From Steve Jobs' Biography: "I'm going to destroy Android"

[Jerome Morrow]

Ah, so all those mobile programs that accesed data from internet servers were using the browser.

Ah, so Nokia with their Ovi Maps now called Nokia Maps were using a web browser.

Yap, you were joking

----------



Yes, because you need it. At least, you have to know the meaning of the terms you're using.

Or you need to broaden your understanding of the word beyond dictionary, read between the lines.

 

[Stuntman06]

Gaining more market share would be easy.

Sell the iPhone for 400 bucks w/o contract. They would no longer have cross margin of 40% but the market share would increase dramatically.

Apples biggest problem is its price. When people see that they can get an android phone for us$ 199, why should they pay 699 for an iPhone or a super expensive month rate (like here in Europe)?

I don't see price being an issue with Apple products. Many people are still buying Apple products. The price is what makes Apple so successful. They make a huge profit on every device that they sell. Even though Android phones have a larger market share than Apple phones, Apple is still making a larger profit than all Android phone makers combined.

I fear that android is the new microsoft. They will get 90% of the market, and apple 10.

Apple lost a huge amount of market share to MS when Jobs was not at the helm of Apple and Jobs was actually forced out. This time around, even though Jobs is no longer with Apple, there is a much smoother transition. I can see Android dominating in market share, but Apple will still remain more profitable.

 

[AllieNeko]

Inventing something new and equally good won't come easy though, and it will probably cost you time and money. I think that's what people seem to forget. Obviously Apple went through a lot of internal testing of different styled screen-widgets, sizes, travel distance etc. They probably spent years researching ending up with a product that just felt right from the first touch.

Android changed a LOT from the iPhone. I don't even find them any more similar than Windows Phone 7 and iPhone are. Especially before iOS took Android's notification bar. iOS has the dock and a home screen of app shortcuts. Android has a dock, yes (a concept already on every desktop OS), but instead of a homescreen full of app shortcuts it has a customizable homescreen with app widgets and shortcuts and everything then a drawer all the apps go in. Android had desktop backgrounds before iPhone too, remember that (though not a terribly original concept, as the lack of backgrounds on the first iPhone was stupid).

Some concepts like "pinching" to zoom are just incredibly natural replications of the real world. The iPhone wasn't really that unique, if anything just very simplified and polished. Android did the same kinda thing, but in a very different way.

Now, Samsung, with their custom overlay - "TouchWiz" on Android, THAT is another story (on the phones and original Galaxy Tab, which is why I find the Galaxy Tab 10.1 lawsuits hilarious. The Tab 10.1 doesn't even resemble the iPad in software and the only similar looks are thin and black LOL)...

 

[Datalinks]

Android is a mess...all these devices, different skins, no proper software to manage the phone through your computer, bad taste....fragmentation at its worst. I am sticking with Apple.

 

[Harrybarracuda]

It wouldn't. Think why.

Being obtuse does not make you smart. It makes you a smart ass.

 

[rmwebs]

Its nice to see that we've got a great bunch of level headed, professional members here at MacRumors.


Oh, wait...


Grow the hell up and stop acting like bunch of kids. Android stole from Apple, Apple stole from android. Thats how these things have always worked, and will always work. If you cant understand that you really need to go away and sit in a corner.

I own both Android handsets/tablets and a bunch of iOS devices (not greedy, just a developer) and both have their great parts and crap parts. I can say with an equal mind that both can be a royal pain in the ass at times.

 

[blue22]

at least in the USA it is...

Not to mention all the small companies that Apple buys up so that they become iPhone-exclusive, then claimed they invented it. Like Siri.

Well, I hear that possession is 9/10ths of the law.

 

[lxchee]

Ah, so all those mobile programs that accesed data from internet servers were using the browser.

Ah, so Nokia with their Ovi Maps now called Nokia Maps were using a web browser.

Yap, you were joking

Ovi maps was not run off the web ... you buy the maps and install into the phone. So you can run Ovi maps offline , with GPS or AGPS... without internet access.

