Google Co-Founder Accuses Jobs of 'Rewriting History' of iPhone and Android

[Bytor65]

I have hard time seeing the merit in Pages complaint. There weren't even any announced Google phone intentions before iPhone shipped and a year later they release something that looks like an iPhone knockoff.

What next a Google Tablet that has nothing to do with the release of the iPad?

 

[ChazUK]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 1.6; en-gb; Dell Streak Build/Donut) AppleWebKit/528.5+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.2 Mobile Safari/525.20.1)

I'm glad both platforms exist and the idea of which platform came first doesn't make a blind bit of difference to me.

Let the big boys have their war of words. I'll just reap the rewards of the one-upmanship that seems to have come out of all this. Both platforms seem to have influenced each other and that is to the benefit of the users.

Keep it coming Apple and Google!

 

[reubs]

I've got an Android phone running HTC's Sense on 1.6. If Google had been working on that for years to get a UI running and a good browser experience, Apple kicked them in the teeth with iPhone OS 1. Safari is, in my mind, a much better browser experience on the phone. The UI on Android is rough, unpolished, and just unpleasant in my mind.

If I were Google, I wouldn't be bragging about the head start that I got on Apple in this match-up. I think of myself as an average user, and the Apple experience is so far ahead of the Android experience it's ridiculous. I am counting the days (figuratively, of course) until my contract is up and I can consider an iPhone again.

The fact that all capable Android phones are not running the latest OS is another mark against Google, so there's that, too.

 

[*LTD*]

I have hard time seeing the merit in Pages complaint. There weren't even any announced Google phone intentions before iPhone shipped and a year later they release something that looks like an iPhone knockoff.

What next a Google Tablet that has nothing to do with the release of the iPad?

Sour grapes for Page because Apple stole consumers' hearts years ago and Google can barely design their way out of a paper bag.

"Google" and "Microsoft" are becoming interchangeable terms, except one of them is a little quicker on the draw when it comes to imitating Apple.

 

[dogie678]

Google's honeymoon is OVER.

Google lost $58 Billion in stock value in 6 months.

From the Article:

Google's down nearly 30% in 2010, worse than the drops experienced by top rivals Microsoft and Yahoo.

Some investors are also worried that Google has not been able to replicate its market dominance in other areas -- most notably, in the world of mobile devices and social networking.

It's also looking more and more like Google, despite all its efforts to diversify, may be a one-trick pony after all.


Unfortunately for Google, beating the stuffing out of Yahoo and Microsoft in search is now considered a fait accompli. But Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500), with its iPhone and iPad, has become more of a competitor to Google as of late. And Google's growth, while impressive, is pedestrian when compared to Apple.


http://money.cnn.com/2010/07/07/markets/thebuzz/index.htm

 

[AidenShaw]

The fact that all capable Android phones are not running the latest OS is another mark against Google, so there's that, too.

Have you installed IphoneOS4 on your 1G Iphone?

"Capable" is a subjective term. You can install IhoneOS4 on the 2G Iphone, but there are many complaints that it is very slow. Only the 3G and 4G Iphones run well with IphoneOS4.

Phones are not PCs running shrink-wrap OS releases - industry-wide it is unusual for any smartphone to support upgrades to full new releases of the OS. Unlike a PC, phones have a limited lifetime (note that 20 month free upgrade window). It doesn't make much sense to try to upgrade old legacy phones. Apple's caught on to that with IphoneOS4.

 

[deconstruct60]

Lets see Google purchased Android in 2005.

Which was before the Google CEO was put on the Apple board. Defacto, Steve Jobs puts people on the Apple board.

Do you really believe that Apple developed the Iphone from scratch in less than 2 years. It was more like 5 years before it was unveiled in 2007 .

Again more revisionist cruft. The iPad was in development for a long time. When Apple had the dust up with Moto on the phone (circa 2004-5) and they releaized they could chopdown and release a phone .... then came the iPhone. Probably contributes to reason why Apple (Jobs) didn't really care so much that Google had a team that was splinter off of the Danger/Sidekick creators; even if he bothered to pay attention.

