October 20, 2010 at 02:02Steve Jobs accuses Android of “fragmentation”
Steve Jobs rarely appears at corporate conferences where the financial results of the quarter are announced, but after the first quarter in history with 20 billion sales, he made an exception. He came and spoke to investors, shareholders and financial analysts.
His speech was devoted to Google and Android, the tablet market and the negative impact of the iPad on the laptop market ( full transcript , video ). Here are some of the most interesting quotes that relate to Android.
Google loves to characterize Android as an "open" OS, and iPhone as a "closed" one. We find it a bit hypocritical, which makes fog the real difference between the two approaches.
The first thing that comes to mind when the word “open” is Windows is available on many devices. But unlike Windows, where most computers have a similar interface and work with the same programs, Android is very fragmented. Many Android [manufacturers], including the two largest, HTC and Motorola, are installing proprietary user interfaces to distinguish themselves from the familiar Android environment. Mastering the interface is passed on to users. Compare this with the iPhone, where each device works the same way.
As an example of why Android is bad for application developers, Jobs cites the TwitterDeck Twitter client developer (obviously, he meant TweetDeck), who said he had to support more than 100 versions of Android on 244 different devices. Jobs also noted that in addition to the Android Marketplace, there are at least three other app stores launched by vendors, which causes confusion among users and developers.
Even if Google was right and the whole thing is in the confrontation between “closed” and “open,” it is worth remembering that open systems do not always win. As an example, he cited the Microsoft PlaysForSure system , where they tried to separate mobile devices and software for them. The idea failed and Microsoft eventually returned to the integrated approach.Even Google flirted with the integrated approach on the Nexus One.
In reality, we think that “open versus closed” is a smoke screen to hide the real essence [fragmented versus integrated]. We think that Android is very, very fragmented and becoming more fragmented every day.
Last week, Eric Schmidt repeatedly stated that they activate about 200,000 Android devices per day. In comparison, we have activated about an average of 275,000 iOS devices per day over the past 30 days, with a peak of nearly 300,000 on some of these days.
[Regarding data on the number of Android devices sold], unfortunately, there is no reliable data ... We hope that manufacturers will soon begin to report this information every quarter, but now this is not ... It is interesting to see who won in the last quarter: iPhone or Android.
Steve Jobs walked in more detail at competitors who unsuccessfully try to make iPad-style tablets.
PS TweetDeck has already commented on the twitching that Steve Jobs allowed: “Have we ever said that it’s a nightmare to develop for Android? No, we didn’t say that, ” he said . He later added that the Android version is done by only two people and “this shows how small the fragmentation problem is.”
PPS Google Vice President of Development Andy Rubin also answered Jobs via Twitter. Here's what he wrote:
In translation into Russian, the commands for installing Android on Linux should mean that everyone can easily install, hack and create their own version of Android.
His speech was devoted to Google and Android, the tablet market and the negative impact of the iPad on the laptop market ( full transcript , video ). Here are some of the most interesting quotes that relate to Android.
Google loves to characterize Android as an "open" OS, and iPhone as a "closed" one. We find it a bit hypocritical, which makes fog the real difference between the two approaches.
The first thing that comes to mind when the word “open” is Windows is available on many devices. But unlike Windows, where most computers have a similar interface and work with the same programs, Android is very fragmented. Many Android [manufacturers], including the two largest, HTC and Motorola, are installing proprietary user interfaces to distinguish themselves from the familiar Android environment. Mastering the interface is passed on to users. Compare this with the iPhone, where each device works the same way.
As an example of why Android is bad for application developers, Jobs cites the TwitterDeck Twitter client developer (obviously, he meant TweetDeck), who said he had to support more than 100 versions of Android on 244 different devices. Jobs also noted that in addition to the Android Marketplace, there are at least three other app stores launched by vendors, which causes confusion among users and developers.
Even if Google was right and the whole thing is in the confrontation between “closed” and “open,” it is worth remembering that open systems do not always win. As an example, he cited the Microsoft PlaysForSure system , where they tried to separate mobile devices and software for them. The idea failed and Microsoft eventually returned to the integrated approach.Even Google flirted with the integrated approach on the Nexus One.
In reality, we think that “open versus closed” is a smoke screen to hide the real essence [fragmented versus integrated]. We think that Android is very, very fragmented and becoming more fragmented every day.
Last week, Eric Schmidt repeatedly stated that they activate about 200,000 Android devices per day. In comparison, we have activated about an average of 275,000 iOS devices per day over the past 30 days, with a peak of nearly 300,000 on some of these days.
[Regarding data on the number of Android devices sold], unfortunately, there is no reliable data ... We hope that manufacturers will soon begin to report this information every quarter, but now this is not ... It is interesting to see who won in the last quarter: iPhone or Android.
Steve Jobs walked in more detail at competitors who unsuccessfully try to make iPad-style tablets.
PS TweetDeck has already commented on the twitching that Steve Jobs allowed: “Have we ever said that it’s a nightmare to develop for Android? No, we didn’t say that, ” he said . He later added that the Android version is done by only two people and “this shows how small the fragmentation problem is.”
PPS Google Vice President of Development Andy Rubin also answered Jobs via Twitter. Here's what he wrote:
the definition of open: "mkdir android ; cd android ; repo init -u git://android.git.kernel.org/platform/manifest.git ; repo sync ; make"In translation into Russian, the commands for installing Android on Linux should mean that everyone can easily install, hack and create their own version of Android.