If have you haven’t looked and any tech blogs, picked up a newspaper, or watched any news broadcast since last Thursday, you may not have known that Apple held a special press conference Friday to address reception issues that plague the iPhone 4. Steve Jobs, for the most part, down played the issue kind of making it seem like it is more perception than reality (nothing shocking there), however, did address iPhone 4 owners concerns by basically giving all iPhone users a case.
Steve Jobs, however, didn’t stop there. In a move that is pretty classless no matter how you look at it, he drug Research in Motion and Nokia into the conversation by, not only stating that handsets from both carriers suffer from the same type of problem plaguing the iPhone 4, but actually showing a video of a BlackBerry demonstrating the issue. Needless to say, this did not sit well with RIM…
RIM Co-CEOs, in a joint response to Apple, had this to say:
“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.”
– Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie
I am probably making this next part up, but, I might of heard, unofficially, that Jim Balsillie said that he was going to kick Steve Jobs’ you know what next time he sees him in the street.
[Via CrackBerry]
Yeah Steve Jobs is a clown for bringing the other companies into Apples mess.
This design looks great but the fact that noone had the common sense to realize that the wifi antenna could be bridged with the phone antenna is stupid. all that was needed what the bottom part to be plastic like most phones.
I have said this numerous times RIM is good at what they do. they design and make their own product. Apple does NOT manufacture its products. However i will say this it was overblown by the media and tech critics. Especially considering consumers are always getting screwed by these damn companies making devices that doesn’t live up to par.
The cries for a recall of the iphone 4 is foolish considering for some reason that not all the phones are affected.
The iphone 4 i purchased has no problems or issues and i also took it to the store for them to show me the problem and they couldn’t produce the antenna problems. Trust me Im not complaining. Im lucky because i never use cases on my phone. if it had those problems i would have gone to the conference and thrown it in Jobs arrogant face.
By the way Robb, spell check your articles. cheers mate
Can we get a grammar check on aisle 5 related to “Apples mess?” It would be “Apple’s mess” as you are speaking about a specific company and not generic apples. Humble pier is in aisle 6 if you are interested.
Cheers
I had to smother my AT&T Bold 9700 with both hands to duplicate this, and I still couldn’t get the phone down to one bar. At home, I can’t lose bars with my hands no matter what I do. At work, in a windowless concrete room, I was able to drop from 4 bars to 2 by smothering the phone with both hands. Using the “iPhone Death Grip” didn’t lose me any bars.
I really didn’t care much about this issue until Apple held that snarky press conference calling out other types of smartphones, AFTER Jobs blamed his customers for holding the phone wrong.
This leaves me to wonder how much of AT&T’s poor reputation for call drops and quality has to do with the iPhone itself. I’ve had AT&T service for a few years now, and I haven’t noticed a lot of dropped calls or other issues, outside visiting Manhatten.
Finally someone speaks out. I have always wondered if AT&T network was that bad, most of the bad reviews were from iphone users from day one. I still haven’t met a BlackBerry user on the AT&T network complaining of dropped calls and bad experiences.
I switched to AT&T from Nextel in 2007 when I got my first BlackBerry (8110 Pearl). At the time, Sprint was neglecting the hell out of the iDen network and I could barely get a phone call or a text message in my old i580. Keep in mind the 8100 series all ran on EDGE. Since then, I don’t recall any time where I looked at the phone after a dropped call and said “what the hell”! On the off chance I dropped a call, I was able to call right back…but I think I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve dropped a call.
I’ve had a Bold 9700 since January, and I haven’t had any major issue. I’m going to have to reach to even describe ANY problem at all…..for example:
I did experience service issues while on vacation in Las Vegas, where 3G would drop out and put me back on EDGE, and once while on tour in the area of the Hoover Dam I had no coverage at all. I’ve had spots in Manhatten where 3G coverage would drop, but EDGE was working.
I really do wonder if there are other, quieter problems, with all models of iPhone. I guess we will see when they get around to putting it on Verizon someday.
Well I’m not backing apple up at all but I am just saying that apple does have some proof to there argument. I tested with my blackberry curve 8900 from holding at the bottom where the two lines are it went from full reception to about 2 bars. I also tested this with my dads bold 9000 and same result
Again Im not saying that the arguments Steve Jobs are entirely true however they do have some truth to it.
Well, I’m glad that you qualified that you aren’t backing Apple up because you sure would have sounded like an Apple apologist if you hadn’t.
At the end of the day, the best lies have not just “some truth”, but, “a lot of truth” in them. That is why they sound plausible when you hear them. To make a long story short, Apple went with design of the iPhone 4 over function. They decided that a few dropped calls here and there wouldn’t be a bad thing so long as the device looked pretty. Apple should have just apologized, gave iPhone 4 users free cases, and moved on.
Instead, Apple felt it necessary to drag, not just RIM, but a bunch of other manufacturers in to the mix to show that it is possible to degrade a signal by muffling your antenna. Well, no s#!t Sherlock. Anyone with a basic understanding of physics should would understand that. Apple, with the iPhone 4, created a device that they new the antenna design, although pretty, actually exacerbates the issue as compared minimizing it, something that each of the manufactures that they pointed out does, and, in most cases, have done for decades.
OMG I try and before try it i gave 5 bars so if i do that is 2 bars