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Comment by pierrefar | Hacker News Reader

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.

I have a Bold 9700 and the wifey has an iphone.

I get much better reception than her in bad areas. I also get much better reception and network switching while travelling.

I have an iPhone 4, live in terrible coverage, when this blew up took it out of the bumper for past two weeks, and can't drop a call even in places my 3GS and Blackberry Pearl couldn't make calls at all... And so?

Bandwagons roll on squeaky wheels.

That's the thing: if you try, and hold it at the right place, you probably could have a problem. (In the right location and network situation.) In practice, you most likely don't — or, you do rarely have the problem, but don't trace it to that cause, just as the vast majority of network problems on phones aren't traced to their cause: people just try the call again.

The same is true of the iPhone 4. It's just easy to find the exact place where it happens on the iPhone because it's basically marked.

I wonder what percent of those users have a 9700.

They showed a video of a Blackberry that, when gripped, looses bars [+]. If they wanted to really convince me they would have to show me better measurements but I would say that’s evidence, isn’t it?

[+] You can scroll down and watch it yourself: http://www.apple.com/antenna/

Wow. Those videos are powerfully convincing that Apple has handled this whole media frenzy in a perfectly reasonable fashion. The only real criticism here is to say that when the media is wrong, and you know you are right, telling them to shove it is not exactly the most skillful way of spinning the situation.

A lot of people now vaguely have an impression that the iPhone 4 has spotty reception. That impression will last much longer than if Apple had attacked immediately with these videos instead of "there is no problem".

But keep it all in perspective eh?

Just yesterday on the beach a friend was snapping a photo of the sunset with his iPhone 4, saying wow this thing really takes great photos. He also mentioned being concerned about the antenna issue. Yet he was oggling it like it was a jewel. Others present bemoaned not having had the foresight to pre-order.

Later in the afternoon another friend was wandering around ranting "where is my iPhone 4!" in increasingly loud and frantic tones, until finally he found it and was reunited with his precious.

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