During a press conference on Friday of last week, Apple for the first time addressed their antenna issues that were seemingly plaguing many iPhone 4 users. During the press release Apple claimed “were not perfect” and then in a poor example of respectful competition laid into some of their most fierce competitors, Nokia being one of them.

Well Nokia being the one of the forefathers in the mobile industry were not going to just let this Apple through them under the bus without stating their side. During the Apple press conference Steve Jobs took jabs at Nokia saying Nokia’s phones have stickers on them that say “don’t touch here” well Nokia released a press release to address Mr. Jobs indecency.  Nokia’s press release is that of a claim to internal antenna design fame, saying that their company was pioneering the internal antenna world. Nokia goes on to state that internal antenna design is that of a “complex subject and has been a core competence at Nokia for decades, across hundreds of phone models”. The press release then goes on to state that one of the first commercially available mobile phones with such internal antenna designs out of their doors with the Nokia 8810 that was made available in 1998 (way before an iphone I might add). Nokia goes on to state that they have spent countless hours and seemingly millions of dollars studying human behavior in regard to how people hold and use their phones when making phone calls and even down to how it’s held when playing music and even browsing the web. The statement from Nokia however does not put them above and beyond Apple, stating “In general, antenna performance of a mobile device/phone may be affected with a tight grip, depending on how the device is held.” Nokia also goes on to state that they will always “prioritize antenna performance over physical design if they are ever in conflict”.

Nokia goes on to mention that their designs are made around these human traits, and that they go above and beyond testing making their phones work in many situations, an example being their phones can be held in both hands.

Go Nokia!

It’s one thing to defend your brand and product, but don’t throughout the names of competitors, especially competitors that opened mobile doors so you could even be here.  

Tell us what you think of Nokia’s reply to Apples statement.

Do you feel that Apple handled the issue professionally by calling out its competitors, or was this simply a last resort as there were no real answers to the issues?