Motorola president Rick Osterloh didn't take too kindly to Apple lead designer Jonathon Ive's recent comment about other smartphone makers "abdicating [their] responsibility as a designer."

Osterloh on Wednesday defended his company against the perceived criticism from Ive, mined from deep within the depths of The New Yorker's recent, voluminous profile of the Apple designer. The Motorola exec also fired back with a slam on Apple for "charging such outrageous prices" for its own iPhones and other mobile devices.

Ive didn't actually call out Motorola by name in The New Yorker piecein fact, author Ian Parker said the Apple designer was only willing to be "scathing about a rival's product, after asking me not to name it." But as The Telegraph noted, Ive's barb was clearly aimed at device makers "which allow customers to choose the color of their phones."

Motorola's Moto Maker tool lets phone buyers do just that and Osterloh clearly took Ive's criticism personally.

The Motorola exec took to the BBC on Wednesday to fire back. As detailed by The Telegraph, Osterloh defended Motorola's practice of letting consumers customize their handsets.

"We're making the entire product line accessible. And frankly, we're taking a directly opposite approach to them [Apple]," Osterloh was quoted as saying, adding that Motorola believes smartphones should be "affordable," per the newspaper.

Osterloh then pointed his cannons at Apple and Ive, charging the iPhone maker, it seems, with perpetrating a mix of profiteering and price-gouging.

"We do see a real dichotomy in this marketplace, where you've got people like Apple making so much money and charging such outrageous prices. We think that's not the future," Osterloh told the BBC.

This fight looks like it could have some legs.

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