Phil Schiller Goes on Offensive Against Android and Samsung

[bearcatrp]

Sounds like the whining of desperation. I left android after discovering the many security flaws. Wouldn't trust it today either. But to whine, jeeeesh. Shut up and inovate apple. Its getting dull on iOS but trust this phone more than android. Used to think blackberry was the best security but don't know anything on their new platform. I will leave to blackberry once sprint gets off there arse and gets it. Tired of the iCandy!

 

[firewood]

In other words, Android developers don't make enough money to afford a decent phone.

That's the killer differentiator. Until Android device users start turning into the types of customers who like to pump $Billion in revenue to app developers, the apps available for Android (except for top games, Google apps and adware) will mostly be second class stuff compared to iOS. Successful small developers typically follow the money. I just don't see the typical Android user starting to fork out more a lot more cash for apps this year.

 

[cdmoore74]

Phil got you guys all wild up right before Samsung's big dance tomorrow. Just remember guys that we're only in the first quarter of the year and Android already has at least 4 flagships (HTC One, Sony Xperia Z, LG Optimus G Pro, Samsung S4) announced. I'm going to be kicking back laughing when more Android flagships come out during the iPhone 5s and iOS6s launch party. Nexus 5, Motorola X and the big daddy Note 3 will eat away any iPhone momentum.

I LOVE ANDROID FRAGMENTATION. Exactly why Android is number one. The Apple suits and fanbois are too blind to see it.

 

[Tankmaze]

It is unusual for apple to do this. They must worried by the S4 then...

 

[mehanika]

Deleted

 

[Saladinos]

Who makes more money? Google or Apple? Who's getting who's ass kicked?

Google makes $0 from Android. They are actually helping foreign companies and hurting American companies in the process.

This is why I can't stand Google android sheep.

If the competitive company wasn't Apple, you might have a point.

Apple don't pay a fair rate of tax. They claim to pay something like 9% globally per year (and even that is likely inflated from the actual cash that changes hands).

Apple makes tens of billions of dollars (like $30-40Bn) in profit and pays less than $4bn a year cash taxes (globally - so that 4bn is split between the US, EU, China, etc). The United States gets pathetic small amounts of revenue from Apple being here.

Apple do employ people in the US, but so do Samsung. They have a huge fabrication and design facility in Austin, for example.

Apple are a stateless company. Don't start calling them American.

----------

As for Schiller's statement, it's obvious why this is happening (GS4 event tomorrow).

Not only that, but the other story of the week is how successful Samsung's marketing has been. They out-spent Apple and successfully managed to change perceptions about their brand. People now consider their phones as being as good (if not better) than iPhones. I'm not talking Android-fanboys here, I'm talking regular Mums & Dads.

As head of Apple's marketing, Phil is to some extent accountable for letting that happen and totally responsible for fixing it.

Personally I think Samsung's marketing has been horrifically bad - I cringed at the obvious product-placement that was thrust in your face everywhere during the Olympics, for example. What do smartphones have to do with sport anyway? It's sad that tacky stuff like over-pushing your product in totally unrelated big events has any effect, but it seems to.

 

[jm001]

400+ comments and counting! Macrumors sure picked the right article to publish to get people talking. Schiller struck a nerve.

 

[lifeinhd]

Sounds like you like giving 100% of your money to Korea.

Is that a problem?

Oh right, I forgot all American companies are *necessarily* better than any foreign competitors

Personally, I'll give whatever portion of my money is necessary to whichever company I believe provides the best product, whether that company be American or otherwise. Protectionism is not a good thing.

 

[phoenixsan]

Well....

defense is allowed/permited. In legal court, marketing techniques and so on. But remember Steve saying " I am going thermonuclear against Android" (not sure if exact words, tough....) and wanting to spend every penny in the battle....

 

[AtariMac]

"You seem to believe that everything has some kind of malicious intent on copying Apple or something"

Not at all. I saw Google's design for Android prior to the iPhone's release and I then saw Android after the iPhone's release.

Personally, I feel having Schmidt on Apple's board gave Google insight to a competitors product under false pretenses. This isn't a case of reverse engineering, this is a case of inside information.

This isn't about Apple, if an Apple exec was on Google's board and the reverse happened, I'd be equally disappointed in Apple. And before you throw out the whole Xerox story, do some homework and realize Apple paid licensing fees.

You really don't have to agree with me. I see it as a copy and wouldn't feel comfortable using it.

But you seem just fine with it. I am ok with you using Android. I really am. I'm just not fine with me using it.

I am the one missing out apparently, not you. So I don't get why you seem so inspired about this.

