And the iPhone 4 “antennagate” back-and-forth between Apple and competing smartphone makers keeps heating up – this time, it’s Apple that’s shooting a shot across Nokia’s bow. In a seemingly tongue-in-cheek response to Nokia’s claim that they have more experience in making smartphones and have prioritized antenna performance over design for years, Apple has posted pictorial and video evidence of the Nokia N97 Mini exhibiting signal reception attenuation problems when held in a particular fashion. The new addition to the antennagate website is aimed at showing the consuming public that the iPhone 4 antenna reception issues (the “Death Grip,” if you will) is not limited to Steve Jobs’ new smartphone.
Apple initially put up their apple.com/antenna website as proof that other smartphones suffered attenuation issues. The website’s original cast only included the BlackBerry Bold 9700, Droid Eris, Samsung Omnia II and the iPhone 3GS. But, with Nokia not so subtly trying to use the iPhone 4’s problems to its benefit, Apple apparently decided to show the world that the Finns have had “Death Grip” issues of their own.
We can just imagine iPhone PR team responding to Nokia’s antenna claims:
PR team: How do we respond to Nokia’s subtle dig about how they have the experience and know-how to make antennas that don’t suck?
Jobs: Just put their little N97 mini on blast in our antennagate webpage and those damn bloggers will do the rest for us.
You’re welcome, Steve.
The video below shows the N97 Mini losing signal when the antenna is covered by the palm of a hand.