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

[vrDrew]

Android is in a (deserved) world of hurt.

The Fandroids keep on overlooking one very important point: Google doesn't make any money on it. And pretty soon its going to end up costing Google a great deal of money just to keep going. Consider the following:

1) Google is very likely to end up having to pay Oracle a settlement in the billions of dollars for infringing on Java copyrights and patents. Thats for past infringment - its also going to have to pay a $3-10 per handset fee for new activations.

2) Google actually gets more than 70% of its "mobile search" revenue from iOS devices. Thats because, contrary to the deluded Fandroids opinions, most people who buy the wretched Samsungs and HTCs don't spend that much time browsing the internet. (They certainly don't spend much money on Applications.)

3) But wait! Apple just introduced Siri - which will let people find gas stations and Thai food restaurants without involving Google at all.... Wonder what that is going to do for Google's mobile search revenue stream?

4) Google's "Android Partners" are getting whacked time and again with patent infringement suits. Not just Apple either: HTC and Samsung are already paying Microsoft. At what point do these guys start looking elsewhere?

5) Then there's Google's (puzzling) Motorola acquisition. MMI seems unlikely to provide the sort of "patent shield" Google was hoping for. Instead it seems mainly to be sowing suspicion and discord amongs Google's "Android Partners" - and who can blame them.

My prediction is that four years from now we'll be talking about Android with the same level of pity and disdain we now reserve for RIM and Symbian.

 

[k995]

So I am curious as to how the Android defenders on here feel about being cattle on the Google farm. Do you enjoy using a smartphone OS from a company that does not give a rat's arse about you or your privacy?

I'd rather use a smartphone from a company that actually sees me as a customer.

I think of Google kind of like the machine army in the Matrix movies and Android users as human batteries hooked up into the matrix.

Don't be naive, don't believe the pr bs that apple 'cares' about you .

 

[G4DP]

Would he really have risked the whole company on some personal vendetta?

That is not a man of sound mind. After working so hard to get the comapny to where it is and then risk it all sound rather petty and childish.

As for the post earlier in this thread, I think one person has created 20 accounts to make himself look popular.

 

[Oletros]

Android is in a (deserved) world of hurt.

A lot of wishful thinking

Ains, I like people with dreams

 

[Renzatic]

Alright. I've got one question for everyone here who's claimed at some point that Android is a total rip off of iOS.

HOW does it rip off iOS? I want a bullet list, people. Detailed, precise, eloquent. Like an Apple product, in post form.

Now I myself have much more experience with my iPhone than I do any Android handset. But from the bits and pieces I've gleamed during my relatively limited time with one, the only thing I can see that Google obviously aped from Apple is pinch to zoom. Maybe a few other gestures here and there. Nothing absolutely huge.

But I'm obviously not speaking from a point of experience here. Some of you seem to know exactly what Google ripped off from Apple. And it makes you FURIOUS

Course, why anyone except Apple would seemingly get personally offended over that, I have no idea. And since Apple took the Android notification system for iOS5, I think the two companies have officially come full circle, and made a fair trade.

So comeon, everyone. How has Android ripped off iOS? I wanna know. Tell me.

 

[Harrybarracuda]

My prediction is that four years from now we'll be talking about Android with the same level of pity and disdain we now reserve for RIM and Symbian.

Sounds more like desire than prediction. And somehow I don't think you could be more wrong.

 

[mnsportsgeek]

Look at smartphones prior to the first iPhone in 2007. Then look at them after the first iPhone was released. Anyone doesn't see what I'm talking about is an idiot.

 

[D4F]

Alright. I've got one question for everyone here who's claimed at some point that Android is a total rip off of iOS.

HOW does it rip off iOS? I want a bullet list, people. Detailed, precise, eloquent. Like an Apple product, in post form.

Now I myself have much more experience with my iPhone than I do any Android handset. But from the bits and pieces I've gleamed during my relatively limited time with one, the only thing I can see that Google obviously aped from Apple is pinch to zoom. Maybe a few other gestures here and there. Nothing absolutely huge.

But I'm obviously not speaking from a point of experience here. Some of you seem to know exactly what Google ripped off from Apple. And it makes you FURIOUS

Course, why anyone except Apple would seemingly get personally offended over that, I have no idea. And since Apple took the Android notification system for iOS5, I think the two companies have officially come full circle, and made a fair trade.

So comeon, everyone. How has Android ripped off iOS? I wanna know. Tell me.

