Apple Takes on Droid X With Latest Smartphone Antenna Video

http://www.macrumors.com/2010/07/23/apple-takes-on-droid-x-with-latest-smartphone-video/

by thomas • 16 years ago

23 43 16 years ago

macrumors.com

dman2• 16 years ago

Apple taking the position that theyre only as good as everyone else?

sp3322• 16 years ago

Apple's position is that they're educating people about RF & cell phones. You can't fix physics with a software update.

stcredzero2• 16 years ago

From where I'm sitting, it seems like several large swathes of the American public do not understand what scientific laws are about. Many people seem to operate on the notion that if you feel strongly enough and shout enough, you can make whatever you want to be true, so long as enough others back you up.

ukdm• 16 years ago

That depends on whether you think Apple is just getting more attention about this problem because they are Apple, or because the iPhone 4 problem is much worse than other handsets.

dman2• 16 years ago

I dont own an iphone so I cant comment on the quality of the iphone 4, but all the other mac adds seem to be about how macs are better than pcs and about simplicity and about "think differrent". This ad is about "see were no worse than everyone else", while the underlying physics point is valid - why waste ad dollars on communicating your equality with other vendors ?

olsonjeffery• 16 years ago

Someone please explain to me how this campaign is going to lead to Apple being portrayed as anything other than a bunch of poor sports.

Hoff• 16 years ago

Most folks wandering around the planet have no clue about RF and near-field effects, but then most folks wandering around haven't had much experience with carrying around RF devices or with gear operating at picowatt sensitivities.

But that gear is now increasingly commonplace.

Please explain to me why you believe that knowledge - regardless of its source - is bad.

Please also explain why that knowledge - again, regardless of its source - makes you a "poor sport".

RF is not magical.

OK, yes, there are some days when RF and antenna design and EMI does seem is magical, but that's not the same sort of magic. And you can learn why your receiver was getting bagged by that metal sign that was wired onto the chain-link fence actually is re-radiating spurious signal. Once you find the EMI.

Or once you realize that grabbing onto the antenna or getting into specific spots of the near-field might not be a good idea.

Again. Data. Goodness. Even the biggest idiots on the planet (and Apple is not among those folks) can get stuff right once in a while.

So. Why is data a "poor sport"?

jat850• 16 years ago

There's no "data" provided here. There is no context, explanation, or insight into what is going, or why. If accompanying the video there was audio or discussion explaining how the person's grip of a phone impacts RF signal, then it would be less open to (mis)interpretation.

Data would be excellent. This video provides none.

gloob• 16 years ago

The poster you responded to didn't, by my reading, say that Apple were poor sports. He said that this would be portrayed as them being poor sports. Whining is normally a form of poor-sportsmanship, and this comes across as whining (at least to some people).

blueberry3• 16 years ago

'So. Why is data a "poor sport"?' Because it's not data, it's just some hand holding a phone and the bars are dropping. No explanation whatsoever.

KirinDave6• 16 years ago

See the Droid X ads where they slam the iPhone 4 for this problem, claiming they're immune due to a double antenna design.

defrex• 16 years ago

I like how they had the dialpad open to make the phone look more complex and less attractive. Nice touch.

natrius• 16 years ago

The video is about making calls. A dialpad seems reasonable.

hexley• 16 years ago

I like how you implied malicious intent over a totally pedestrian point to support your obvious biases (as if somebody using the dial pad could be interested in signal strength!) Nice try.

sprout2• 16 years ago

It's marketing designed to make the Droid X look bad. It's by definition malicious.

blueberry3• 16 years ago

Good point. My first thought was that "why would the keyboard be open by default?"

KirinDave6• 16 years ago

Actually they were doing the Droid X a favor here. The lockscreen for the Droid X is so hideous Ars even featured it as an example of hot-messness.

buro9• 16 years ago

Actually the demonstration is of the phone making a call and the bars dropping as a result of the way it's held.

You can tell the phone is engaged in a call by the dial button being a great big red "End Call" button, and by there being a little green call icon on the top left of the status bar.

Why this is a home-goal by Apple is that even though the bars dropped by the death grip, the phone did not drop the call.

The fundamental complaint about the iPhone 4 is that the death grip is causing dropped calls.

