Walter Isaacson Says Jobs' Rage Over Android Was Real

[wikus]

Some people are very passionate about their work.

So are Apple fanboys when it comes to being on the defensive against Android. This 'war' is ridiculously stupid. Its as if Apple fanboys had their iPhones taken away from them... or will have them taken away.

This obsessive mindless devotion to a BRAND is pathetic.

 

[Gooberton]

So F'in what!? Not even Steve Jobs himself provides specific examples of how google "stole" ideas from Apple.

So what did they steal?

Is this a joke?! Form, function of iPhone. Full touchscreen, The whole idea of apps. The list goes on. Wow, I hope you were kidding.

 

[leroypants]

Jobs was so butt hurt over Android he spent the last few months seething in rage trying to "destroy android" while ignoring his children. I feel bad for his kids who wanted to spend more time with an absentee father.

 

[lincolntran]

Androids --- lol

The more I know about android, the more I hate it. It is a stolen idea, a copy cat that is not done right. Some of the core functions are just ridiculously stupid and immature. Why? Because it's a copy and they don't have time to do it right. They have to get it to market quick.

E.g.

- UI: why do android UI have to be so similar to iOS? Why do android UI have to be so similar to BB UI before that? Can android do something different? You mean to tell me there're just a certain number of ways to design a UI? iOS is just one way. This is the area I have more respect for even Window phone 7. At least they made a very different UI than iOS. Come up with your own design!

- Why do I need a third party app to open a documents? Why not built into to OS itself? This is a crucial feature. e.g. I have to have Quick Office installed to open docs, pdf, etc. On iOS, I can open those document in-app.

- Virus? ---- on a mobile device? --- ewwwww!

- Sandbox? What, no sandbox on android? You mean other apps can access my app data? Ridiculous

- Different resolutions and screen size is a joke. As a developer, making games, you have a system of math to calculate where objects are on the screen, animations, etc. I have to manually do this for all the screen size I want to have my game run on? How much money I have to spend to buy all the different devices? Ridiculous. In iOS, I just know the size is 320x480 or 1024x768, and i'm good to go. I'll know my game will run just fine on all iPod touch, all iPhones, all iPads.

- Emulator instead of a simulator? That's another ridiculous thing. It just painfully slow to test our your app in an Emulator.

- IDE: what's your choices? Eclipse or others --- lol. Xcode and AppCode and even Visual Studio run around the stupid and unstable Eclipse.


There. I just need to vent on the stupid android and its platform. Not at the dev who's trying to make a buck on android.

I support competition, but come up with you own product, which should different than others, and prove that it's better. Not just copying whatever already there.

 

[Andronicus]

The Idea of a smart, but easy to use, Mobile platform, the lockscreen, Notifications, gaming on the go, among many other things.

Notifications? Did you forget the /S?

 

[Macboy Pro]

Apple's soon to be problem appears to be Tim Cook.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but Jobs gave Apple a vision to carry for 5 years.

Part of that vision was to destroy Google's Andriod OS. Cook seems to not share what Steve wanted Apple to continue with.

I wonder if a person like Forstall might have been more of the right choice for Apple, if he was more seasoned.

I hope Cook isn't the 21st centurey Sculley, with his "play nice mentality". Apple can't afford that a 2nd time around. Cause their won't be a 3rd Coming of Jobs to the rescue.

Apple's future problem will be control. They caught their competitors by surprise and jumped the market but if they continue to move toward the proprietary "We will tell you what you can do with your device" attitude, this will help their competitors.

I see Apple moving towards laptops and desktops that are limited (like the IOS devices). BIG MISTAKE! The iPad is a much better product than ANY android laptop but many people still prefer a droid because of this "control" mentality that Apple has.

Professionals, and many consumers, will not tolerate being totally tied to 300% markup on upgrades without the options to do it themselves.

 

[ThisIsMike]

Rarely ever do I post.

Okay, look, let's be honest here: All that happened here was that by virtue of Schmidt being on Apple's board, Google ripped off iOS *FASTER* then they or another company would have done otherwise. In other words, it just took less time for a competing product to come to market. So the question is really, how much time would it have taken otherwise, and would that extra time have been enough for Apple to establish a greater dominance in the marketplace with iPhone. Those are very difficult questions to answer. Microsoft is only just now coming up with a competing product, but they've been particularly slow. So it's probably safe to say Apple might have had an extra year or so. The same events would likely still have played out.

The good news is that the iPhone is actually GAINING momentum, and Android appears to be losing some ground. Additionally, this competition, unfair or not, has spurred on a faster pace of innovation, which is a plus for consumers. (God help us if the iPhone was still only offered on AT&T- Can you imagine?)

Two quick PSes:
1) To the person who questioned, "what exactly did Google steal?" Look at phones before the iPhone to phones afterwards. That's all the answer you need.
2) I do agree with the post that the best way to punish Google is remove them from the device so they get no ad revenue, and I also agree that Apple is very likely working on that. We already know they're working on their own solution for maps. I think the question is will they at some point swap out Google as the default search tool either with a competitor (Bing), or with an offering of their own.

