“Gripping any mobile phone will result in some
attenuation of its antenna performance, with certain places being worse
than others depending on the placement of the antennas. This is a fact
of life for every wireless phone. If you ever experience this on your
iPhone 4, avoid gripping it in the lower left corner in a way that
covers both sides of the black strip in the metal band, or simply use
one of many available cases.”

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.
RIM is a global leader in antenna design and has been successfully
designing industry-leading wireless data products with efficient and
effective radio performance for over 20 years. During that time, RIM has
avoided designs like the one Apple used in the iPhone 4 and instead has
used innovative designs which reduce the risk for dropped calls,
especially in areas of lower coverage. One thing is for certain, RIM’s
customers don’t need to use a case for their BlackBerry smartphone to
maintain proper connectivity.
Apple clearly made certain design decisions and it should take
responsibility for these decisions rather than trying to draw RIM and
others into a situation that relates specifically to Apple.”
- Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie

That only 0.016 percent of all HTC users have complained
about the Droid Eris and only a few of them have experienced with the
device’s antenna and signal.

The antenna is located at the bottom of the Omnia 2
phone, while iPhone’s antenna is on the lower left side of the device.
Our design keeps the distance between a hand and an antenna,”
Shin Young-joo said.”We have fully conducted field tests before the
rollout of smart phones. Reception problems have not happened so far,
and there is no room for such problems to happen in the future,” he
added.

Sanjay Jha, the company’s co-CEO, responded that
“consumers don’t like being told how to hold the phone … It is
disingenuous to suggest that all phones perform equally”. He also added
that unlike Apple, Motorola avoids placing the antennas on the outside
of their phones since that could cause reception issues.

Antenna design is a complex subject and has
been a core competence at Nokia for decades, across hundreds of phone
models. Nokia was the pioneer in internal antennas; the Nokia 8810,
launched in 1998, was the first commercial phone with this feature.

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.
In general, antenna performance of a mobile device/phone may be
affected with a tight grip, depending on how the device is held. That’s
why Nokia designs our phones to ensure acceptable performance in all
real life cases, for example when the phone is held in either hand.
Nokia has invested thousands of man hours in studying how people hold
their phones and allows for this in designs, for example by having
antennas both at the top and bottom of the phone and by careful
selection of materials and their use in the mechanical design.