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What Earnings? Obsessing Over Jobs' Android Obsession

Fast Company et al., Tuesday, October 19, 2010 1:29 PM

Forget about Apple's strong fourth-quarter earnings or its questionable forecast. A day later, the only thing anyone wants to talk about is CEO Steve Jobs' surprise appearance on the earnings call, and his seeming obsession with Google and its Android mobile operating system.

The reason for Jobs' attendance seemed "largely to offer a rant about why the iPhone is superior to the 'fragmented' Android platform," writes Fast Company. "Jobs's central point is that Apple devices, by working more or less the same way across the board, ensure simplicty [sic] for app developers and users."

"We think the open versus closed argument is just a smokescreen to try to hide the real issue, which is what's best for the customer: Fragmented versus integrated," Jobs said on the call. "We think Android is very, very fragmented and getting more fragmented by the day."

"It was one of the most entertaining -- and interesting -- earnings calls in recent memory," comments Search Engine Land's Greg Sterling. "Jobs' highly passionate style stands in marked contrast to Google CEO Eric Schmidt's unflappable delivery."

As TechCrunch notes, "Apple's Q4 earnings call today made it more clear than ever that Apple and Google are in the middle of an all-out war in the mobile space."

That said, "Jobs wasn't just criticizing Google," notes The New York Times. "With a bit less passion, and perhaps a touch of disdain, he also dismissed Research In Motion, the maker of the BlackBerry."

Calling it "an astonishing five-minute critique of rival companies, operating systems and platforms," the Telegraph notes: "Some industry insiders questioned whether his appearance was designed to deflect some of the attention away from worse than expected iPad sales of just 4.2 million for the quarter, far less than Wall Street analysts had predicted."

VentureBeat couldn't help noticing, "What's funny is that [Jobs] didn't spend much time on Microsoft's upcoming Windows Phone 7 platform -- which means he either doesn't consider it a threat, or he's avoiding Microsoft criticisms for some reason."

Read the whole story at Fast Company et al. »

earnings, google vs. apple, mobile

2 comments about "What Earnings? Obsessing Over Jobs' Android Obsession".

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Steven Carter, October 19, 2010 at 5:19 p.m.
Ha, that same approach killed him in the personal computing market as well. Why does he think that this approach will work in the phone market when it killed him in the PC market. In 1978, Apple was arguably the biggest, most popular personal computer in the world. Yes it was a small world, but they were the leader. Then Gates kicks out MS-DOS to anyone who wants it and boom, Apple goes from hero to zero in less than 10 years and a bunch of other companies make huge fortunes (HP, Compaq, IBM to name a few). I think the same thing is going to happen to Apple in the mobile phone market. Jobs will limit his OS to HIS hardware and therefore limit his distribution and price point capabilities. Google will license their OS to anyone and they'll wind up getting a far larger share of the market via 5 or 6 handset manufacturers because it will allow specialization of hardware and multiple price points. There will always be the iFans who buy anything Apple makes, but the mainstream will run on Android or its derivatives on any number of handsets inside of 5 years is my guess.
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David Thurman from Aussie Rescue of Illinois, October 20, 2010 at 9:42 a.m.

Steve you are so right, I think they are preparing a repeat of their past mistakes, only this time the arrogance is so high from the Apple farm that they will not see it until it's too late.