Nobody will tell you pretty much anything backed up with evidence.
Thing is that this is macrumors. You HAVE to remember that coming here. In many cases the only logic behind a statement is that somebody else posted it earlier and apart from this nothing makes any sense what so ever.

Just enjoy your stay. This place can be surreal

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Look at smartphones prior to the first iPhone in 2007. Then look at them after the first iPhone was released. Anyone doesn't see what I'm talking about is an idiot.

Check SE phones from circa 2003-2004. The 800 for example.
Is it that very different?
If you don't see what I'm talking about you're probably just another idiot.

 

[Renzatic]

Look at smartphones prior to the first iPhone in 2007. Then look at them after the first iPhone was released. Anyone doesn't see what I'm talking about is an idiot.

What I've seen, and what's been pointed out countless times in this very thread, is that smartphones were already headed towards a full touchscreen compatible setup. Go back a few pages, and you'll see plenty of proto iOS type devices that were in the public eye shortly before, or around the same time as the iPhone. Apple just took the current trends and ideas, refined them, and popularized them.

Just enjoy your stay. This place can be surreal

Been enjoying it for a few months now.

Yeah, it's a little weird on occasion. But barring the few hot topic issues that get everyone's panties up in a bunch, it's actually a more sane place than most Mac/PC/Android forums I've checked out.

Scary, ain't it?

 

[something3153]

maybe it had something to do with Eric Schmidt being on Apple's board of directors? Then resigning, and making a competing product? Hello?!

None of the half dozen, or more, people who responded to that post of mine actually gave a concrete example of something that was actually stolen. Reminds me of all the WMDs in Iraq.

Name me one thing in the iPhone that found its way into Android that was not an obvious extension of a newly-affordable or newly-available technology that anyone could buy from a supplier. Just name one. If it's so obvious that can't be hard, can it?

 

[something3153]

You guys act like Apple in the course of 6 months completely scrapped the design of the of iPhone because of the prada. The iPhone was in development for years prior to release stuff like that takes time.

And the Prada was designed in a day? It had a development cycle too.

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Pull down menu's can't be copied. Conceptually yes, but execution; no. The original G1 I owned had an awful and limp notification bar. Slow, sluggish, and didn't tell me the detail of information I wanted there and then.

As long as ideas aren't directly copied and improved upon, I see no problem Apple using the pull-down menu because IMHO, it works very well!

I can see why Jobs saw Android as the devil.

So when Apple takes an obvious idea, that's fine, but when someone else uses an obvious idea of Apple's, it's theft? Just trying to keep it straight.

 

[Oletros]

Look at smartphones prior to the first iPhone in 2007. Then look at them after the first iPhone was released. Anyone doesn't see what I'm talking about is an idiot.

Smartphones like the LG Prada?

 

[thl0103]

I dished out nearly $900 on LG KE850, the Prada phone.
Then the iPhone came out, made my Prada phone look like just an accessory.

 

[KnightWRX]

Look at smartphones prior to the first iPhone in 2007. Then look at them after the first iPhone was released. Anyone doesn't see what I'm talking about is an idiot.

You just insulted me. Looking at the Sony Ericsson P800, I don't know what you're trying to imply :

We got rid of the stylus... so what ?

 

[TheAppleGeek]

I like all these new quotes from Jobs. Very interesting to read about.

 

[D4F]

You just insulted me. Looking at the Sony Ericsson P800, I don't know what you're trying to imply :

We got rid of the stylus... so what ?

I had it back in 2004 or so. You could create custom menus to give it fresh look.
Even back then that phone had better customization than iOS today. And that is a fact.

 

[juliusaugustus]

Let's see...

Why don't we start with...

The whole damn OS???

What you mean like the Linux Kernel and Java VM. Oh wait

 

[ghsDUDE]

I'm not trying to play devils advocate but didn't he say making someone's idea in a better way is why Apple is the best? So how can he say they "stole" it?

 

[Renzatic]

I just came upon a realization a little while ago. I had to go out and take some pictures for an old friend of mine. He's way up in New England, all the way on the other side of the country, and wanted to get some pictures of his house, and the old doctor's office in town to show his friends up there.

So I grab my phone, and head up to his place. It's a cool old house. Big old stone mansion built back in the 1930's or thereabout. It got hit directly by the tornado that practically leveled my little town back on April 27th, yet the place only took minor to moderate damage. They really don't build em like they used to.

I'm walking around the place, snapping pictures (with my phone, mind). All having fun, taking in the sights and sounds. Gettin' all artsy. When I'm done, I send all 40 meg of pictures to him by sharing a folder on dropbox, and upload the pictures to him while I'm on, holy crap, wireless internet. What a thing to imagine, huh? Wireless. Freaking. Internet.

