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Apple claimed at its press conference Friday that virtually every competing smartphone faces the same antenna challenges as the iPhone 4, but three of its competitors — HTC, RIM and Nokia — have since stood up and challenged that claim.

Apple used as an example the RIM BlackBerry Bold 9700, saying that holding it a certain way will cause signal degradation just as with the iPhone 4, but RIM’s Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis were quoted by CrackBerry from the following statement:

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.

Nokia jumped into the fray too, bragging that it was the pioneer of internal antenna technology, and claiming that it has this all figured out while Apple is just playing the blame game for its foolish design decisions. Here’s its statement.

Antenna design is a complex subject and has been a core competence at Nokia for decades, across hundreds of phone models. Nokia was the pioneer in internal antennas; the Nokia 8810, launched in 1998, was the first commercial phone with this feature.

Nokia has invested thousands of man hours in studying human behavior, including how people hold their phones for calls, music playing, web browsing and so on. As you would expect from a company focused on connecting people, we prioritize antenna performance over physical design if they are ever in conflict.

In general, antenna performance of a mobile device/phone may be affected with a tight grip, depending on how the device is held. That’s why Nokia designs our phones to ensure acceptable performance in all real life cases, for example when the phone is held in either hand. Nokia has invested thousands of man hours in studying how people hold their phones and allows for this in designs, for example by having antennas both at the top and bottom of the phone and by careful selection of materials and their use in the mechanical design.

Finally, HTC — whose Droid Eris was shown by Apple to have the worst signal problems of all during Steve Jobs’ presentation on Friday — decided against a lengthy statement and tried to let the numbers speak for themselves, telling Pocket-lint that only 0.016% of its Droid Eris buyers have called to complain about signal problems. Apple was saying with pride that 0.055% of its customers did the same about the iPhone 4.

Apple’s people surely must have anticipated that they would face a backlash from their competitors when they chose for their press conference the angle that other smartphone companies have the same problems they do, but Apple hasn’t fired back just yet. It may not; Apple’s best interest is to see this story die out in the press as soon as possible.

These Guys Know How to Play the PR Game Too

Many readers of tech news are entertained and fascinated by stories of corporate failure, especially within a company that has had such a long string of successes as of late.

Steve Jobs made that point himself during the hit-and-miss press conference, but it’s not an invalid one. It’s just like politics. A politician is stuck in an unpopular war or a sex scandal, and he or she hosts a press conference or makes a speech to try and change the narrative.

Whatever he or she is pitching has to be really juicy for that to succeed, though, because like the political media, tech blogs are financially incentivized to fuel the most devastating fire they can find.

HTC, RIM and Nokia knew it was in their interests to prevent Apple from having the last word, and they know that what Apple said and did last week wasn’t quite juicy enough to kill the original scandal once and for all.

That said, what do you want to bet that fatigue will kill the story in the end? Is there anything more Apple can say or do? Are any transformational developments possible in the near term? Do people even want to hear about this anymore? We’re very curious about the tech user zeitgeist right now, so let us know in the comments.

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