For apps running off web API, you need to be on line to use it. Like Google maps.

 

[Ubuntu]

Good. That's exactly the attitude Apple should continue to have about Android with Steve gone. It's a cheap knock-off of a beautiful product that took no imagination to copy.

Yeah, I mean look at how they ripped off Apple's notification system.

Oh wait. I'll be an iOS guy forever, but Android's more than just a cheap knock-off, it just requires a bit of maturity to accept that.

 

[Harrybarracuda]

Android is a mess...all these devices, different skins, no proper software to manage the phone through your computer, bad taste....fragmentation at its worst. I am sticking with Apple.

That's quite comical. Considering Android has offered direct access to the file system since the get go.

 

[Stuntman06]

Android is a mess...all these devices, different skins, no proper software to manage the phone through your computer, bad taste....fragmentation at its worst. I am sticking with Apple.

I can understand that it may be more difficult for developers when they have to test their apps on different phones. As a customer, I have not felt adversely affected by the fact that there are a large variety of Android phones to choose from. In fact, I felt I have benefited and Apple has lost by this variety. If there were no keyboard slider phone available when I was looking for a smartphone, I might have just gotten an iPhone at the time and be upset that I had to use a touch screen keyboard. Instead I am happy to have a keyboard slider.

 

[teme]

It's published fact that Microsoft make more money out of Android than they do out of WP7.

So why would they destroy it?!

No one is saying that Microsoft wants to destroy Android, but all these legal troubles are probably going to make Android less attractive platform to manufacturers.

 

[Jerome Morrow]

Being obtuse does not make you smart. It makes you a smart ass.

Well i'm sorry i didn't know pointing the obvious was a requirement here.

 

[blue22]

well said...

The quantity of technical and historical ignorance in this thread is absolutely astounding—even by recent MacRumors standards.

Jobs was an interesting guy on many levels and I think I'm going to get a copy of this book. Personally, I like his attitude here irrespective of whether or not I agree with his position. It's far more interesting than many alternative reactions.

I think too many people here are trying to apply a really simple label to a complex guy. Steve Jobs wasn't a "good guy" or a "bad guy." He was a genius. He was a tyrant. He was creative. He was ruthless. He had an absolute gift to see coming trends in technology and the way people interact with technology. He was passionate, sometimes to fault, about his ideas.

Xerox is the prime example of what made Jobs different from throngs of engineers out there. Engineers make cool stuff all the time. Labs are full of neat concepts and ideas that never get much further. Jobs was good at seeing what things could become and how people would use them.

He'll be missed—the good and the bad. The tech world is certainly less interesting without him.

It's pretty clear the basically everyone here making blanket remarks about whether he was "good" or "bad" hasn't read much history. You should try it out sometimes. The real great men and women of history are far more interesting than the simplistic caricatures society at large tends to apply to them. Jobs is no exception.

Spot on.

Steve Jobs, love him or hate him, certainly keep things interesting along with helping to push the tech-world forward.

And the next-gen iPhone is gonna be ace!!!!!

 

[Renzatic]

Its nice to see that we've got a great bunch of level headed, professional members here at MacRumors.


Oh, wait...

+1 to this gentleman here.

You can like your phone. You can like your phone over the competition. But to hate the competition simply because they're not your chosen brand? That's just dumb, people.

I've got an iPhone, and I love it. But I'm not in love with it. I've played with Android phones enough to see that the OS isn't an exact copy of iOS. It's got some similarities, yeah. Some pretty glaring. But so does iOS, and I'm not gonna go all out screaming that blah copied blah over some low level API that no one here would even care about if it didn't come up in a lawsuit somewhere.

It's fun to argue. Hell, I'm here practically to argue. But this conversation is getting straight up dumb by this point. There ain't no clever in this thread no mo.

 

[Bernard SG]

I think he's suggesting why not release a product with a lower price point, to compete with the Android Fire and the smaller Galaxy Tab?

It would make good business sense.

Why would anyone want to compete against (a) a product that isn't available yet or (b) a product that sold so dismally that the vendor discontinued it?