Is it copying or is it just the natural development direction of where it was going anyway, where Apple simply got there first? Think about how cars were developed with the first model had round wheels and rubber tires, a round steering wheel with a variable drivetrain. The horse-driven wagon was bound to evolve into something like a car given enough time.



You're missing the point by skewing off my simple question to you. You said very clearly that Google copied iOS, I merely asked you to prove that statement because otherwise it seems like blind conjecture to me.

Pinch to zoom was already in existence in other devices. My old Pentium 2 Thinkpad had pinch to zoom on the touchpad, does this mean Apple blatantly copied IBM for that feature or did Apple take advantage of a great idea and applied it to their devices?

Apple computers didn't originally employ more than 1 mouse button but Windows did ever since they started moving onto keyboard and mouse driven OS's. Does that mean Apple blatantly copied Microsoft (and the PC platform) for the right-click function? No. Apple simply acknowledged the utility and benefits towards the user to offer a second or third button.

You seem to believe that everything has some kind of malicious intent on copying Apple or something.

 

[nick_elt]

400+ comments and counting! Macrumors sure picked the right article to publish to get people talking. Schiller struck a nerve.

just wait till the s4 is announced 2moro and you'll have more with one side going on how crap and plastic it is and the other will be going on how great eye scrolling is and how the iphone is too small......

 

[Exio]

Who makes more money? Google or Apple? Who's getting who's ass kicked?

Google makes $0 from Android. They are actually helping foreign companies and hurting American companies in the process.

This is why I can't stand Google android sheep.

And where are apple products manufactured? Oh that's right! Not in the USA!

So again, tell me who is hurting american companies?

I'd like an example of how Google is hurting american companies, as I recall, google is a software company and most of their engineers reside within the US.

Apple ship's out it's massive productions to asia to benefit the asian economy and workers.

 

[lordofthereef]

yes you need an app for that, but hang on so do you with ios, find your iphone is a downloaded app smart arse.

To be clear, just to enable find my iPhone, one does not need to download any such app. If you are using an iOS device to locate another iOS device, then yes, the app is needed on the device that is "doing the locating".

 

[Arguru]

omg, really? don't get me started! how bout beign built on obj-c from the ground up? how about having drivers built in? how about UNIX, for ****s sake? i can do more in a terminal command than people can do in a week on windows. Cygwin is a POS. How bout a rock solid BSD based kernel? how about EFI for the last 10 years? How about RUNNING WINDOWS?

in my honest opinion, as a technologically educated person, OS X is the best OS out there. Android is linux, its a start, but you can't really tell its built on a lightweight framework because the HW integration is only coming along recently and everything is ran through a dalvik VM.

Phil, you don't need to defend apple, you need to ignore the competition and move forward. Android still can't have touch instruments because their latency is so bad. Its a reactionary platform and if Apple starts reacting to the reactors, then Apple is bound to fall behind.

PC/android folk do not have a single legit argument except the openness. stick to that one and quit flaming on macrumor forums

/rant

As a technologically educated person, I must say that you are not that thechnologically educated.

First, the fact that Mac OS is written in objective C is not that big of a deal. It was developed by apple so it seems reasonable that be the main language used by apple. But, as language, is not that different from C++. Then you rant about drivers. You do realize that the fact that the drivers are built into the OS only means that it is harder to develop 3rd party drivers, right?
You may argue that windows doesn't have built in drivers and that led to BSoD. But due to the way that windows works atm, that is not an issue. BSoD happened because the OS let drivers execute at "su" mode and do whatever they want. Right now, that doesn't happen anymore.

To the remaining topics:

• UNIX: yeah, unix is good. But I think you don't really understand why.
• Terminal: of course you can do more on a terminal than on a GUI, regardless of the OS.
• BSD Kernel: probably you are not aware of this, but windows kernel is actually good. the problem with windows is in the top layers, not in the kernel. That's why windows server is widely used.

And you might not be aware, but Dalvik is a process VM, not a system VM.

 

[samcraig]

Profit.

Just look at the ****ing profits. Thats all companies care about. Analysts are the asshats that think things like number sold vs competitor X matters.

Apple makes nearly 3/4th of the ENTIRE PROFITS OF THE MOBILE INDUSTRY. Samsung can move their phones all they want. If I was in apples position I'd be laughing all the way to the bank.

Profits are important. But can also be shortlived. I say CAN be.

