QUOTEBOX-Jobs defends the iPhone 4

Cupertino, Calif., July 16 (Reuters) - Apple (AAPL.O) Chief Executive Steve Jobs on Friday defended the iPhone 4's design, saying reception issues were a problem shared by the entire smartphone industry, naming specifically rivals Research in Motion (RIM.TO), Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) and HTC Corp (2498.TW).

At a rare, 90-minute press conference, the Apple chief maintained that there were no problems with the iPhone 4's wraparound antenna design and said the issue was blown out of proportion.

The following are excerpted comments from Steve Jobs at the press conference:

ON THE ANTENNA ISSUE BEING AN INDUSTRY PROBLEM:

"The heart of the problem is that smartphones have weak spots. We made it very visible."

"This is life in smartphone world. Phones aren't perfect. Most every smartphone we tested behaved like this."

"There is a problem but that problem is affecting a small percentage of users."

ON THE DESIGN ON THE IPHONE4 ANTENNA:

"We're pretty happy with the antenna design ... we're not feeling right now that we have a giant problem that we need to fix."

ON TRYING TO GET TO BOTTOM OF THE ISSUE:

"We have been in the labs working our butts off for 22 days and it has taken us a while to get the data. If we had done this a week and a half ago we wouldn't have had half the data we shared with you today."

ON CRITICISM OF THE COMPANY:

"I guess its just human nature that if someone or some organization gets really successful there's just a group of people who want to tear it down. I see it happening with Google."

"I see some of these people jumping on us now. It's like I am not sure what you are after here. Would you rather we were a Korean company instead of an American company? You do not like the fact that we are innovating right here in America and leading the world in what we do?"

"Of course we're human, of course we make mistakes."

"I look at this whole 'Antennagate' thing and say 'wow.' Apple's been around for 34 years, haven't we earned the credibiity and trust from some of the press to give us a little bit of the benefit of the doubt?" (Reporting by Gabriel Madway and Poornima Gupta; Editing by Bernard Orr) (gabriel.madway@thomsonreuters.com; +1 415 677 2536; Reuters Messaging: alexandria.sage.reuters.com@reuters.net)