One of Apple’s many talking points to the whole Antenna-gate issue is that this is a problem with all smartphones. Before the iPhone 4 antenna issues make the entire world implode, perhaps it is worth exploring that statement.
Eric Zeman over at Information Week has reported that Samsung’s first Galaxy S phones, its new high-end Android handsets, suffer from a very similar problem.
Zeman says that the Samsung Vibrant and Samsung Captivate phones place the antenna on the back of the phone, near the very bottom of the device, and when the phone is held to cover that area, the signal drops almost immediately.
Of course, the issue here is that there aren’t a whole lot of people who hold a phone by touching it in the middle of the bottom of the case. The iPhone 4’s exposed antenna is right on the edge where a lot of users will cover it up without intentionally trying to drop a call.
There is an actual reason as to why the iPhone 4 story is a story, and it has to do with the design of the phone, not the fact that covering up an antenna will drop the signal.
Apple also commented at its press conference today that every smartphone faces the same issue that the iPhone 4 does. Curiously, Jobs and his panel disregarded questions about the specific design of the device and placement of the antenna components.
