Unsurprisingly, considering its status in the smartphone business, Canadian OEM RIM didn't take long to hit back at Apple CEO Steve Jobs' criticisms of it during his commentary in Apple's earnings call.

In a company blog post entitled RIM Responds to Apple's 'Distortion Field', co-CEO Jim Balsillie countered Jobs' key arguments.

The first concerned Jobs' comment that having sold 14.1 million iPhones during its Q4, compared to the 12.1 million BlackBerries RIM sold during its Q2, he didn't consider RIM would overtake Apple's sales in future.

Balsillie pointed to the obvious difference between the two periods.

"Apple's preference to compare its September-ending quarter with RIM's August-ending quarter doesn't tell the whole story because it doesn't take into account that industry demand in September is typically stronger than summer months," he said.

"Nor does it explain why Apple only shipped 8.4 million devices in its prior quarter and whether Apple's Q4 results were padded by unfulfilled Q3 customer demand and channel orders."

Balsillie also reminded Jobs RIM predicted it would sell between 13.8 - 14.4 million BlackBerries in its current quarter, so Apple wasn't as significantly ahead as he thought anyhow.

Sharp talking

The most fierce topic concerned tablets however.

RIM has announced its 7 inch PlayBook, which is due for release in early 2011, with Jobs' stating his belief that 7 inches was too small a screen and such devices would be dead on arrival. As well as RIM, Samsung and Dell are also releasing 7 inch tablets.

Yet without defending the 7 inch form factor, Balsillie was keen to stress iPad has limitations too.

"For those of us who live outside of Apple's distortion field, we know that 7" tablets will actually be a big portion of the market and we know that Adobe Flash support actually matters to customers who want a real web experience," he said.

"We also know that while Apple's attempt to control the ecosystem and maintain a closed platform may be good for Apple, developers want more options and customers want to fully access the overwhelming majority of web sites that use Flash.

"We think many customers are getting tired of being told what to think by Apple."

Continuing the attack into another obvious Apple weak spot, he ended, "As usual, whether the subject is antennas, Flash or shipments, there is more to the story and sooner or later, even people inside the distortion field will begin to resent being told half a story."

[source: RIM]