Furthermore, the Danger/Andriod folks had been doing "smart phones" just as long as iPad timeline you are going to come up with.

If Steve didn't care about protecting his pride. He would have Immediately kick the Google guy off the Apple board which would have surely brought quick attention from the feds.

LOL. Quick attention from the Feds for doing the conservatively correct thing???? As oppose to backdating options, forming agreements to restraint rights to move between jobs , or collude with other companies with similar overlap.

why was it that until the Iphone came along no one used their phones for browsing the web.

Largely, because the screens were too small. The difference with the iPhone was that you could browse the normal web..... not the alternative "mini mobile" web. The iPhone couldn't come to market until the screen were big enough so that you didn't have constantly zoom most of the time.
Apple is good at timing when tech components are ready to be widely deployed. Not so much in inventing them, but using them.

They also listened to others and opened their market like with clones and nearly destroyed the company.

Yet another... revisionist view of the world. Apple was jacked up before opened to cloning. That there were so weak is one reason had to cancel the cloning efforts. It wasn't the cause.

At one time Apple was the largest personal computer vendor. They are not now. Like personal computers their share of smartphone market will follow similar long term path.

 

[AidenShaw]

Apple's dropped $14B in the last month

Your point?

Playing market cap games is pretty silly - AAPL's honeymoon could end any day as well.

 

[applesupergeek]

Why are people even getting worked up about the lies these idiots at google are spewing? Their pr machine has been the biggest garbage release lever for so long now... Portraying apple as the 1984 monster while they have the biggest private info databanks by far in the globe and they pimp every business on the globe with their ads? There really is no point in discussing them.

 

[applesupergeek]

At one time Apple was the largest personal computer vendor. They are not now. Like personal computers their share of smartphone market will follow similar long term path.

The typical Nostradamus of forums who is really a billionaire from his predictions yet likes to troll the forums of apple. Why don't you quit busting our balls with baseless moronic predictions and go put your money where your mouth is by shorting apple stock and making millions?

 

[franswa za]

re. re-"w/righting" his-tory

wozniack, jobs, schmidt, gates, page, all appl y

history is being re written ad infinitum, infinite looping
by innovators/competitors/relevance

what most of us read/research? or what we are presented with is not necessarily what is really happening.........

delicate balance of egos, consumers, fanboys, shareholders, pervious, previous/future personal bonds,"anticipators?"

this is the system as we perceive it

 

[Rodimus Prime]

For years, there is plenty of competition between

Nokia
Motorola
Windows Mobile
Palm
Samsung
etc.

Surely that results in the innovations we see in the market place today.
They are soooo competitive that before the iPhone, all those phones require long manuals to use advanced functions.

Tell you the truth that is not really true. In the Mobile OS department you had Windows Mobile, Sybma (Nokia) and Blackberry OS
Nokia used Sybima, RIM used Blackberry and all other Smart phones use Windows Mobile. Palm gave up its OS and went WM for a long time.

RIM hands were rather tied on what it could do as its bread and better was business and they had that down really well. There OS still is set up to be all business very little fluff. Even their storm is that way.
The storm was in development before the first iPhone came out and really the iPhone did not effect how it turned out. RIM has long development cycles of its produces.
You only had 3 big players but in the US you really only had 2 major players. Now you have in the US and the world, BB, iOS, WM, Andriod and WebOS. And look how quickly things are improving now that we went from 2 OS to 5 very good OS's

Palm my understanding did not directly copy apple and webOS was in development before the iPhone.

 

[*LTD*]

Tell you the truth that is not really true. In the Mobile OS department you had Windows Mobile, Sybma (Nokia) and Blackberry OS
Nokia used Sybima, RIM used Blackberry and all other Smart phones use Windows Mobile. Palm gave up its OS and went WM for a long time. \

You just proved his point.

And it's "Symbian", which is pure garbage.

 

[wreckshop]

u apple homers are ridiculous. So since iphone came to market first android copied it?

By that logic apple copied LG, since the prada phone came out first. apple even copied the phone as fashion accessory idea from LG too! lol

 

[inkswamp]

But that's been his marketing strategy since Apple shipped the first Mac... "Everybody's stealing the ideas from us that we stole from Xerox!"

