Experts defend Apple's death-grip allegations

 

Chartier said he has not yet found similar warnings in manuals from RIM, Google or Apple, apart from the latter’s new antenna page, which features videos purportedly demonstrating the death-grip effect on other smartphones.

 

Skycross’ Riggle chalks the controversy up the fact that antenna design for complex multi-band smartphones is “both an art and a science”, with smartphone makers of all stripes having to fit antenna elements operating in up to ten frequency bands into a pocket-sized device along with cameras, speakers, a battery and a touchscreen.

 

“In antenna design, there is an age-old conflict in the compromise between form and function,” Riggle said. “Antenna engineers are constantly challenged to do more with less and develop new ways of incorporating radiating structures into phones in the smallest space possible while still meeting mobile operator radiated-performance tests and adhering to mandatory RF regulatory requirements.”

 

Riggle said the “Antennagate” problem was likely to become even more exacerbated as 4G wireless networks start launching in the next couple of years.