Nokia, RIM, HTC dispute Apple's Antennagate finger pointing

Nokia, Research in Motion and HTC have all released statements refuting Apple's claim that smartphones designed by these companies suffer similar signal issues to the iPhone 4.

To explain reception issues relating to the iPhone 4, Apple CEO Steve Jobs pointed to other popular smartphones in the market and told his audience that "most smartphones" have similar antenna attenuation problems experienced by early adopters of Apple's latest mobile device. Jobs illustrated this point by playing a video showing signal loss on a BlackBerry Bold, Motorola Droid and HTC Eris.

Spokespersons from three of the world's largest phone makers have struck back, denying Apple's claims. RIM's co-CEOs Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie made a joint statement reflecting attention away from BlackBerry handsets saying, "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."

Nokia and HTC made statements with a similar sentiment, the Finnish phone maker stated "We prioritise antenna performance over physical design if they are ever in conflict", and a PR spokesperson for HTC claimed a "0.16 per cent" customer complaint ratio pertaining to the HTC Eris (a discontinued handset) in a statement made to Pocket-Lint.

Apple called a press conference last Friday to address growing concern about the iPhone 4's "death grip", which is when there is signal loss caused by covering a section of the phone's external antenna. Jobs told attendees that the antenna issue was "blown way out of proportion" and that only 0.55 per cent of iPhone 4 users had called Apple Care to complain about this specific issue.