Or, as Bill Gates once said to Steve Jobs: "We both had this rich neighbor, and when I climbed through the windows into his living room to steal his TV I found that you had already stolen it."

You know, the most jealous people are usually those who are cheating on their partners themselves. And why? It's the "I'm doing it, so everybody else must be doing it, too"-mentality.

You're probably trolling but WTF. I'm bored.

Apple asked for permission to use PARC's work in a commercial product. They were given full access to it and Xerox's blessing to use the ideas. Apple compensated Xerox for the use of their work, hired away some of the people on the project and developed about half of the elements we all now recognize as the modern desktop metaphor.

That's not stealing in any sense of the term. Yes, Xerox tried to sue Apple many years later for this stuff, but that was after the success of the GUI was an undeniable fact and Xerox began to understand what they'd given away.

This, by the way, is all a matter of public record. It's not a matter of opinion. Calling it "stealing" doesn't prove anything other than the fact that you're a little understudied on the topic.

 

[kdarling]

The iPhone timeline as originally told to reporters

There were three major histories (WSJ, NYT and Wired) of iPhone development that came out using interviews with AT&T and possibly Apple folk.

From them and other sources we get the following basic timeline:

... 2004 - Apple works with Motorola, who creates the failed ROKR.

Feb 2005 - Apple approaches Cingular about making their own phone.
Mid 2005 - Apple approaches Verizon.
Fall 2005 - UI dummies created on iPods. Some in Apple argue for Linux.
Nov 2005 - iPhone specific hardware development begins.

Jan 2006 - Mobile port of OSX begins.
Mid 2006 - Apple gives up on Verizon, signs exclusive with Cingular.
Nov 2006 - Jobs tells his staff they don't have a product yet.
Dec 2006 - Cingular CEO shown iPhone.

Jan 2007 - World shown iPhone.

So yes, the iPhone itself was created in a remarkably short time.

As for the idea that the iPad came first, Jobs did not say that at all. He said he saw an internal R&D touch-based tablet UI that made him want to do a similar thing for phones. The iPad itself is an outgrowth of what was done for the iPhone.

 

[inkswamp]

Have you installed IphoneOS4 on your 1G Iphone?

"Capable" is a subjective term. You can install IhoneOS4 on the 2G Iphone, but there are many complaints that it is very slow. Only the 3G and 4G Iphones run well with IphoneOS4.

I know someone who has a 2G phone with 4.0 installed and it's fine. I have a 3G with 4.0 installed and it's great. Users don't seem to be aware that they need to perform a hard reboot on their phone after upgrading.

Meanwhile, it's still uncertain if my wife's Android phone, which isn't even a year old yet (was released last Sept.) will be able to make the jump to 2.2.

 

[applesupergeek]

I know someone who has a 2G phone with 4.0 installed and it's fine. I have a 3G with 4.0 installed and it's great. Users don't seem to be aware that they need to perform a hard reboot on their phone after upgrading.

Meanwhile, it's still uncertain if my wife's Android phone, which isn't even a year old yet (was released last Sept.) will be able to make the jump to 2.2.

You are talking sense of course, but you are baited by a guy that is here solely to spew such garbage comments on apple, he's been doing it since time immemorial yet he is still unbanned and trolling.

 

[dogie678]

Your point?

Playing market cap games is pretty silly - AAPL's honeymoon could end any day as well.

Apple's market cap > MS >>>>> Google


my point is that it's downhill from here for Google.

 

[BC2009]

Jobs is right, as usual.

"Well we were working on one..."

Well, when Apple came out with one - you know ACTUALLY PRODUCED IT and made it available to the world - then the game changed. Apple had created a phone unlike any other. That was Google's time to say "hey we'll play too", and try to keep up with Apple, or to stay out. "How long they've been working on it" is not pertinent anymore.

Agreed. I think Google and Apple should try to play nice as they pocket all that money and mindshare. But I have to agree with jamesryanbell.

And for the record.....

I've been working on instantaneous teleportation. I've already produced a flow chart showing the steps involved.
Step 1: Object at location A.
Step 2: Press button.
Step 3: Something happens.
Step 4: Object at location B.

