Steve Jobs Hates on RIM, Android, Smaller Tablets
You'll need sandpaper if you want to use a smaller tablet.
Following up on the news of the record breaking quarter with $20.34 billion in revenue, Steve Jobs hopped on the investor conference call with some VERY choice words again for basically anyone in the same business as Apple, but wasn't Apple.
First off on his hit list was Research in Motion with its entry into tablets and app stores. Job was proud that the 14.1 million iPhones outsold the 12.1 BlackBerrys sold during the quarter.
Jobs then had disparaging words for RIM, basically saying that the Canadian BlackBerry phone maker has a uphill battle on trying to build an app store when there's already the iTunes App Store and the Android Marketplace. Jobs doesn't see there being enough room for a third.
The Apple CEO then launched in a numbers game against Google CEO Eric Schmidt about the number of smartphones activated each day. Google says it's 200,000 Androids per day, but Jobs boasts that the iPhone 4 has hit 300,000 per day at its peak.
Jobs also goes full on to putting down the openness of Android, saying that the freedom that vendors have in customizing the UI negatively affects the user experience. The open nature also allows there to be more than one app store, and with the likes of Amazon and Verizon looking to open their own shops, Jobs believes that this will lead to fragmentation of the Android market.
As for all those rumors about Apple coming out with a 7-inch iPad to fill the gap between the iPhone and the current iPad – don't count on it. Jobs had some pretty strong views against any tablet smaller than the current 9.7-inch iPad.
A 7-inch iPad would have 45 percent of the screen area of the current iPad, and Jobs feels that even an increase in resolution wouldn't be good enough because our human fingers are too fat. In fact, Jobs said that smaller tablets should come with sandpaper so that users can sand their fingers down to a quarter of the current size.
Of course, if our meaty fingers can work well with the 3.5-inch screen of the iPhone 4, and all the iPhones before it, we're not sure what the problem is with our digits interacting with a 7-inch tablet.
Still, Steve Jobs says that the upcoming batch of competing tablets that use screens smaller than 10-inches will be DOA or "dead on arrival."
We're sure that the rest of the market is just waiting to prove the Apple CEO wrong.
Check out the full transcript for Jobs' words here. You can also listen in on the beginning in the video below, but the audio is a bit on the quiet side.
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Jobs appears to have forgotten one valuable saying, "Variety is the spice of life."
This rant has done nothing but to highlight how scared Steve is of Android.
Fragmented vs integrated? BS, it barely makes sense as they aren't technically full opposites of each other. That isn't even the point, he's trying to move away from the fact that history tells us that open tech beats closed tech due to it being... OPEN... well duh.
Of all the smartphone OS's, Android is the one growing the most rapidly, i'd take Steve's rant a little better if Android was failing but its fast becoming as much a household name as I-Whatever and has technologically accomplished in two years what iphone has in four.
By the by, I genuinely don't mind Apple products, but I mind this petty little man's arrogance and unjustified air of superiority about him and the same arrogance etc that generally translates into the majority of Apple users. Get an Apple product, that's honestly cool with me, but don't go saying that you're better than me because your I-Whatever does this or that because I may whip out my Android phone (soon to be upgraded to Desire HD) and say how it does this, that, these AND all those.
Rant over. (Android fanboy btw, hence my particular bias. Hey, at least I admit it).
Typical unproffesional attitude, i wouldnt expect any better from them to be honest,
It's getting a bit like politics for the companies and the fanbois, why look at the bright side and compliment your own products when you can just slander others and sell that way?
