Yesterday, Apple CEO Steve Jobs stood up on stage at Infinite Loop 4 and told the world how the mobile phone industry had a serious challenge it needed to overcome. Antenna attenuation.

Apple, which as we fully know had been battling a huge wave of bad press over issues with iPhone 4′s apparent “sub-par” reception, came out all guns blazing and on the defensive yesterday, with its 34 minute-long presentation clearly criticizing a number of smartphone manufacturers over the current quality of their products.

Now, its pretty okay to do this behind closed doors, but when you take something like this into a room which is filled with media journos from across the world, there’s bound to be some sort of reaction. The first of which comes from Co-CEOs of RIM, Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie.

Photo courtesy of @ArsTechnica

The statement reads:

“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.”

They don’t sound like happy bunnies, do they?

[Update] – @AppAdvice is reporting that Nokia has also responded to Apple and its press conference yesterday, with the following 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.”

[@MacStoriesNet via Crackberry]