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RIM on Apple's claims of Blackberry Bold signal loss

crackberry.com

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Re: RIM on Apple's claims of Blackberry Bold signal loss

#11

Post by EdsonGould »

"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

Re: RIM on Apple's claims of Blackberry Bold signal loss

#14

Post by Tichy »

nixy wrote: post #7
CWIZO wrote: post #6

My BB Bold 900 looses a bar or two if I cover it in a way that it would be impossible for me to make calls then. Never had any issues with it, never drooped a call. But to be fair, I'm in Slovenia in Mobitel's network which is one of (if not) the best in the world. So maybe all this problems come from crappy network services too.

Jobs clearly stated that the demo of bars being dropped on other brands of phones was done in an area of bad network reception. If people try the death grip with good network reception they won't see any drop in bars. As I understand, this is the same for the iPhone 4.

In the real world, sometimes there is bad network reception. Then there are people who can still make calls in that area, and people who can't.

Re: RIM on Apple's claims of Blackberry Bold signal loss

#15

Post by gaius »

jsz0 wrote: post #4
pierrefar wrote: post #2

Did Apple even attempt to provide evidence of the Blackberry having a similar problem?

They showed a video of the Bold 9700 having a death grip issue which probably also effects very few people in real world usage. (13% of 9700 owners based on this site's poll)

I have a Bold 9700 and have never had a problem of this kind.

Re: RIM on Apple's claims of Blackberry Bold signal loss

#16

Post by shin_lao »

So every telephone can get signal attenuation if you hold it in a certain fashion in certain reception conditions. That sounds plausible, although I never experienced the problem with my bb bold, I'm ready to accept this problem can be reproduced.

That's not the issue at hand. The issue with the iPhone 4 is that it's very easy to drop calls and get signal attenuation. The reports are too numerous to be just a sporadic problem. Whether this is a problem in the manufacturing process (which would explain why not all telephones have the problem) or the design, only Apple knows.

At first they say there is no antenna problem. Then they say it's a bug in the software. Now they say "well all phones have this problem".

I think inspector Columbo would say "Aahh! Of course, all phones have the problem... Now Mr. Jobs, just one more thing..."

Re: RIM on Apple's claims of Blackberry Bold signal loss

#18

Post by tjogin »

shin_lao wrote: post #16

So every telephone can get signal attenuation if you hold it in a certain fashion in certain reception conditions. That sounds plausible, although I never experienced the problem with my bb bold, I'm ready to accept this problem can be reproduced. That's not the issue at hand. The issue with the iPhone 4 is that it's very easy to drop calls and get signal attenuation. The reports are too numerous to be just a sporadi…

First. If the problem is as widespread as you think, how do you reconcile that with AT&T's dropped calls statistics that show that it drops less than 1% more calls than the iPhone 3GS?

Second. How do you reconcile it with AnandTech's tests that show that the iPhone 4 is better at keeping calls even with a poor signal?

Re: RIM on Apple's claims of Blackberry Bold signal loss

#19

Post by tjogin »

DougBTX wrote: post #8
bombs wrote: post #5

If the antenna is internal (and invisible) how many would even realise they were affecting it in any way? Apple drew a lot of attention to its antenna, both in terms of design and marketing, so how many people reported problems after deliberately trying to screw with it? I just made my iPhone 3GS, Blackberry 9700 and Nokia N97 all drop a couple of bars by covering their internal antennas with my palm. I expect this t…

The point is that you can have the same effect on an iPhone 4 with your pinky.

That hasn't been easy to reproduce though. Some people, in some places, but not like the "death grip".

Re: RIM on Apple's claims of Blackberry Bold signal loss

#20

Post by onedognight »

Crackberry's call for duplication

Apple's test? Go to an area where you have full bars while holding the phone gingerly, then change that loose grip to a bit more of a death grip.

is flawed given that "full bars" can indicate an arbitrarily strong signal. In order to see the effect Apple demonstrated you will most likely need to be in a location where you just barely have "full bars".

Why are we linking to a website that either doesn't understand the how the "bars" work on phone or is only trying to add misinformation the discussion?

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