Apple: Issuing the Wrong Challenge

There are plenty of design issues with mobile phones that certainly could use being addressed, and none of these universal concerns need to be urgently fixed.

Apple, however, certainly believes that they are not alone when it comes to suffering from an antenna issue. Steve Jobs stated that the issue is a challenge to the whole industry. What Apple seems to have forgotten is that with the literally thousands of unique handsets out there, only they are suffering from an antenna issue.

Sure, other mobile phones will lose a bar of signal, or even two, if it is held in a unique way. But none of these devices would actually drop user calls. The iPhone 4 however, is likely to drop a call if held in the left hand –a position where the exposed antenna strip is located. To state that the issue is an industry challenge is a long stretch, even for a company as Apple.

To further support their claim, Steve Jobs has also pointed out several mobile phones which are apparently suffering from antenna issues as well. Included in the presentation was the BlackBerry Bold 9700, the Samsung Omnia 2 and an HTC Android smart phone.

However, none of these devices have a history of massive call drops similar to what the Apple iPhone 4 is suffering from. And the makers of the various phones are not too happy being dragged into the mess that Apple is already into.

Research in Motion, creators of the BlackBerry, is among the first to speak up about the matter. They released an open letter that directly addressed the issue of antenna performance and clearly stated that no BlackBerry handset requires the use of a casing to be used properly.

They are quite right, in fact, aside from the iPhone 4, there is hardly any other device that requires a casing to function right.