone 4

You'll notice that iPhone 4 is the FOURTH PHONE Apple has ever made. Hence "iPhone 4". Get it?

[Krek]

02:52 PM on 07/20/2010

Apple doesn't involve other companies when it trumpets its own successes so it shouldn't involve other companies when it's trying to excuse its own failures.

[LightShadow62]

03:06 PM on 07/20/2010

Remember, Apple is 'Magical'

In the Magic game what Apple is doing is call misdirecti­on, calling your attention to something that is meaningles­s in order to slip something by you.

[theGreatWavespeaks]

03:13 PM on 07/20/2010

the word is decoy. was successful­ly used by Allies in the invasion of Europe in June of 44.

[KennyT]

06:43 PM on 07/20/2010

"If you don't want an iPhone 4, don't buy it. If you bought one and don't like it, bring it back."

[rcpmac]

11:01 PM on 07/20/2010

Absolutely untrue.
Most keynote addresses by Jobs feature industry leaders other than apple. Among them - Eric Schmidt of Google, IBM CFO, Adobe CFO, even Bill Gates!

[RattleCat]

02:41 PM on 07/20/2010

For a company that has built up a good track record on marketing, this really was just a plain_stup­id move on Job's part.

ANY time you have a perceived defect in your product, you want publicity to naturally fade on its own. You don't throw gasoline on the fire by bringing all your competitor­s into the arena with you. Every single one of those companies would have been content to remain silent on the sidelines, knowing damn_well that the next flaw on the next phone could be theirs. But apparently that wasn't good enough for Jobs.

Millions of products released over centuries had flaws. Those flaws were fixed, and the products flourished­. The best thing Jobs can do is to remain silent and let his folks fix the flaws. In a months time, no one would have even remembered there was a problem.

[RattleCat]

02:45 PM on 07/20/2010

Ummm mauds, you really didn't need to approve both of them.

[KennyT]

02:50 PM on 07/20/2010

But who has stopped buying the iPhone? Who has returned the iPhone? Also, it's unlikely that Apple's competitor­s have stayed out of it. The people here who have commented on the iPhone -- people who don't own one -- have been pushing other phones; Coincidenc­e? The Verizon iPhone rumors are another example of manipulati­ng the market. This rumor has circulated for a while, but it's never been true. There has certainly been an effort to discourage people from buying iPhone 4 based on what they've read, but it doesn't seem to be working. The iPhone 4 story seems to losing steam, which is good, because it was always an exaggerate­d story.

[RattleCat]

02:56 PM on 07/20/2010

"Also, it's unlikely that Apple's competitor­s have stayed out of it"

And yet, prior to Job's "challenge­", they were silent. I'm not talking about the fans or anti-fans. I'm talking about the actual comps.

And I agree, that prior to Job's challenge, the exposure was limited to the tech community. However, many of the most successful marketing campaigns in the business have come from challenges such as this, and I cannot rule out a competitor taking off the gloves now that first_bloo­d has been drawn.

[Geoffreys]

03:20 PM on 07/20/2010

so, you think a fanboy and the corporatio­n are the same thing?

[RattleCat]

02:39 PM on 07/20/2010

For a company that has built up a good track record on marketing, this really was just a plain stupid move on Job's part.

ANY time you have a perceived defect in your product, you want publicity to naturally fade on its own. You don't throw gasoline on the fire by bringing all your competitor­s into the arena with you. Every single one of those companies would have been content to remain silent on the sidelines, knowing damn_well that the next flaw on the next phone could be theirs. But apparently that wasn't good enough for Jobs.

Millions of products released over centuries had flaws. Those flaws were fixed, and the products flourished­. The best thing Jobs can do is to remain silent and let his folks fix the flaws. In a months time, no one would have even remembered there was a problem.

[izmunuti]

02:14 PM on 07/20/2010

Haha! This is just other companies trying to pile on Apple - read the other companies PR statements carefully - none of them explicitly deny that the exact same effect happens with their phones. It's on the video, you can see it happen.

[eri 68]

02:31 PM on 07/20/2010

I think RIM stated it pretty clearly but I didn't need a statement from them to tell me what I already know. I've used many different Blackberry­s and never once experience­d a loss of signal issue, not once ever, regardless how I held the phone.

I've never owned either iPhone because AT&T is a crap carrier but would definitely avoid the phone even if it came to my carrier.

I should add my secondary reason for not buying an iPhone is that I don't care for onscreen keyboards, I recently bought and returned the new HTC Evo for this very reason. It was an amazing phone (again never had any issue with signal loss no matter how I held it) but I just don't like the feel of onscreen keypadding­.

I've always liked Apple products but Steve Jobs continued arrogance and condescend­ing behavior is quickly losing my respect.

[LelandHendrix]

02:13 AM on 07/22/2010

You've always liked Apple products..­so why do you even give a flip about SJ?

It's not like they include him or a lock of his hair in the box along with your product.

I mean really, when Pres. GW Bush said embarrassi­ng things to the world, it didn't make me like the USA any less!

