Antennagate – Samsung and Motorola Follows RIM, Nokia and HTC to Answer Apple
The Friday’s conference called by Apple to talk about the signal strength issues faced by its iPhone 4 has definitely roused the reactions from other top cell phone manufacturers. In the conference, the top models from different cell phone manufacturers were shown on the slides, claiming that all of them face the signal reception problem, Apple’s iPhone not being the only one.
Among the top models demonstrated to have signal reception problem were the Samsung Omnia II, Blackberry Bold 9700 and HTC Droid Eris, along with the devices manufactured by Motorola. Within few hours of the conference, the manufacturers started responding to the Apple’s move.
The first one to respond was Research in Motion who criticized Apple for dragging others in its self-made disaster. RIM claimed that they have always avoided the kind of antenna design used by Apple in its iPhone designs and have followed innovative ideas to maintain proper connectivity.
HTC claimed that only a small fraction of the Droid Iris users complained about the phone’s antenna issues. Nokia, though not mentioned in the slides, issued a statement about the priority it gives to the high-performance antenna design.
Samsung has a more serious reason to respond to the Apple’s move, as the latter went further to demonstrate how the Omnia II drops signal when the users hold it in a specified way. The company claims that its devices have antenna located at the bottom, keeping it distance apart from the user’s hand. Motorola true has come up justifying that its devices don’t have antennas outside of the phone.
Antenna design is indeed a complex issue which is capable of triggering such heated exchange of words.