The story's not over. The iPhone is on the rise, and by the time everything settles, we could see a very different picture in regard to percentages in the market.

 

[radiohead14]

i remember when macrumors was a community of people who just loved to talk about apple products. now it's just post after posts of flame baits/wars and lawsuits.

 

[Cinch]

still lag

This isn't true with today's high end Android devices. Take a Galaxy Nexus or a RAZR series phone and their isn't any sort of lag, freeze, low fps or anything of the sort. Heck I can't think of the last time I had to force close or restart my RAZR MAXX. It's rock solid stable.

Haha!

Coincidentally, I tried out the newest Galaxy Nexus and Droid Razr at Radioshack about two weeks ago. Yep, they still lag! These two phones are the best Android offer at the moment. This lag issue will never go away, unless Google rewrite Android. I gave them an honest chance to prove otherwise, but the lag issue still remains.

 

[Arcus]

Which it was.

Did you forget Xerox PARC already? Come on now.

 

[Judas1]

An integrated system was the holy grail everybody was seeking and many just weren't able to achieve it. I hate that Apple spins the tales that they were the only one smart enough to know about the holy grail. And I hate ignorant fanboys who agree with this notion.

 

[macsmurf]

... For all you're worth.

Having read the biography, one is struck but the utter lack of insight into Jobs strategic mind and his choices wrt technology paths. Steve ensured the book was filled with personal fluff rather than really peering into the mans actual business acumen. It's probably true Steve was pissed off about Android, but to raging out in this semi-pubic way (no way he assumed his rant would remain a secret) was a classic tactic.

And yet Issacson buys it all hook, line and sinker.

That was my exact feeling when I read the book. It was very apparent that Isaacson isn't a very technical person and also not a neutral observer. Bit of a shame, really.

 

[KnightWRX]

- UI: why do android UI have to be so similar to iOS? Why do android UI have to be so similar to BB UI before that? Can android do something different? You mean to tell me there're just a certain number of ways to design a UI? iOS is just one way. This is the area I have more respect for even Window phone 7. At least they made a very different UI than iOS. Come up with your own design!

Android's UI actually hasn't changed much. It never changed from a "BB" type UI (what is that anyway ?) to a "iOS" type UI (what is that anyway ?). It's always been a wallpaper on which you put widgets or application launchers and for which you could have more than 1 home screen.

Android's UI concept is Android's.

- Sandbox? What, no sandbox on android? You mean other apps can access my app data? Ridiculous

http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/security/security.html

You obviously don't know how Android works.

- Different resolutions and screen size is a joke. As a developer, making games, you have a system of math to calculate where objects are on the screen, animations, etc. I have to manually do this for all the screen size I want to have my game run on? How much money I have to spend to buy all the different devices? Ridiculous. In iOS, I just know the size is 320x480 or 1024x768, and i'm good to go. I'll know my game will run just fine on all iPod touch, all iPhones, all iPads.

Geez, I guess this isn't 2012, and developers have not had to face this problem on the PC and other platforms for decades now. PCs have always ran at the same fixed resolution on 1 size of monitors right ?

Even Macs, they are all... what is it, 1280x800 pixels right ?

Oh wait...

- Emulator instead of a simulator? That's another ridiculous thing. It just painfully slow to test our your app in an Emulator.

And running your app in a simulator has a whole other set of problems. For one, you cannot evaluate on device performance. Not to mention you're liking against Intel compiled code, running Intel compiled code rather than ARM code.

Not to mention the iOS simulator links against the Mac version of frameworks instead of the iOS versions for the shared frameworks...

 

[IJ Reilly]

... For all you're worth.

Having read the biography, one is struck but the utter lack of insight into Jobs strategic mind and his choices wrt technology paths. Steve ensured the book was filled with personal fluff rather than really peering into the mans actual business acumen. It's probably true Steve was pissed off about Android, but to raging out in this semi-pubic way (no way he assumed his rant would remain a secret) was a classic tactic.

And yet Issacson buys it all hook, line and sinker.

I have problems with the book, but not this one. I come away with quite a lot of insight into Steve's philosophy of business and technology, and his character. On a personal level he was clearly very manipulative, alternately charming and vicious. He'd use whatever tactic suited his purpose at any given moment. Many episodes in the book describe Steve mercilessly attacking someone's idea, then a day or two later and promoting that very idea, often as if it was his own. Steve was a sociopath. Has was a genius, but also barking mad. I would look for consistency in what he was trying to achieve, not in his methods for getting there.

 

[fruitycups]

Of course. He got mac is stolen by microsoft and now he got ios stolen by android.. How would he not be mad

 

[wovel]

You simply can't destroy Android. Google is a bigger reality than Apple, and is backed by every OEM except Apple itself. It has the patents of Motorola, which kind of invented the mobile phone, and makes money off every smartphone, including, and especially, the iPhone.