So Apple have gone and shown that whilst their competitors also are affected by the basic laws of science, they've managed to keep a base level of quality that avoids the consumer being affected by dropped calls.

Of course, we can over-analyze anything nowadays.

what• 16 years ago

How come the call wasn't dropped when it hit 0 bars?

petercooper• 16 years ago

Apple's behavior reminds me of someone who's voted down on a site like HN on Reddit and then pulls out links to people who said similar things but were voted up. We get it logically, but for some reason we interpret it as childish and petty.

It's notable that they didn't go to these lengths with the G4 Cube overheating debacle. Apple's gone from selling almost entirely to a devout fanbase to a general appliance company and I think the change in PR strategy may be giving them a shock.

watty• 16 years ago

I think it's informative to know that all phones lose signal when held certain ways but their method just seems childish.

I'd rather see them report bandwidth loss when held or a video showing that some phones can't make calls when held due to dropping below a threshold (iPhone).

KirinDave6• 16 years ago

I would too.

But I don't think most people would take to that. For the vast majority of iPhone 4 users, the death grip problem is not as significant as those "touch with one finger to kill" videos (which, I confess I am still having a hard time believing).

The complaint itself is essentially childish: “Apple does almost the same thing everyone else does! They're lame! #lolrecall!” I'm not sure a mature counter-strategy would actually be effective in the face of that. Especially given how incredibly invested into phones people seem to be getting these days.

illumin82• 16 years ago

Apple is selling iPhone 4s faster than they can make them. I hardly think that qualifies as desperate.

Droid X specifically markets their phone in ads as superior to iPhone 4:

http://phandroid.com/2010/06/30/droid-x-ad-tears-into-iphone...

"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."

I think they opened themselves up to fair game by advertising their antenna design in this way.

illumin82• 16 years ago

Relevant and informative comment instantly downvoted by Droid fans. Nice.

KirinDave6• 16 years ago

I'm not sure how I feel about this video campaign, but I am confused why geek.com lists Apple as “desperate”.

They're selling a lot of phones. No one is returning phones. The bad PR about the death grip is mostly settled (I don't hear it in the news anymore). Hell, Scott Adams wrote a very popular and widely circulated article about how good Apple's press conference strategy was. They're just going to continue to release these to make Consumer Reports look increasingly ridiculous in the eyes of the public.

Where is the desperation in all this?

P.S. Especially given that recent data suggests 77% intent-to-reup-handset among iPhone customers and only 20% intent-to-reup-handset among Android customers. (buried here: http://money.cnn.com/2010/07/23/technology/iphone_4_att/inde... )

ROFISH• 16 years ago

Apple is constantly repeating it's position that the iPhone 4 is just the same as other phones, only better. What makes some people consider to be "desperate move" is that Apple is taking to just about every channel, including the rare Steve-Jobs-On-The-Stage PR event and comparing competitor's phones on their YouTube channel, over this one minor, if ridiculous issue.

Plus it doesn't help when "tech journalists" are willing to vilify Apple for the tiniest thing for the almighty page view. Combine with trolls and a general public that considers cell signals and RF a form of voodoo and sacrifice (you know how many people I know hold their phones to the sky to get "a better signal"), it's war to some people.

edderly3• 16 years ago

I'm no advertising expert, but I can't think of too many situations where you advertise your competitors products even in a negative light without saying something very positive about your product.

Scott Adams article was also a bit of a Rorschach test, whether you think Steve Jobs succeeded with his 'High Ground Maneuver' depends very much on your own point of view.

KirinDave6• 16 years ago

“I'm no advertising expert, but I can't think of too many situations where you advertise your competitors products even in a negative light without saying something very positive about your product.”

It makes Consumer Report's not-recommended status look increasingly irrational. If they give a recommend on the Droid X with such an obvious deathgrip problem (I actually hold my phone that way, using my thumb to interact with a pinching motion), then they're going to get called out on it hard.

“Scott Adams article was also a bit of a Rorschach test, whether you think Steve Jobs succeeded with his 'High Ground Maneuver' depends very much on your own point of view.”

This is the human condition. I see a pair of rainbows, someone else sees the hand of God.

handler• 16 years ago

i've noticed that on verizon, bars don't matter. as long as you get a signal, the sound quality is perfect.

Apple Takes on Droid X With Latest Smartphone Antenna Video

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