Mon, 07/19/2010 – 11:04 by Even before Friday’s Apple press conference about “antennagate,” Verizon was exploiting Apple’s problems in ads promoting its Android phones in a full-page newspaper ad in the NY Times. Part of the ad copy read:
And most importantly, it comes with a double antenna design. The kind that allows you to hold the phone any way you like and use it just about anywhere to make crystal clear calls.
Then on Friday, during the press conference, Jobs now infamously said that the iPhone’s antenna problems weren’t unique, other smartphones have them too. Then the
angry reactions and pile-on began.
At once defending themselves and sensing that there was “blood in the water” out the competitor’s
statements came:
“We have not received significant customer feedback on any signal reduction issue for the Omnia II,” Samsung said in a statement . . .
“Apple’s attempt to draw RIM into Apple’s self-made debacle is unacceptable,” RIM co-Chief Executives Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie said in a statement emailed late Friday.
And from
Nokia:
Nokia has invested thousands of man hours in studying human behavior, including how people hold their phones for calls, music playing, web browsing and so on. As you would expect from a company focused on connecting people, we prioritize antenna performance over physical design if they are ever in conflict.
Motorola also argued that its handsets are free from the antenna problems suffered by iPhone 4.
Quick to defend themselves against what they thought were unfair comparisons, Apple’s competitors relished a rare moment of vulnerability for the iconic device. Until now it had seemed invulnerable and unbeatable.
