The Apple Core

Jason D. O'Grady & David Morgenstern

Jobs trashes Google and Adobe at all-hands meeting

By | February 1, 2010, 8:15am PST

Summary: Steve Jobs held a “town hall” meeting with the entire Apple staff at its One Infinite Loop headquarters in Cupertino and didn’t pull any punches when asked about Google and Adobe.

http://www.sanitypages.com/photo/steve_jobs_evil.jpgWired reports that Steve Jobs held a “town hall” meeting, as he frequent does after a big launch, with the entire Apple staff at its One Infinite Loop headquarters in Cupertino.

People that were present say that Jobs didn’t pull any punches when asked about Google and Adobe.

On Google:

We did not enter the search business. They entered the phone business. Make no mistake: they want to kill the iPhone. We won’t let them [...] This don’t be evil mantra? It’s bullshit.

On Adobe:

They are lazy. They have all this potential to do interesting things, but they just refuse to do it. They don’t do anything with the approaches that Apple is taking, like Carbon. Apple does not support Flash because it is so buggy. Whenever a Mac crashes more often than not it’s because of Flash. No one will be using Flash. The world is moving to HTML5.

Jobs also took the opportunity to take questions and delivered a few other pearls of wisdom:

  • Jobs considers the iPad on a par with the iPhone and Mac as one of the most important products he’s worked on
  • Apple acquired Lala because they wanted to bring Lala’s people to the iTunes team
  • The next iPhone is “an A+ update” that Android won’t be able to keep up with
  • New Macs this year will take Apple “to the next level”
  • Apple is still playing “wait and see” with regards to Blu-Ray, and won’t implement it until/unless Blu-Ray sales take off

Tip: Wired

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Topics

Jason O'Grady is a journalist and author specializing in mobile technology. He has published six books on Apple and mobile gadgets and his PowerPage blog has been publishing for over 15 years.

Disclosure

Jason D. O'Grady

Jason D. O'Grady is the creator and editor of O'Grady's PowerPage, which has been publishing mobile technology news since 1995. He maintains an advertising relationship with the following legacy advertisers on the PowerPage:

  • Amazon Associates
  • Google Adsense
  • Tekserve
  • Advertising on the PowerPage is brokered by a third-party agency (BackBeat Media) and he recuses himself from these negotiations.

Biography

Jason D. O'Grady

Jason D. O'Grady developed an affinity for Apple computers after using the original Lisa, and this affinity turned into a bona-fide obsession when he got the original 128 KB Macintosh in 1984.

He started writing one of the first Web sites about Apple (O'Grady's PowerPage) in 1995 and is considered to be one of the fathers of blogging. He has been a frequent speaker at the Macworld Expo conference and a member of the conference faculty. He also co-founded the first dedicated PowerBook User Group (PPUG) in the United States.

After winning a major legal battle with Apple in 2006, he set the precedent that independent journalists are entitled to the same protections under the First Amendment as members of the mainstream media.

O'Grady is the author of The Nexus One Pocket Guide, The Droid Pocket Guide, The Google Phone Pocket Guide, and The Garmin nuvi Pocket Guide (Peachpit Press), the author of Corporations That Changed the World: Apple Inc. (Greenwood Press), and a contributor to The Mac Bible (Peachpit Press). In addition, he has contributed to numerous Mac publications over the years, including MacWEEK, Macworld, and MacPower (Japan).

When he's not writing about Apple for ZDNet at The Apple Core, he enjoys spending time with his family in New Jersey.

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Apple calling Google evil... Pot, meet Kettle
Badgered 22nd Apr 2010
ROFL
0 Votes
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This is how you will be treated.

Jobs has to be the least classy guy in the entire
market.
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Ranting was a sign of weakness
LBiege 1st Feb 2010
Google must be amused seeing Jobs being scared witless by Android.
Sorry sport, but I'm afraid Steve needed to go on record as a necessary
counterpoint to the spin machine at Google. Android has barely made a
dent in iPhone OS sales, despite enormous marketing by Verizon,
precisely because it lacks the elegance that defines the ultimate user
experience. See you in 2015 when Google's managed to scratch a few
more percentage points of market share.
0 Votes
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You are right that the iPhone is more elegant. But as an OS, in user experience and the number of compelling apps, Android left it in the dust a long time ago.
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Oh?
Pete "athynz" Athens 2nd Feb 2010
And what app on the Android platform managed to save someone's life?

If I recall correctly there were several news stories about an American in Haiti who was trapped in the wreckage of the hotel he was staying at... and it was by the use of two or three apps on the iPhone that saved his life.

Android left the iPhone in the dust? Not bloody likely.

And speaking from my own personal experience with both the Apple iPhone OS and the Google Android OS I found the iPhone OS to be much more intuitive and user friendly. The Android OS is good but not better than the iPhone OS.
0 Votes
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Not the least classy.
781lc 2nd Feb 2010
There are people who have a narrow bitter focus with evidently nothing better to do.

Get a life..
0 Votes
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So Jobs is supposed to just
Pete "athynz" Athens 2nd Feb 2010
what? Be excited that Google has decided to compete in the smartphone market? And that Flash is a buggy piece of crap - one that crashes on Windows as well? I can't say things would be rosy between me and Google if I was in his position.

