Bad PR move for Apple? Steve Jobs ticks off his rivals

Apple CEO, Steve Jobs and antennagate aren't out of the news yet. Instead of of just offering up a quick apology and a free case for the iPhone 4 reception issues, Jobs fired up many smartphone competitors during the press conference last Friday.

Jobs pointed out antenna issues on phones from RIM, Motorola and HTC. He stated that they experienced the same dropped calls if gripped on the side in poor signal areas.

CEOs from RIM, who makes the Blackberry, and Motorola are miffed with Jobs for dragging their names through the mud with him, as if that was going to take the heat off of Apple a bit.

"Apple's attempt to draw RIM into Apple's self-made debacle is unacceptable," say Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie, co-CEOs of Research In Motion, which makes the BlackBerry. "RIM has avoided designs like the one Apple used in the iPhone 4 and instead has used innovation designs, which reduce the risk for reduced calls."

"It is disingenuous to suggest that all phones perform equally," Motorola co-CEO Sanjay Jha says in a statement. "In our own testing, we have found that (Motorola's) Droid X performs much better than iPhone 4 when held by consumers."

Apparently, the PR team at Apple thought it would be a good idea to make sure those who haven't purchased an iPhone 4 yet were informed about the short-comings of the competition.

Is that a brilliant public relations move for Apple or just another lame attempt to keep people from straying because their are so many smartphone choices?