Tim did the right thing over there, accepting Android and making money from it. Steve was a genius, but his mentality was simply too closed sometimes.

You do realize the iPhone is now outselling all of those Android OEMs on each US carrier that it is sold on. iPhone is a much bigger reality than anything Google can even imagine.

Google's mobile revenue is nearly all iPhone based. You think Android is something it simply isn't. It still lacks serious developer support. Most of the major mobile developers now make half assed attempts of getting ino Android, it is almost universally a losing proposition for them. There is not a reason for consumers to buy inferior Android products over the iPhone.

When the LTE iPhone comes out this year, Android is done in this market. They will not have a single differentiator versus the iPhone.

 

[Interstella5555]

Of course. He got mac is stolen by microsoft and now he got ios stolen by android.. How would he not be mad

????

 

[wovel]

Haha!

Coincidentally, I tried out the newest Galaxy Nexus and Droid Razr at Radioshack about two weeks ago. Yep, they still lag! These two phones are the best Android offer at the moment. This lag issue will never go away, unless Google rewrite Android. I gave them an honest chance to prove otherwise, but the lag issue still remains.

Welcome to Java...

 

[entatlrg]

jobs was a hater.

For good reasons no doubt. Although you may not get that.

Larry Page is a scum bag.

 

[clibinarius]

This really had more truth then Larry's truth. I would also like to ad that Steve Jobs motivation isn't money, it's more of how he can change the world in a simplistic style.

No, it was about money at first. It just seems like once he had enough, it then became about what he could do with himself. But don't misunderstand Jobs-he got into the game for the dollar, and would've freely admitted that (I'm convinced he has, though I haven't found an interview).

You do realize the iPhone is now outselling all of those Android OEMs on each US carrier that it is sold on. iPhone is a much bigger reality than anything Google can even imagine.

Google's mobile revenue is nearly all iPhone based. You think Android is something it simply isn't. It still lacks serious developer support. Most of the major mobile developers now make half assed attempts of getting ino Android, it is almost universally a losing proposition for them. There is not a reason for consumers to buy inferior Android products over the iPhone.

When the LTE iPhone comes out this year, Android is done in this market. They will not have a single differentiator versus the iPhone.

Except there will be several headset makers competing for it, flash support (Some people like me like it), more openness on non-ICS devices, bigger screens or a phone for any niche...There's plenty of reasons people don't buy Apple. Do you like an AMOLED screen? Apple doesn't carry them.

I have an iPhone. I like my iPhone. But be realistic here for a second-Android has its advantages, and there are many more people working on the next big thing from a different manufacturer than Apple has. The competition isn't over, and hopefully it never ends. I think the dominance of Microsoft stifled innovation so much we ended up with Windows ME and Vista. Don't say it is that Microsoft is an inferior company-Microsoft is a great company that makes great products. They just made great mistakes too.

And what happens to Microsoft when Windows 8 comes about? Personally, I don't like Windows 8, but it might bridge phones, tablets and PCs all into a nice, easy to use Microsoft package. If enterprise upgrades and people are used to it, all of Apple's gains in the last 5 years will be erased for the very obvious reason that Microsoft will have the best technology to work with Windows (like Apple has the best to work with OS X) and most businesses around the world run on Windows. People in Europe don't really do OS X, and I get made fun of out there for my Macbook Air.

 

[mac964]

RIP Steve

Let the man rest in peace. Just settle all the legal battles and sue if you really see the need for it. Right now their is nothing to do against android it is a great OS i prefer it over iOS. Whether or not the rage was real it doesn't matter now, Apple just has to keep innovating and making wonderful products as they have been doing over the years. Now if someone copies them or plays them dirty sue the **** out of them, but right now i don't see the reason to have a "war" against android. Android is so different in many ways to iOS, but at the same time similar, it is true android had a complete redesign after the iPhone, but i don't think they violated any patent or law. They both have icon grids, but that is pretty standard to me.

 

[VenusianSky]

I think it could have been a little of both, for real and for show. IMO, Jobs may had a bit of a sociopathic personality. Nothing against that because it takes a certain type of personality to do certain things that others cannot do.

 

[The Mercurian]

Which it was.

Did you forget Xerox PARC already? Come on now.

Exaclty.
Like alot of stuff back in the late 70's early 80's. Xerox did it first.

 

[jonnysods]

It sounds mean, but I would have liked to have watched Steve's anger and money and vengeance play itself out against Android.

 

[leroypants]

Haha!

Coincidentally, I tried out the newest Galaxy Nexus and Droid Razr at Radioshack about two weeks ago. Yep, they still lag! These two phones are the best Android offer at the moment. This lag issue will never go away, unless Google rewrite Android. I gave them an honest chance to prove otherwise, but the lag issue still remains.

Here is a list of apps that have lagged on my iPhone 4 today, safari, plants vs zombies, YouTube, iTunes and angry birds space.