By Charles Smith: Subscribe to Charles's RSS feed
July 28, 2010 6:51 PM EDT
Smartphone maker Motorola Inc. (NYSE.MOT) couldn't resist ridiculing bigger rival Apple Inc. (NASDAQ.AAPL), which is being hounded by 'Antennagate' controversy, by claiming that, unlike iPhone 4, its Droix X smartphone doesn't need to "dress up" to work properly.
Motorola splashed a full page Droid X ad on New York Times, Wednesday, titled "No Jacket Required." The company said its popular smartphone doesn't need to "dress up" to work properly, targeting Apple, which earlier this month announced that it would give away Bumper cases for free to resolve the weak reception problem dogging iPhone 4.
"At Motorola, we believe a customer shouldn't have to dress up their phone for it to work properly. That's why the DROID X comes with a dual antenna design. The kind that allows you to hold the phone any way you like to make crystal clear calls without a bulky phone jacket. For us it's just one of those things that comes as a given when you've been making mobile phones for over 30 years," Motorola said in the ad.
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This is the second jibe Motorola has made at Apple ever since iPhone 4 was launched.
Last month, soon after reports began flooding Apple that iPhone 4's external antenna - a thin metal strip trimming the body of the device - suffered from a design flaw, resulting in poor reception and sudden, dropped calls, Motorola splashed a full page Droid X ad in New York Times, saying Droid X "comes with a double antenna design...The kind that allows you to hold the phone any way you like and use it just about anywhere to make crystal clear calls."
The ad also said "You have a voice. And you deserve to be heard," an apparent attack on Apple which was publicly slammed for being insensitive to customers' complaints.
Apple pulled one back by by saying on its website ( click here ) that Droid X too suffered from antenna problem, similar to iPhone 4, when held in a certain way.
"In our tests, the Motorola Droid X dropped from 3 bars to 0 bars when held in a way that attenuated the signal," the company said.
Apple also said all smartphones have "death grip" spots and that's physics.
To pacify irate iPhone 4 users, Apple also said it would give away $29 Bumper cases, which insulate iPhone 4's external antenna from human touch, for free.
However, the video post was criticized with many people claiming that Apple had failed to convince how Droid X suffered from dropped calls and instead of garnering support, Apple was labeled as a "cry baby" and "douche bags that can't seem to properly own up to the problem and admit that their design and engineering team screwed up."
Naturally, Motorola couldn't resist getting its own back at Apple. And it did, by saying that its Droid X doesn't need to "dress up...for it to work properly."
A case of pot calling the kettle black, I suppose? Meanwhile, it seems the mud-slinging isn't doing either company any good - at 2.37PM (EDT), shares of Apple and Motorola were trading down 0.99 percent and 1.16 percent at $261.47 and $7.65 on the bourse.
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