Last week when Steve Jobs made the hilarious claim that all smart phones are prone to the 'death grip', he was essentially trying to make it appear that the iPhone 4's problems are just an expected fact of life and that Apple's problems were no different to that of their competitors. Jobs said:

"These weak spots are just a fact of life in today's smartphone market. We knew if you gripped it in a certain way the bars were going to go down a bit just like every smartphone. We didn't think it was going to be a big issue."

The problem I have with this is that we never hear reports of other smartphone users complaining of constant dropped calls resulting from holding the phone 'the wrong way'.

While I'm willing to concede that a deliberate attempt to suffocate my phone between my hands or even jamming it into my undies might result in a weakened signal and perhaps even a dropped call, you would have to agree those to be very unconventional usage scenarios. A far cry from a dropped call from simply holding the phone in a regular manner, which is the experience iPhone 4 users are having.

So today Apple's rivals displayed a rare unified front, banding together to basically tell Jobs to stop spreading bullshit and stop trying to drag them into his own self-created PR disaster.

A joint statement from RIM CEO's said Job's statement was "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...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.

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.

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."

Clearly these guys are pissed and they should be. Good on them for not taking it lying down.