Eric Schmidt is such a scumbag

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The Android-Apple platform fight is the defining contest. Here’s why: Apple has thousands of developers building for it. Google’s platform, Android, is even larger.

Schmidt steals whatever he can from Apple while sitting on the company’s board and then slithers away like a slug.



  • Kgbraund

    yeo

  • Kgbraund

    read that as yep

  • http://www.johncblandii.com John C. Bland II

    “The Android-Apple platform fight is the defining contest. Here’s why: Apple has thousands of developers building for it. Google’s platform, Android, is even larger. Four times more Android phones than Apple phones. 500 million phones already in use. Doing 1.3 million activations a day. We’ll be at 1 billion mobile devices in a year.” - Schmidt

    To finish that quote. Very impressive.

    • http://twitter.com/shycophante Shyco Phante

      Yep.

    • http://www.tumblr.com/blog/his-divine-shadow His Shadow

      And yet only Samsung is apparently making money on Android.

      • http://www.johncblandii.com John C. Bland II

        They are doing definitely well.

  • crustyjusty

    I truly believe that that’s what the animosity from Apple / Jobs is all about. I think Jobs felt that he saw what was going on with the iPhone and stole everything he could from it. I guess we’ll never really know what happened.

    • http://www.johncblandii.com John C. Bland II

      But do you guys seriously believe the board knew about the iPhone early enough for Schmidt to “steal” it?

      Either way, just deal with it. It is over and done with. Google pivoted (“skated” right) and it worked. Let it go.

      • crustyjusty

        Honestly, who knows what the board knew or didn’t know. My point is that the emotion behind it seems to suggest something like that happened.

        But I guess what I’m thinking is that until Google/Samsung pays a reasonable licensing fee for Apple IP, I think it’ll still feel unresolved.

        • http://www.johncblandii.com John C. Bland II

          Doing that just opens the door for being bothered by all sorts of hypothetical situations.

          Google isn’t using any Apple IP. If they were, Apple would sue them. Samsung took its lumps (more to come it seems).

          • tylernol

            Apple has been working on the iPad for over 10 years. They decided to release a phone version first(iPhone) , and then get back to the tablet. So of course the board and Schmidt was privy to all that.

            Apple’s patent strategy is to go after Google’s Android partners first– Samsung, HTC, Motorola,etc.

          • http://www.johncblandii.com John C. Bland II

            Maybe but I doubt it. iPad first is true and means Google would have copied a tablet (and missed) had they launched one then. They didn’t.

            If they could cut the head off (the root of the injustice: Google), they would. Android doesn’t infringe and where it does (with these ludicrous patents; looking at you new “slide to unlock”) they have worked around it. Just look at Jelly Bean. It is a far cry from iOS.

          • tylernol

            Schmidt was still on Apple’s board when the iPhone was released. It was released June 2007. Schmidt left Apple’s board in August of 2009. Android shifted from being a Blackberry rip-off to an iPhone rip-off in that interval. Apple goes after the partners because of the way the patent infringement process works — they are the ones implementing the infringement and as Apple knocks down one partner, the others are more likely to make concessions.

          • http://www.johncblandii.com John C. Bland II

            Yes, he was.

            Bottom line, let it go. It is old and ridiculous to hang on to it. Android is here and not going anywhere. Patent suits will not stop it.

          • tylernol

            your argument keeps on shifting every time I refute your claims. Of course Android as an “open” platform is here is stay. But an Android that Google actually controls and profits from is long gone.

          • http://www.johncblandii.com John C. Bland II

            Haha. I’m not shifting at all just don’t care to go over and over this.

            Again, what happened happened. Let it go. Android is profitable for Google and will continue to be.

          • http://twitter.com/Moeskido Moeskido

            Nobody who respects original UI design work that’s been copied by people whose defenders use terms like “natural evolution” is likely to “let it go.” It was true about Windows, and it’s true about Android.

          • http://www.johncblandii.com John C. Bland II

            I know it is a Mac vs PC argument (no one will ever truly win) but looking back won’t help you move forward. That’s why I say “let it go”.

            It is what it is.

          • http://twitter.com/Moeskido Moeskido

            “It is what it is.” Way to blow off bad corporate behavior without seeking to correct it. Are you running as a third-party candidate for president this year?

            Let go of your denial, John.

          • http://www.johncblandii.com John C. Bland II

            I’m just in the place where I know nothing you or anyone here says will change anything. It happened. We can argue the validity of claims left and right but we’ll just waste air.

            Bad corporate behavior is on both sides of the fence. iOS was and still is a collection of prior art well put together and executed/marketed at a super high level. Apple steals from others without remorse but any time Google is shown in a positive light they are lambasted for 5 year old claims of copying iOS.

            Arguing over corporate behavior is fruitless, hence my point of letting go of 5+ year old stuff.

          • Design

            There are a lot of people who truly admire, respect, and care deeply about truly original industry-changing design. That’s why they haven’t, and probably ever won’t let it go. It happened. Yes. And if it goes unchecked, it will happen again and again.

            Some people are passionate about innovative design. That’s why the debates continue. I happen to be one of those people that truly admire design. Mainly because of how much incredible design gets taken for granted. Every time I hear an Android defender blow off inventions like inertial scrolling or slide to unlock as “trivial or obvious” designs, it brings my piss to a boil. Great design is supposed to be natural, and when your design is so natural and intuitive that people are already taking it for granted in less than 5 years, that is proof. This level of design is the most important, not what color your menu bar is or how round your icons look. TRUE interface design.

            I am passionate about my admiration for game-changing design. And until the day comes where I no longer am, I will continue to not “let it go.”

          • http://www.johncblandii.com John C. Bland II

            I in no way discount good design. I agree with the majority of your statements.

            I have no problem w/ their design, heck I buy Apple products partially because of it, but when there is prior art and folks, as yourself, laud them as Apple’s innovative design it is perpetuating a fallacy.

            Granted, that’s not the case for all of their design but several of their patents it is (hello slide to unlock [Neonode N1] and inertial scrolling [which Flash devs were doing 4 years prior to the iPhone and inertial scrolling existed in '97, it is just math]).

            So understand my point, Apple is amazing at building products but I’m not fooled into thinking everything they do is original to the point of calling anyone else using the same prior art a copycat.

  • Incredulous

    What bothers me about the whole Google / Android situation is not that Google is playing hardball in business, that’s what large, publicly traded companies tend to do. It’s normal. Everyone’s in this to make money. The problem is that they’re painting themselves as an altruistic, morally-superior choice and condemning their competitors while engaging in the same (sometimes worse) business practices. It’s the hypocrisy I can’t stand.

    • Miles

      Couldn’t have said it better myself

  • VGISoftware

    Schmidt was smug and condescending during this interview.

    Pandering to the fools who care about “the numbers”, and who are only interested in “cheap” or “affordable”, he boasted about Android’s installed base, etc.

    Apple’s cash was mentioned in passing, but deftly skirted was how exactly Apple EARNED that cash. Apple’s ecosystem was also ignored, as well as the Apple user experience.

    Devious.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=566115167 Andrew Wood

    It’s pretty disingenuous the way he switches from talking about the number of developers (Apple) to the number of devices (Android), while making it sound like there are more developers working on Android than iOS (which I think is not true, even though he claimed Android would be the first platform for most developers within the year, as I recall).

    These meaningless promises (majority of TVs with Google TV embedded by mid-2012 anyone?) seem to define his press engagements.

    • http://www.johncblandii.com John C. Bland II

      Actually the statement is correct. iOS has more developers and Android has more devices. What’s wrong with that?