An attitude that should not go rewarded!! (allthough i bet some will love it, and it's becoming far to common!).
look at most things in life (including the computing industry) and you'll find so called "closed", "licensed" systems that are protected by copyrights and patents triumph over so called "open", "free" systems. the licensed model allows a company to protect the investment they make and therefore they are willing to invest heavily to push the technology forward. "open" system do become fragmented and in most cases it leads to a degraded end-user experience.
just look at windows over the years.. at the most basic level, it triumphed over all the linux free distro's because of its licensed nature and the fact that microsoft retained full control over its development. and the other side of the coin, because it is open for developers and system builders to modify (even in a controlled manner) you buy pc's and laptops today with all sorts of un-neccessary "bloatware" and crap installed on them that it both degrades the end-user experience and in some more severe cases, even slows the hardware down too...!
i do hope the latter does not befell android systems in the future (or even today, i don't know i haven't got one).
i am an iphone 4 user and iOS developer, and i do like the fact that developing apps for the iOS platform involves basically 3 pieces of hardware, period (ipod touch, iphone, ipad). it is a similar environment to that of developing console games (xbox360, ps3, wii) as appose to developing for pc's where you have infinite combinations of possible hardware / software configurations! apple have modelled their development environment along the lines of the games consoles (fixed hardware target for a given life-cycle, seemingly 2 years in iOS world, whereas the consoles have life cycles of 5 to 7 years..). it does appear as if the android platform will be a constantly moving target when it comes to specs and development which isn't good...!
as appose to developing for pc's where you have infinite combinations of possible hardware / software configurations!
Thats what API's are for ..... And android/blackberry are not PC's
Personally any closed OS other than windows can "go jump" for my uses... And for handsets/tablets i want freedom to do what i like. i want to pick my OS for my hardware to suit my own personal preferences (dual core, reasonable ram, 3d ability and decent options for connectivity). Anything without choice, is purely not enough!
iphone activates more a day cause the screen keeps smashing and people are getting them replaced
I understand what an API is for, but an API can not handle programming for processors and graphics chips of vastly differing performance levels.. So you end up programming for the lowest common denominator which starts to under value those who have paid more for better hardware... Again a strength of the games consoles as their system are fixed for a 5 or so years life cycle... This scenario hasn't manifested itself in the handset market yet but android does allow the eventuality of buying phone from different manufacturers with widely different performance points... Particularly given that battery life is intrinsicintly linked to speed and performance so in order to extend battery life whilst shrinking sizes can only be done by trimming performance.. We'll see how it plays out... All I'm saying is developers will prefer a fixed closed system where the hardware target is not constantly moving.... Much like that of the games industry... Billions are invested into game writing these days cos they know their investment is safe, the hardware they are writing on will not be redundant tomorrow..!
Yeah i agree developers want the easiest platform to develop for, thats just common sense,
it's also the same to know that me as a consumer wants a moving target and i like upgrading my hardware, i am not the only one from that age/style of computing either.
basically me and the closed ethos are worlds apart, but i recognise there is a market for such (of both methods) it'd just never going to be "my market"
my OS of choice for PC is windows, allthough a "closed system" to some extent it has managed to ensure that ALL games i come across can play on my platform, regardless of my hardware upgrades! for my phone/tablet it will be meeGo i love that OS dearly (on Maemo 5 - N900 atm)
you will not take that away from me, and many others ...while there is a market for lazy ass programming and the developer getting it all his own way, there is also my ability not to purchase such thing with that attitude, along with a whole whorde of others
now regarding compatibility, have you ever heard of options menu's??
but the important bit is we can all be free to do what we want, but slander and selling stuff by "dissing others" is not cool, nor the way to go ...no excuse for such idiocy in the world imo.
Assuming an iPad uses all of its screen, 7" squared is 54% of 9.5" squared and not 45%.
Unfortunately, like all of these OLD guys (hey I'm 54...) they cannot handle competition and the middle aged rants kick in regularly just like a spoiled child.
There are indeed people who will listen to him but, IMHO, more and more are seeing him for what he is - the ultimate protectionist. That makes you laugh though doesn't it. Look how he was whinging like mad when Gates was caning his sorry butt...
Personally, I've just had to choose a new phone. I researched till I was blue in the face the choice of BB, iStone & Android. I settled for a BB 9800 (torch) and love it because my old eyes can see it, my fat fingers can work it and my arthritic hands can grip it...
That said, it does have a few things that I'd change in a heartbeat but one really does get the impression RIM listen. Can one say that about Jobs?