What many fail to really see is that this fight is less about hardware - which is why while Google would love to see their Motorola investment pay off (although they did secure bucket loads of patents) with hardware profits - and everything to do with ecosystem. Ecosystem is the sticking factor. Someone invests enough in one ecosystem - they are a "lifer" - or at least it takes more to get them to switch. Amazon knows this. And they've been smart about it. Not only with their Kindle products but also with Prime.

So yes - Apple is kicking major ass when it comes to profit margins. But (and huge but) once/if they lose customers to other platforms - those profits will sink and eventually their nest egg to. Do I think this will happen - not really.

Profits alone isn't the end all. Nor is marketshare. They work in tandem.

 

[sir1963nz]

iLife for a start. I don't need to worry about AV software, or fanny about with driver installation CD's. Excellent apps like Mail, Calendar, Contacts, FaceTime... not to mention iCloud, and a thriving App Store. I don't need to re-install my OS every year, or unpick the bloatware that's been pre-installed.

You were saying?

Or how about the last time I installed antivirus software on any of my macs was over 10 years ago (back in OS9 days), and 2 of them sit on the net 24/7 as home servers and have done so for 5 years with zero viruses/malware.

 

[MuddyPaws1]

It's true there's no way around it.
The second problem that android has is piracy, I only know 1 person that doesn't pirate android apps all the other users that I know either use only free stuff or pirate away.

There is piracy on all platforms. If you don't think there is a ton of piracy of iOS apps then you are misinformed.

 

[samcraig]

Personally, I feel having Schmidt on Apple's board gave Google insight to a competitors product under false pretenses. This isn't a case of reverse engineering, this is a case of inside information.

Didn't Schmidt excuse himself from any meetings that were about the iPhone. What insight did he really have.

Further - Android was already in development. If you're talking form factor - other phone manufacturers already had similar devices on their product roadmap.

And oh yeah - once Apple DID announce the iPhone - no "stealing" had to take place. They could look at the device like anyone else and see its features.

 

[Exio]

Or how about the last time I installed antivirus software on any of my macs was over 10 years ago (back in OS9 days), and 2 of them sit on the net 24/7 as home servers and have done so for 5 years with zero viruses/malware.

The good ol' virus misconception.

I'm an avid Windows, Linux, and OSX user and I don't use an antivirus on any of them. I'm virus free and will continue to be.

Wait, give me a second, what's your e-mail I'll go write a simple virus right now and send it to you.

This argument has been proven skewed so many times it's not funny.

 

[bdavis89]

Apple hardware rocks, but the software sucks. I can't even save a file to a specific dropbox folder on OSX..I have to save it to dropbox, then open finder and move it to the specific folder within dropbox...there are countless things like this in OSX that simply isn't an issue with Windows.

I'm not a fanboy, I have one Windows PC, one Mac PC, my wife has an iPhone, and I have a Nexus 4.

 

[Jaredly]

I wonder - does being an iPhone user cause poor spelling and grammar, or is it the other way around? There must be a thesis in there somewhere.

Ya sorry there were quite a few errors in my post. I just read it again and I did my biggest pet peeve of spelling their wrong. But I just wanted to know if any android manufacturers offer good customer service or a protection plan.

 

[Rad99004]

I think Apple is in total panic mode.

Where I work we mostly have Apple and some Windows based phones. I'm starting to see more iPhone to Samsung SG3 conversions.

When the SG4 comes out I expect to see even more.

The phone looks Great just wish it ran IOS.

I think for the money more iPhone users will either switch or not upgrade as often.

 

[Exio]

There is piracy on all platforms. If you don't think there is a ton of piracy of iOS apps then you are misinformed.

Yea, people are just ignorant and bias. I'm an android user, as well as most of the people I know, hardly any of them find alternative methods to get the apk's.

 

[Saladinos]

I think Apple is in total panic mode.

Where I work we mostly have Apple and some Windows based phones. I'm starting to see more iPhone to Samsung SG3 conversions.

When the SG4 comes out I expect to see even more.

The phone looks Great just wish it ran IOS.

I think for the money more iPhone users will either switch or not upgrade as often.

You really wish the Galaxy ran iOS? For most people iOS itself is the problem; we don't feel it's moving in the right direction or fast enough in any direction.

 

[Exio]

That's the killer differentiator. Until Android device users start turning into the types of customers who like to pump $Billion in revenue to app developers, the apps available for Android (except for top games, Google apps and adware) will mostly be second class stuff compared to iOS. Successful small developers typically follow the money. I just don't see the typical Android user starting to fork out more a lot more cash for apps this year.

Oh here we go with the unproven, stereotype of "Android users are cheaper then Iphone users."

Get a ****ing grip.