For those who came in late, Google dropped a bombshell on Apple fanboys when it revealed that for nearly two years Jobs’ Mob software was wide open and been attacked.

Apple has been telling its customers that it is worth paying over the odds for its shiny toys because they were super-secure.

Google dropped a bombshell in the form of a long, detailed analysis of five chains of iOS vulnerabilities discovered by its security teams. Google didn't say who was behind the attacks, nor who was targeted, but described the attack as "indiscriminate," and potentially hitting "thousands" of people.

In a rare press release disputes some relatively minor details that Google released about the attacks. It claims that the attacks lasted for a shorter amount of time and that they were less widespread than Google reported.

"First, the sophisticated attack was narrowly focused, not a broad-based exploit of iPhones 'en masse' as described. The attack affected fewer than a dozen websites that focus on content related to the Uighur community." Apple wrote.

"Google's post, issued six months after iOS patches were released, creates the false impression of 'mass exploitation' to 'monitor the private activities of entire populations in real time,' stoking fear among all iPhone users that their devices had been compromised. This was never the case. Second, all evidence indicates that these website attacks were only operational for a brief period, roughly two months, not 'two years' as Google implies," the statement continued.

There was no indication if Apple is going to spruce up its security. After all if it thinks that only a few people were affected for a short period of time it is hard to see it being motivated to take it seriously.

In a statement, Google said it stood by its findings and would continue to work with Apple and other companies to find and fix flaws.

“Project Zero posts technical research that is designed to advance the understanding of security vulnerabilities, which leads to better defensive strategies,” Google said in statement. “We stand by our in-depth research which was written to focus on the technical aspects of these vulnerabilities.”