Apple Steve Jobs Billion Dollar Soapbox

by Kris
October 21, 2010

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PinExt Apple Steve Jobs Billion Dollar Soapbox

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Steve Jobs stood on his soapbox on Monday to tell everyone Apple raked in a record $20 billion quarter. Impressive, yes, but his presentation left a little bit to be desired.

It’s not so much what he said but how he said it, bemoaning on and on about the lack of competition his competitors really are. Smartphone addicts everywhere kind of are making it a habit of following suit, it you ever check the comments on forums and blogs that are nothing more than ‘my daddy can beat up your daddy’ wissing matches. Apple needs to hire some PR people so what they say does not automatically get dismissed because of how annoying they are when they say it. He just takes everything too personally in defense of his company and it comes across as both arrogant and weak at the same time.

Still, Mr. Jobs makes some valid points. The Google Android folks are trying to make everything and “open” vs. “closed” debate regarding the software platforms. Android is open and Apple is closed. Jobs argues that it is a fragmented approach (Android) vs. and integrated approach (Apple). Along these lines, despite the exclusivity and lack of options, Apple products may perform better. In fact, most programming nerds will tell you that dealing with the Android system kind of reminds them of Windows vs. MAC in that Apple seems to win the ‘ease of use’ on a technical level more often than not. Sure these words being flung around are marketing ploys by both sides but they both reveal strenghts and weaknesses with each as well. In sum, both sides are right and both are wrong. To all the fanboys arguing your sides, I say pick a side and get over it.

He goes on to point out that the Android interface, most popular with the HTC and Motorola phone, have very different presentations for the user to figure out. By Android spreading themselves out, they are spreading themselves thing and becoming more, as old Jobster says “fragmented.” Compare that to the Apple products and they are all the same out of the box and easy to use.

He went on to be critical of the 7 inch tablet making their rounds as iPad competitors, saying they are too small and will be dead on arrival. He said this will cause them to abandon both customers and developers and be bad long term for these companies. Personally I don’t understand why a larger model the next-go around can’t have essentially the same features and retain the client base so maybe I’m missing something.

Even though Apple is teaming up with Verizon, to date they’ve been exclusive with AT&T. With the Google approach, they can team up with anyone and everyone (mobile and hardware alike) and compete with Apple very well. Essentially, Steve Jobs is saying that their approach is not the approach he would go and gave his reasoning. As the trendsetter that Apple has become, this is a “well, duh” type statement. He is flipping the script, saying just because Google is calling us closed does not mean we don’t have the better over package. Both systems make perfect since, given the climate they walked into, making the back-and-forth nothing more than absolute marketing nonsense.

The bottom line is Android has provided real competition and if they had not Steve Jobs would not devote the majority of his speech preaching on about them. This is not a “open” vs. “closed” debate, this is all about competiton, which should make all of us consumers very happy.

Jesse Herman is a Freelance contributor for iPhone repair techs at iFixyouri.