[theGreatWavespeaks]

02:31 PM on 07/20/2010

One thing is absolutely clear == why did APPLE make the rear of the case glass if they expected people to put wrap it in plastic? What is the point? Obviously the antenna design error is so awesome it was necessary to displace the blame to the entire industry, which was patently ridiculous to everyone. Job in this demonstrat­ion sank down into the swamp of late night infocommer­cials selling vegetable choppers; the entire world is still laughing at this humiliatin­g attempt to bamboozle the public with total absolute nonsense. Apple can not still quite grasp
that CONSUMER REPORTS has clearly stated its recommenda­tion is to avoid ip4. The
darkest day in the history of Apple and now made even darker by Jobs going over to be a late night con artist infocommer­cial master.

[theGreatWavespeaks]

02:45 PM on 07/20/2010

Perhaps Apple will announce another commercial for this Friday where Jobs does another infocommer­cial demonstrat­ing an entire range of colors for the new bumpers, from the whole color spectrum. He can show a number of packages of multi-bump­er packs with sets of colors, so people can change them depending on what they are wearing and where they are going. For example, if you are going on Safari wear camoflage clothes there could be a green tan bumper. Or if you are off to the beach, colors to match your bikini, etc. Jobs could do an awesome job of this and begin to make people comfortabl­e with
the idea of the bumper as essentialy in line with the Apple ideas about style and fashion
in conjunctio­n with functional­ity. A full hour infocommer­cial would be terrific and help
dump the 20 million iphones in inventory, dump them internatio­nally and domestical­ly.

[KennyT]

04:09 PM on 07/20/2010

Consumer Reports didn't say "avoid." It said it couldn't recommend the phone until it was fixed. I assume that when the hard fix comes at the end of Sept., their original glowing review will stand.

Boo-hoo!

[Craig 212]

01:13 PM on 07/20/2010

Correct me if I'm wrong, but this antenna problem is just with the newest version of the iPhone, yes? If this is such a common problem with smart phones, why didn't older iPhone models suffer from the same problem?

[eri 68]

02:31 PM on 07/20/2010

Exactly.

[capsaicin]

02:33 PM on 07/20/2010

Excellent question.. perhaps you could ask Steve Jobs that question and receive a snide, defensive 4-word email in reply!

[SickHippie]

03:18 PM on 07/20/2010

"Don't like? Don't buy."

[ResearchtheFacts]

01:07 PM on 07/20/2010

He is right about that. Cell phones aren't perfect, until his version of one fell off its high horse. He can dish it out, but can't take it.

But guess what Jobs--the phone part, in the least, should work. Otherwise what is the point? Oh, I forgot to get locked into five year service plans and to buy apps. Your customer base is the gift that keeps giving.

[dmsdzinr]

12:55 PM on 07/20/2010

It AMAZES me how much the competitio­n and the End Users want to see Apple FAIL! Maybe it is because the Competitio­n cannot keep up and the End Users are looking for Perfection­. I hope shredding Apple makes you folks happy! I use Apple/Mac because their products are SUPERIOR, even with a few flaws.

[SickHippie]

03:35 PM on 07/20/2010

The "End Users", all of us unwashed masses, don't really want to see Apple 'fail'. What we want is an end to the touting of a single device as 'perfect'. All we really want is to see Apple get knocked down a notch, not knocked down for good. We want to see Apple realize it is not better than the other competitio­n, just different. We want normal marketing, not promises of magic and revolution­. We are tired of being misled.

Apple trying to drag their competitor­s into it during the press conference was a new low point for them. It smacked of an election year ad campaign by a struggling incumbent - all finger pointing and no taking responsibi­lity.

The truth is, no single device is perfect for everyone. I prefer a physical keyboard - iPhone is not perfect for me. I cannot use iTunes (my music library is too large) - iPhone is not perfect for me. I do not want to pay extra for cloud storage via MobileMe (something Google provides for free) - iPhone is not perfect for me.

Apple's mobile products are not 'superior' except during the buildup, media hype, and initial release. After that, they are just another phone on the shelf in the AT&T store. I'm not going to go into the Apple/PC discussion save to say any artist, videograph­er, musician, or photograph­er should have a Mac. Beyond that, it is 100% user choice, no arguments will change that.

[Eris23]

04:30 PM on 07/20/2010

"I'm not going to go into the Apple/PC discussion save to say any artist, videograph­er, musician, or photograph­er should have a Mac. Beyond that, it is 100% user choice, no arguments will change that. "

I'm just going to add that I haven't needed a Mac for those purposes in about a decade. There is no noticable advantage of one over the other when it comes to that now. There's just a price difference­.

[LelandHendrix]

02:21 AM on 07/22/2010

Distortion­.

Please show me anywhere, even one place, that Apple claims iPhone 4 is perfect, as you repeatedly claim they have!

Yo are twisting reality to try and build a failing point.

[Eris23]

04:27 PM on 07/20/2010

"I use Apple/Mac because their products are SUPERIOR"

Doubtful.