Nokia, RIM & Samsung To Apple: Sink Your Own Ship

During its Press Conference Friday, Apple made sure to let us know that “we’re not the only ones with signal problems” and without any sort of reserve or tact, proceeded to snitch on other major mobile device manufacturers for also having ‘death grip’ issues.

As you would expect, Nokia, RIM (makers of BlackBerry), and Samsung had something to say about Apple throwing them under the bus. Let’s start with Nokia:

“As we’ve all seen, Apple had mentioned Nokia in their press conference today regarding the iPhone4. I wanted to take a moment and send you a statement regarding Nokia’s own antenna design and function.
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.”

Basically, Nokia let us (and Apple) know that it’s been in the cell phone game for a long time…longer than Apple, and know a thing or two about antenna design. More importantly, Nokia would never sacrifice call quality or signal strength for a pretty case.

RIM, on the other hand, went in a little harder on Apple with their 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.”

RIM has also developed mobile devices long before the iPhone, and according to this statement, stayed away from designs like the iPhone 4 specifically due to antenna design. Like Nokia, RIM also slammed Apple for choosing form over function, and tells Apple to take responsibility for its own actions, and additionally assured BlackBerry owners that they can hold their phones however they like – no bumper.

Even Apple’s cohorts are chiming in order to distance themselves from Antennagate. Albeit very politely (due to Apple using Samsung chips), Samsung also had something to say about the recent Apple Antennagate name-dropping:

“The antenna is located at the bottom of the Omnia 2 phone, while iPhone’s antenna is on the lower left side of the device. Our design keeps the distance between a hand and an antenna. We have fully conducted field tests before the rollout of smartphones. Reception problems have not happened so far, and there is no room for such problems to happen in the future.”

Sounds like Apple is getting the “don’t worry about what everybody else is doing” lecture we all got from our parents at one time or another when we had to come in the house when our friends got to stay outside longer.

Let me be sure to get your .02 cents – Was Apple justified in citing examples of other cell phone manufactuers with issues regarding signal strength when being held a certain way?

About the Author
Terrance Gaines is a husband, father and self-proclaimed Technology Evangelist who shares tech news, reviews, tips and tricks on his blog BrothaTech.com as well as other sites and in print media. You can also find him talking "all things tech" on Twitter @BrothaTech.
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