Apple's Droid X antenna accusation just doesn't fly

Apple, flailing around to find any way to distract attention from its iPhone 4 antenna woes, is now claiming that the Droid X suffers from similar problems. But I've tried re-creating Apple's claims many times with my Droid X and I simply can't do it. I'm not alone. It's time for Apple to admit it was wrong and move on.

On Apple's smartphone antenna performance page, Apple takes cracks at the antenna performance of its competition. It claims at the top of the page:

Every smartphone has a cellular antenna. And nearly every smartphone can lose signal strength if you hold it in a certain way. To demonstrate this, we tested iPhone 4 alongside other smartphones.

The site then posts videos of various phones being held in a variety of positions, which the company claims show suffer from the same type of performance problems of the iPhone 4.

I've held my Droid X in precisely the same way that Apple shows in its video. I've done it multiple times, in multiple places, and at varying signal strengths. But no matter how many times I try it, I can't duplicate Apple's results. The signal simply doesn't drop like Apple says it does.

I'm not alone. Endgadget has tried as well, and reports, "unlike Apple's other videos, we can't seem to recreate this one as easily with our Droid Xs."

PC Magazine has also tried, and reported that it couldn't get the signal to drop using Apple's grip, either. It did say that "we had to completely cover the body of the Droid X in an awkward, two-handed grip to get the phone's signal to drop. That's very different from the one-handed grip we found on the iPhone 4."

Apple doesn't do itself any good by making claims that can't be verified. The company employs some of the best engineers in the world and has created beautiful, groundbreaking hardware multiple times. With the iPhone 4 antenna it screwed up, and a bumper will apparently fix the problem. Apple should just move on. Mud throwing and finger-pointing only demeans the company.

Update: Apple has pulled the Droid X attack video from its Web site. For details, see Apple pulls Droid X attack video from Web site.