As you probably know, they Steve Jobs book is now in public hands and there will be lots of coverage. As is also known, Jobs wasn’t a huge fan of Android and Google in general, though he was known to council CEO Larry PAge and cofounder Sergey Brin on more than one occasion. Here are some of Jobs’thoughts on building an iTunes client for Android like they did on Windows:
“We thought about whether we should do a music client for Android. We put iTunes on Windows in order to sell more iPods. But I don’t see an advantage of putting our own music app on Android, except to make Android users happy. And I don’t want to make Android users happy.”
He lumps Google in with the Axis of evil:
“IBM was essentially Microsoft at its worst. They were not a force for innovation; they were a force for evil. They were like ATT or Microsoft or Google is.”
And Jobs’ meeting with Eric Schmidt:
“We spent half the time talking about personal matters, then half the time on his perception that Google had stolen Apple’s user interface designs,” recalled Schmidt. When it came to the latter subject, Jobs did most of the talking. Google had ripped him off, he said in colorful language. “We’ve got you red-handed,” he told Schmidt. “I’m not interested in settling. I don’t want your money. If you offer me $5 billion, I won’t want it. I’ve got plenty of money. I want you to stop using our ideas in Android, that’s all I want.” They resolved nothing.
And then there was the thermonuclear War…
“I will spend my last dying breath if I need to, and I will spend every penny of Apple’s $40 billion in the bank, to right this wrong,” Jobs said. “I’m going to destroy Android, because it’s a stolen product. I’m willing to go thermonuclear war on this.” Jobs used an expletive to describe Android and Google Docs, Google’s Internet-based word processing program.
He did have constructive criticism for Larry Page however:
We talked a lot about focus. And choosing people. How to know who to trust, and how to build a team of lieutenants he can count on. I described the blocking and tackling he would have to do to keep the company from getting flabby or being larded with B players. The main thing I stressed was focus. Figure out what Google wants to be when it grows up. It’s now all over the map. What are the five products you want to focus on? Get rid of the rest, because they’re dragging you down. They’re turning you into Microsoft. They’re causing you to turn out products that are adequate but not great….
I suppose it is better to be hated by Jobs than dismissed (Microsoft).
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I just wonder, sounds like he died a very bitter man. And about the Google stealing thing, Android is nothing like ios, the user experience is very different, and Jobs did not seem to have a problem copying certain aspects of the Android interface. If he had just made ios open, everyone would be using it, and there would be no need for Android. And BTW, its too late, Apple won't destroy Android, or Google, but hey, you have to spend all of that money on something, since Apple does not do Philanthropy work, (no big surprise), they may as well spend their money on litigation.
Jobs proves the old saw that no one is more concerned about the possibility of theft than the thief, himself.
Whether for their ideas, connections, bragging rights or cash, Jobs had no qualms about ripping off just about anybody who had something he wanted. He happily stole from Ma Bell, his friend the engineering genius Wozniak, and untold others from employees to corporate partners always defending himself with a faux-guileless "Would I do that to you?" look on his face. That kind of brazen thievery is now his legacy, every bit as much as any supposed "creativity" or "vision", both of which really amount to no more than surrounding himself with genuinely talented people and then pestering them to exceed their self-imposed limitations. His friends are welcome to forgive his misdeeds as something like foibles, but the rest of us – however much we may admire his eye for design and proved leadership abilities – can be forgiven for seeing him as a lying, manipulating (and highly successful) weasel.
At least he was willing to stick to his guns. Hell of a capitalist.