Steve Jobs: BlackBerry, Android, Windows Mobile have antenna problem too
As part of Apple's iPhone 4 press conference today, CEO Steve Jobs took the opportunity to bring out a BlackBerry Bold 9700, HTC Droid Eric, and Samsung Omnia 2 and highlight each of those devices dropping from 4 to 1 or 0 bars as well.
Jobs also pointed out that the formulae used to calculate and display bars isn't standardized and everyone works out for themselves how they're going to do it. (As of iOS 4.0.1 Apple is now using AT&T's recommended formulae).
Lastly, he pointed out that Apple's highly visible black bar at the bottom left of the antenna array made the problem spot easier to find on iPhone 4.
[Slashgear, Android Central's response]
Editor-in-Chief of iMore, Executive Producer at Mobile Nations, co-host of Iterate and ZEN and TECH, cook, grappler, photon wrangler.
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This is bs.
Yeah but I didn't buy a blackberry or other phone...I bought a iPhone and want it to work better than the others
Fake and gay
BS! My blackberry doesn't drop bars even in weak signal. Nice try Steve. Just admit your antenna design is a complete failure.
So, how come my 3GS worked perfectly until I updated to OS 4.0? How come my wife also has a 3GS but stayed on 3.1.3 and her signal NEVER drops calls and we both work from home and use our phones at the same time?
Well, I have one, and unless I TRY to make this happen, it doesn't. Kinda like driving into a wall. If you do it on purpose, can you blame the car manufacturer for not building an idiot avoidance device into the car?
And, for the record, I can recreate the deathgrip on all of my friends smartphones AND a Motorola RAZR. Like I said, I have to try to MAKE it happen.
and my iPhone blows theirs outta the water... and no, I am not affiliated.
BS.
God, he's so full of crap
I remember the first cellphones (that certainly dates me!). They all had external antennas that often had to be extended to work properly. There has to be a trade off if we want phones with no antennas sticking out.
i dont know what that fool is talking about my droid works perfect
As I have been saying.. all phones have the so called antenna "problem" ... All humans block or scatter RF waves to a certain degree. DUH. The only people full of crap are the haters that keep coming to this blog to whine like babies.
Those of you saying your Droids and pager phones don't have this problem are mistaken. ALL phones lose some signal when held in a particular way.
The problem is a bit more pronounced and the spot easier to identify with the iPhone 4. But that does not make it a bad or defective phone or design in any way.
I have had Palms, Blackberrys, Motorola's and many others. This is my first iPhone and I have not dropped a call or lost data yet. This is an example of ignorant media over blowing something because it is a big story.
I can pick a number of things to hammer Apple about (closed system, app store decisions, flash and more) but this is not a big deal.
Are the max and min cells backwards on that chart?
@Everyone saying their andorid or bb doesn't drop, he didint' say ALL of them do. Just as not ALL iPhone users experience this problem either. My iPhone4 has yet to drop a call and always get perfect reception.
Drink the CoolAid people. Keep it up.
Believe everything Apple tells you, even when they told you yesterday they had no advance knowledge of this problem and they told you today they knew about it all the time.
@ADAM:
It doesn't take a Death grip.
Just a finger in the right place.
Stop it! Stop apologizing for apple. It makes you look silly.
If you insulate the antenna properly, human skin won't attenuate the signal. It is the conductivity of human skin that causes the issue. This is not the only phone with this problem, but the problem is real, and is quite bad on the iPhone compared to some other devices, and the antenna is placed in an inconvenient location.
I haven't been able to MAKE my Droid lose bars, no matter how hard I try. Everything is well insulated.
Instead of comparing to other old phones .. why doesn't he compare it to the current Premium phones out there.. Blackberry Tour , HTC Evo , etc..
or here's a thought . compare it to the 3GS .. your product is not supposed to get worse as you evolve.. bottom line is the 3GS did not have that problem but that Iphone 4 does...
So will all the BB owners out there get a free bumper from Apple when they ruin their BB trying to reproduce this BS. I have a 9700 and when holding the device normally I have no issues, very hesitant to give my phone a "death grip" as I don't know what internal components I am damaging to recreate this. Blackberry really needs to issue a warning not to try this at home!
Just my ￥2. A note included in my Nokia N-Series 3G/GSM user guide published in 2006. . "Note: As with any other radio transmitting device, do not touch the antenna unnecessarily when the device is switched on. Contact with the antenna affects call quality and may cause the device to operate at a higher power level than otherwise needed. Avoiding contact with the antenna area when operating the device optimizes the antenna performance and the battery life."
Watching this all from Tokyo reminds me of that song "Dirty Laundry" by Don Henley.
I have a 9700 and I tried the death grip, it went down 1 bar and went right back up in 1 second. Blackberry is a WAY better designer of radios and antenna than Apple. I dislike apple more now for trying to be so damn arrogant. I shouldn't NEED a case just to be able to make phone calls or to be online. That's a HUGE flaw. It SHOULDN'T drop signals if it were a PROPER phone. I know the fanbois will hate me
but I'm saying the truth. This is a communication device. If it can't let you communicate because you bridge the gap with your finger (no grip needed) then it's flawed. My Bold 9700 and every other blackberry I've owned have never had this issue. Thank God. Cya apple!
Buy an Android phone or blackberry and u won't have this problem!! F u Steve Jobs!!
I am a current Omnia (910) user on Verizon who was quite disappointed with Windows Mobile 6.1 and Samsung's shell. Wound up acquiring SPB Mobile Shell to have a usable interface and had to abandon Exchange e-mail caused by protection restrictions. Generally anytime you tried to place or obtain a call, you needed to enter your PIN and I was missing calls as a result. As a final point decided to abandon smartphones for the time being (economic explanations) and wait for an excellent Android unit. The Galaxy S (Facinate) need to fit the bill. Disappointed to hear from the GPS troubles. Let me add that Verizon's 3G support was excellent all through and I at some point stopped applying WiFi mainly because V3G was plenty rapidly adequate for me.Interestingly, I'm using the Omnia as being a wireless device close to the property for checking electronic mail, Twitter, Facebook and easy browsing. But not as a phone!
Steve Jobs stood on the stage and his best defence was that Apple's flagship product isn't worse than some SKU's in their competitors' product lines.
He's on tilt.
I have a Droid Incredible, and Eris, and Iphone 4 the iphone issued by work and The only way I can get calls (NOT ALWAYS THO) but I have to transfer my iphone4 to my Droid (Call Forwarding) It is a hard thing to do every time when I answer the iphone4 is to grab it the right way like Steve Jobs tells us to, I have dropped several very important calls from Clients and lost 1 account do to this, client thought hung up the phone on them. Way to go, you have a product with a problem and you dont fix it before selling it to the public you are irresponsible. Steve Jobs go to a retirement home and fade away!! I will never buy an apple product, my boss has since replaced his own phone with a droid!!! Watch out apple the droid is here to stay and make you honest, fix the phones, recall them all and destroy them and redesign the iphone to fix this problem!
Also a better network might be the answer aswell!!
iWife 4.0 Us: Holy crap Steve Jobs, you're wife is ugly!!! jobs: Meh, all wives are ugly!
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