iPhone 4 rivals hit back at Jobs' claims

Stephen Withers
Monday, 19 July 2010 14:30

Your IT - Mobility

Steve Jobs' claim that there are shielding issues with all smartphones has stirred up a hornet's nest, with BlackBerry maker RIM, Nokia and HTC defending their products.

On Friday (US time) Apple CEO Steve Jobs defended the iPhone 4's antenna performance, essentially saying that all smartphones have a 'death grip' weakness, but that the design of the iPhone 4 shows the exact location of the weak point.

Jobs presentation included video clips showing how a normal looking grip on three smartphones from other manufacturers - BlackBerry Bold 9700, HTC Droid Eris, and Samsung Omnia II - can reduce the displayed signal strength from four or five bars to one or none.

Understandably, other handset companies aren't too happy with the comparison.

RIM, the company behind BlackBerry, issued a statement saying that "Apple's attempt to draw RIM into Apple’s self-made debacle is unacceptable", that "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", and that Apple "should take responsibility for these decisions rather than trying to draw RIM and others into a situation that relates specifically to Apple."

And HTC's Eric Lin told Pocket-lint that "Approximately .016% of customers" have complained about signal or antenna problems on the HTC Droid Eris. That's a lot lower than Jobs' 0.55% for the iPhone 4.

What about Nokia? See page 2.