After I'm done, I figure I'll go out and eat a waffle. Kind of a little reward for my hard work. For poops and giggles, I figured I'd load up the GPS tracker on my phone. Yup, my phone. The very same phone I took pictures with, and uploaded them to someone all the way across the country via wireless internet. Wow. And now, my phone is showing me a nice birds eye view of the area surrounding me, tracking my point, and giving me directions to the nearest Waffle House. Holy crap.

When I get there, I think I'm gonna go for more poops and giggles, and see what ratings the local Waffle House has garnered on Yelp. I pull out this freakishly awesome little device out of my pocket, and use the miracle of wireless internet to look it up. Didn't get good ratings. Waffle House never does. But hell, I don't care. They have, like, the best waffles ever.

It was about this time that I realized...holy ****...I live in the GOTTDAMN FUTURE! I've been taking it for granted so long, that I never really sat back and appreciated all the cool stuff our basic freaking phones do these days. All in a package that weights roughly two pounds, and fits snugly in my pocket.

And yet, here we are, arguing about who copied who. You know what? WHO CARES? It doesn't matter who the manufacturer is. These things are neat.

I swear. Some of you people don't have any imagination.

Also, I'm easily impressed.

 

[Glideslope]

"I'm willing to go thermonuclear war on this."

Great Stuff!!!

 

[apolloa]

I'd love to know exactly what Android copied? Having used smartphones for 10 years or more now, none of them do anything different to older smartphones? Except maybe the app store? Meh let em carry on whining... it's a battle they will never stop.

I'm just glad in the knowledge I like iOS the most. At least it doesn't crash, well not very often anyway.

Ah.. I remember browsing the web, playing 3D games, email, SMS, camera, video on my P800.. those were the day's..

 

[tonydickinson]

IOS v Android

Steve don't worry. . . We'll destroy Android for you

Not that Apple has to try though. Competition is good and so is choice. I choose Apple. (I know it's extremely early but just imagine what iOS 6 will bring.) Don't stone me!

Can't wait for the book next week.

I totally agree with you.

Although I am your total Apple fan boy and have been since the early days of the G4, to harbor anger is not good, and such a belief would not have prolonged his life. As I have said many times there is room for both, and if Mr Daimler had the same attitude with his horseless carraige, where would we be now?

I believe competition is good, and copying is a fact of life, Apple just needs to continue making the iPhone better and better, and accept that others will prefer something cheaper, while acknowledging that competition is good for all.

A new page needs to be opened on that attitude as it will NOT go away.

 

[adder7712]

I had it back in 2004 or so. You could create custom menus to give it fresh look.
Even back then that phone had better customization than iOS today. And that is a fact.

And it had better phone features too. It's a shame that Sony Ericsson axed UIQ, would have been a good contender to Android if they continue to focus on its evolution.

UIQ has full multitasking if I heard right and my current Sony Ericsson feature phone (the one in the sig), has a similar multitasking paradigm to iOS for Java apps.

 

[eye]

I dished out nearly $900 on LG KE850, the Prada phone.
Then the iPhone came out, made my Prada phone look like just an accessory.

Swell purchase, Master P. That phone was a piece if crap.

 

[MrNomNoms]

It's not a double standard. People freaked out and hated MS over the very same things Apple is now doing. Just because one corporation got lucky, and managed to get away with it, doesn't mean we should give free reign to another simply because.

Do we really want to see Apple become the next MS? A company so entrenched in their respective field that they didn't even have to try anymore? Do you want to see computer technology stagnate like it did back in the late 90's, early '00's? I sure as hell don't.

Now that MS has some competition, they're making great stuff again. Apple is kicking ass left and right. And Google is making a name for themselves. Because of this, we've seen more neat stuff come out and advance in the last 5 years than we did during the previous decade beforehand. Not to say that there weren't any goings on back then, but they weren't nearly as fast paced and interesting as they are now.

The only reason this is happening is because of competition. If any one company tries to play their strengths, and monopolize themselves, we should all be bitching, whining, moaning, and groaning. Cuz who wants all this fun to stop?

But if you read what was written Steve/Apple has no qualms with good old fashioned competition but when the competitor OS vendor is blatantly ripping off ideas from iOS are you surprised that there is a blacklash? look at Microsoft - for all their faults at least they tried something different with their new phone operating system vs. Android which was nothing less than a 'me-too iOS for those who can't afford an iPhone'. What is stopping Google from actually spending some money and coming up with something radically different?