For having an iPad and using it a lot, I kind of foresee the huge potential it has but I also totally understand how a smaller size (7") doesn't make the cut for that kind of potential.

7" may make sense for the underlying goals of the Amazon Fire (that still remains to be proven in the real world) but absolutely not for what the iPad is headed to.

 

[Slurpy2k8]

Not to mention all the small companies that Apple buys up so that they become iPhone-exclusive, then claimed they invented it. Like Siri.

You're full of crap. Point me to where Apple claimed they invented voice recognition,or Siri. Please. I read attack garbage all the time that Apple claims to have 'invented something'- and it's always a strawman setup to lazily attack Apple without merit, while being dishonest. Watch the keynote. They SPECIFICALLY claim that voice technology has been around, but that it hasnt been that useable. Yes, Apple bought Siri. Then improved the hell out of it. So what? Apple hasn't bought even a fraction of the companies Microsoft/Google have bought. Stop talking out of your ass. That's all internet comments are these days- 99% trash.

 

[Matariel]

Please, show me where I can get a Galaxy SII for $199 contract free.

After you show me where you can get an iPhone 4S for $199 contract free.

See, I can use an ad absurdum argument too.
There are plenty of Android devices that are available for less than that price, or for free on contract. How they compare to the 'cheap' iPhones is personal preference in my opinion, but the Galaxy SII a friend showed me a few days ago pretty much blows my iPhone 4 away, and the 4S is barely an upgrade.

 

[Bernard SG]

That's quite comical. Considering Android has offered direct access to the file system since the get go.

Which is exactly what makes it a mess.

 

[Harrybarracuda]

Why would anyone want to compete against (a) a product that isn't available yet or (b) a product that sold so dismally that the vendor discontinued it?

(a) Because that product will now provide Browsing and Android Fire owners may decide they don't need an iPad. I can see it taking iPad (and Android tablet) business.

(b) When did Samsung discontinue the 7" tab (Or are you referring to the fact they announced a 7.7" product)?

 

[Slurpy2k8]

+1 to this gentleman here.

You can like your phone. You can like your phone over the competition. But to hate the competition simply because they're not your chosen brand? That's just dumb, people.

I've got an iPhone, and I love it. But I'm not in love with it. I've played with Android phones enough to see that the OS isn't an exact copy of iOS. It's got some similarities, yeah. Some pretty glaring. But so does iOS, and I'm not gonna go all out screaming that blah copied blah over some low level API that no one here would even care about if it didn't come up in a lawsuit somewhere.

It's fun to argue. Hell, I'm here practically to argue. But this conversation is getting straight up dumb by this point. There ain't no clever in this thread no mo.

I agree with you. But you should visit some android forums. It's 10x worse. These days, the comments are practically all glee that SJ is dead. 'Good riddance', etc, while claiming Apple is irrelevant in the industry, and it seems like the posters believe they're in a holy war. I stepped in once to suggest it's a bit disrespectful to spit on SJ in such a fashion and I got torn to shreds and banned. Yeah, it's that bad. Alot of ****** people on the internet.

 

[Harrybarracuda]

Which is exactly what makes it a mess.

Mine isn't a mess. It has exactly the files I want on it, exactly where I want them.

Not disputing that some people should not be let loose on a file system, but when you talk about managing phones you need to start talking about iTunes first. What a pig of a product.

 

[maroontiger2k9]

Tim Cook....Release the Kraken!!!!

 

[gohn]

doesn't google have to give George Lucas a nickel every time they say "android"?

Even the freaking name is stollen. Don't get me wrong, I think android has some strengths. But it is hard to deny that the original android was a direct rip off of the original iPhone OS.

In short, no.

Possible confusion over an apparent issue with the use of the word Droid.

Oh and apples were around a long time before The Beatles or The Steves.

 

[Oletros]

After you show me where you can get an iPhone 4S for $199 contract free.

See, I can use an ad absurdum argument too.

I wasn't the one comparing a $199 contract free Android device with an iPhone 4S