Although iPhones had a head start and still draw huge lines when new
models go on sale, Android devices sold twice as well in the second
quarter
Associated Press ()
SAN FRANCISCO
Google can only hope that Steve Jobs’ final vendetta doesn’t haunt the Internet search leader from his grave.
The
depths of Jobs’ antipathy toward Google leaps out of Walter Isaacson’s
authorized biography of Apple’s co-founder. The book goes on sale
Monday, less than three weeks after Jobs’ long battle with pancreatic
cancer culminated in his Oct. 5 death. The Associated Press obtained a
copy Thursday.
The biography drips with Jobs’ vitriol as he discusses his belief that Google stole from Apple’s iPhone to build many of the features in Google’s Android software for rival phones.
It’s
clear that the perceived theft represented an unforgiveable act of
betrayal to Jobs, who had been a mentor to Google co-founders Larry Page
and Sergey Brin and had welcomed Google’s CEO at the time, Eric
Schmidt, to be on Apple’s board.
Jobs retaliated with a profane
manifesto during a 2010 conversation with his chosen biographer.
Isaacson wrote that he never saw Jobs angrier in any of their
conversations, which covered a wide variety of emotional topics during a
two-year period.
After equating Android to “grand theft” of the iPhone,
Jobs lobbed a series of grenades that may blow a hole in Google’s image
as an innovative company on a crusade to make the world a better place.
“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
told Isaacson. “I’m going to destroy Android because it’s a stolen
product. I’m willing to go to thermonuclear war on this. They are scared
to death because they know they are guilty.”
Jobs then used a crude word for defecation to describe Android and other products outside of search.
Android now represents one of the chief threats to the iPhone. Although iPhones
had a head start and still draw huge lines when new models go on sale,
Android devices sold twice as well in the second quarter. According to
Gartner, Android’s market share grew 2 1/2 times to 43 percent, compared
with 17 percent a year earlier. The iPhone’s grew as well, but by a smaller margin — to 18 percent, from 14 percent.
Both Google and Apple declined comment to The Associated Press when asked about Jobs’ remarks.
Jobs’ attack is troubling for Google on several levels.
It
suggests that Apple, which has pledged to be true to Jobs’ vision, may
try to derail Android in court, even if Google obtains more patent
protection through its proposed $12.5 billion acquisition of phone maker
Motorola Mobility Inc. The derision comes across as a bitter pill for
Page and Brin, who have hailed Jobs as one of their idols. It also
appears to contradict Schmidt’s repeated assertions that he remained on
friendly terms with Jobs even after he resigned from Apple’s board in
2009.
Most of all, Google should be worried whether the Android
brand is damaged by the withering criticism of a revered figure whose
public esteem seems to have risen as friends, colleagues and customers
paid tribute over the past few weeks.
“The words of cultural icons
have a lot of power after death,” veteran technology analyst Rob
Enderle said. “This almost sounds like a spiritual leader declaring a
jihad on Android as his dying wish.”
Apple fans tend to be
fiercely loyal, making it more feasible to envision an anti-Android
movement taking shape like some kind of political protest, Enderle said.
It’s
also possible that Jobs’ criticisms of Google may be seen as
hypocritical. That’s because some of Apple’s computing breakthroughs
were based on technology developed by others. The Mac’s easy-to-use
interface and its mouse controller, for instance, came out of Xerox
Corp.
The bitter divide between two of the most beloved and
successful technology companies would have seemed inconceivable a few
years ago.
In 2006, Google and Apple were on such friendly terms
that Jobs welcomed Schmidt to Apple’s board of directors with these
words: “Like Apple, Google is very focused on innovation and we think
Eric’s insights and experience will be very valuable in helping to guide
Apple in the years ahead,” Jobs said.
But in 2008, a year after the iPhone
came out, Google unveiled plans to release Android as a free software
system that phone makers can use to make devices that compete with the iPhone.
Jobs was so infuriated that he went to Google’s Mountain View
headquarters — about nine miles from Apple’s Cupertino office— to try to
stop the project, according to the biography.
Jobs’ persuasive powers failed to sway Google’s leaders.
Now, more than 550,000 devices running on Android are being activated each day. Apple, meanwhile, sold about 3 million fewer iPhones
than anticipated in the July-September quarter, contributing to a sharp
drop in the company’s stock. The newest Android challenger to the iPhone, the Galaxy Nexus from Samsung, is scheduled to go on sale next month.
Although
there’s no indication in the book that he ever forgave Google, Jobs set
aside his disdain for the company long enough to counsel Page nine
months ago, according to the biography.
After Google’s Jan.
20 announcement that Page would replace Schmidt as CEO in April, Page
called Jobs for some pointers. Jobs told Isaacson that his first
instinct was to reject Page with a curt expletive, but he reconsidered
as he recalled his times as a young entrepreneur listening to the advice
of elder Silicon Valley statesmen including Bill Hewlett, co-founder of
Hewlett-Packard Co.
Jobs didn’t mince words when Page
arrived at Jobs’ Palo Alto home. He told Page to build a good team of
lieutenants. In his first week as Google’s CEO, Page reshuffled his
management team to eliminate bureaucracy. Jobs also warned Page not to
let Google get lazy or flabby.
“The main thing I stressed
was to focus,” Jobs told Isaacson about his conversation with Page.
“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 adequate products that are
adequate but not great.”
Page has shut more than 20 Google
products and services in his first six months as Google’s CEO as part of
an effort to “put more wood behind fewer arrows.” It was the type of
discipline Jobs instilled on Apple when he returned in 1997 after a
dozen years of exile. Jobs killed such products as the Newton handheld
device and the PC clones that were allowed to run on Apple’s operating
system.
It still remains to be seen whether Jobs’ words of wisdom or his grievances will leave a bigger imprint on Google.
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