I haven't worked out the details of step 3 yet; however, this is my public "stake in the ground". Now if somebody comes along and delivers on step 3, and I do the same thing later, then I want it known that I am not a "me too", because you saw it here first. I helped bring about the revolution in travel and shipping.

 

[dogie678]

Technically speaking, Apple was in the phone business FIRST.


Remember the Motorola Rockr? The very first mobile phone with iTunes. Technology sites reporting on collaborations between Motorola and Apple as far back as December 2004.

January 7, 2005 - Motorola previews iTunes phone

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/05/01/07/updated_motorola_previews_itunes_phone_images.html


August 17, 2005 - Google buys Android

http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/aug2005/tc20050817_0949_tc024.htm


a full 8 months before Google bought Android and God knows how long Apple's been working with Motorola and on future iPhone-prototypes.

 

[SPUY767]

Jobs is right, as usual.

"Well we were working on one..."

Well, when Apple came out with one - you know ACTUALLY PRODUCED IT and made it available to the world - then the game changed. Apple had created a phone unlike any other. That was Google's time to say "hey we'll play too", and try to keep up with Apple, or to stay out. "How long they've been working on it" is not pertinent anymore.

Schmidt likes to pretend that the original Android phone was anything like the Android phones that did eventually come out, but they were not. I've personally seen a few samples of the originals and it would be pushing it to call them smartphones. The reason it tool google so long to eventually release an Android smartphone was that when they got wind of what Apple was about to release, it forced them to completely rethink their platform. It was almost like starting from scratch with nothing left but the Android name.

 

[AidenShaw]

Meanwhile, it's still uncertain if my wife's Android phone, which isn't even a year old yet (was released last Sept.) will be able to make the jump to 2.2.

And, if it doesn't, her phone will still work just as well as the day that she bought it.

My point is that most mobile phones can't be (or aren't) upgraded. If you expect upgrades, you'll be disappointed.

The way the phone business works is that it is more profitable to offer you an early upgrade, than to back port a mobile OS to a old device that might not even have the power to run the software well.

I expect that next June Apple will announce the IphoneOS5, and that it can only install on the Iphone 4 and Iphone 5. Those "year old" 3GS phones will be SOL. (They'll still work as well as they do today, but they won't be able run IphoneOS5.)

As has been noted here by others - when you buy a new car the maker doesn't upgrade your car the next year with new engine, brakes and entertainment systems when the new models come out. You get bug and safety fixes - but not feature updates.

 

[BC2009]

Google's honeymoon is OVER.
...
http://money.cnn.com/2010/07/07/markets/thebuzz/index.htm

interesting read.... i have no doubt that Android is the next best thing to an iPhone, but Google's ability to execute and also coming into the game second with only penetration in the US market is going to hurt them especially in investors eyes. It also can't help being identified as the major competitor of a company who is the wall-street favorite right now. Being Apple's partner would help Google's stock, being their competitor is going to hurt you when every analyst is so big on Apple.

I personally hope Google's Android keeps getting better. It will keep Apple out of Anti-Trust allegations by providing competition (a favor that Apple did for Microsoft for a long time) and will give somebody for Apple to keep pace against. Further, Android fills a niche for those users for whom complete freedom and control over their mobile device is a must.

That said, I love my iPhone 3Gs and my iMac and my iPad and it is no surprise to me that Apple is doing so well. They are making good products (and yes I have even gotten my hands on a friend's iPhone-4 and the thing is amazing -- the complaints I have seen on these forums are either isolated or depend on your location -- but are definitely not affecting the majority).

Apple is very strategic about the markets it will enter into and they are timing their product announcements perfectly with one big hit after another in 2010. It seems to me that Google is "all over the place" right now. I'm pretty sure the investors don't know what to make of Google's strategy.

I must say that I miss the days of Google and Apple being friends. I'm pretty sure some GOOG stock holders feel the same way.

 

[kironin]

i'd be curious to see where in the timeline android changed from those blackberry style devices to the touchscreen iphone like interface. something tells me it was about the same time the iphone was introduced to the apple board of directors, hence steve's attitude.

bingo!