And who's word do we have that this is what actually went down in the meeting? I'm not saying it's inaccurate or accurate - and I would not put it past Steve Jobs to act this way by any means - but really who is the original source of this?
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And Ballmer is Class?
itguy08 1st Feb 2010
Looks like and acts like your "Creepy Uncle"...
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Ballmer
HalfAKilo 1st Feb 2010
Ballmer just does it for lulz, and you wussies are creeped out.
0 Votes
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I'm sorry...
Hallowed are the Ori 1st Feb 2010
I can't seem to find a reference to Steve Ballmer in the article posted here or at Wired.

???
pretty stupid, too.

I agree, I saw no mention of Ballmer in either story either, so where he thought he read that no one can say.
0 Votes
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Nobody I know "gets it". It doesn't multitask, doesn't have a real OS and just doesn't fit.

If you have an iPhone why carry the iPad?

If you want a netbook why buy the iPad? It does hardly anything like the netbook. I can't easily download my pics, run real apps, etc.

If I want an e-reader the e-Ink ones are easier on the eyes albeit with less eye candy.

Lack of Flash means the browsing experience will be like the iPhone. OK but not great. Lots of sites need Flash and as much as I love my iPhone it's a huge gripe of me and most that use the iPhone.

Sorry Steve, you guys rock but the iPad = FAIL.
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I agree except...
nothingness 1st Feb 2010
From my non-tech friends, there are quite a few who are chomping at the bit to get one. Even thought they own iPhones already, they all thought it was the neatest thing, we as a race is pretty shallow I guess, just look at Taylor Swift winning the Grammy Album of the Year, ugh!
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Agree. iPad = disappointing fail
BillDem 1st Feb 2010
No Flash support in the browser. No camera for video chatting. No satellite GPS. No easy file manipulation. No calendar app support on Vista/Windows 7. Plus, we still have "Big Brother" deciding which applications, books, movies, music, etc., we are allowed to purchase. Being tied to iTunes and DRM just limits consumer choice to a subset of Jobs' choices.

I was hopeful that this would be an upgrade from my several year old netbook. It is a step backward. No thanks Apple. I'll wait to see if you finish the feature set in version 2. I don't want to live through a repeat of iPhone version 1.
breakers. Well, I also want Android or Chrome
OS.

But, in any case, the iPad is a game changer and
will be a big deal in the history of accepting
tablets and netbooks, and alternative operating
systems.
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You desperate to be spied on
jorjitop 1st Feb 2010
Go ahead, sell your soul to Google!
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I cannot agree more
SystemVoid 1st Feb 2010
"Nobody I know "gets it". It doesn't multitask,
doesn't have a real OS and just doesn't fit."

Exactly. All I can make of the iPad is that
it's an over-sized iPod Touch. If it worked
like a Macbook, in that it could multi-task and
had a USB drive, then maybe I would understand
it. Seems pointless. It can't even compete with
netbooks in its current state.

"If you have an iPhone why carry the iPad?"

I say, even if you DON'T have an iPhone, why
carry an iPad?
0 Votes
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Fail might be a bit harsh
Pete "athynz" Athens 2nd Feb 2010
but I have to agree... I don't get it either. My iPhone does everything that the iPad can do and actually more since I jailbroke my iPhone... It's more of a niche thing like Apple TV I guess. IF it was a lot cheaper I'd get one to have an e-reader that is easier on the eyes than my iPhone but right now I just don't see that happening.
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Jobs = arrogant spoiled child nt
T1Oracle 1st Feb 2010
nt
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You forgot clueless...
BillDem 1st Feb 2010
He uses the word "revolutionary" on products which use 10 year old technology but make it easier to use and prettier. I could live with "innovative" but there is nothing revolutionary about any of the product introductions of this past decade.

He arbitrarily chose to leave out features like MMS, device-wide search, or cut/paste which most people want simply because HE doesn't use them on a phone.

He claims a viewer running inside a browser on a protected mode operating system is able to crash the entire operating system. Does he not realize that half the people in his audience (the programmers) were smart enough to KNOW this isn't what's happening? Put another way, if this IS what's happening, NOBODY should be using OS X because it's the most insecure OS kernel ever.

All of that said, I agree with Jobs on Adobe's laziness. They are sitting on their laurels cashing checks from software they created in the far distant past. They knew everything was moving to 64 bit many years ago, yet nearly all of their software is still 32 bit. Photoshop? Seriously? Premiere deals with multi-gigabyte sized files and they made Photoshop 64 bit first. Maybe the Photoshop programmers are the only ones doing any work.

Flash versus HTML5. Yes, I want HTML5 support quickly, too. But reality is many tens of thousands of web sites still use Flash and nobody can afford to rewrite all of those sites the instant HTML5 finally includes an interactive streaming media standard. So for the foreseeable future, we STILL need Flash on our portable browsing devices and in our 64 bit browsers. Adobe is dragging their feet on this one too. They say they're working on it, but seriously? It has been YEARS. If everyone hadn't figured it was coming any moment, even the open source community could have written it three times already.
presentation of the iPad. If Google could field
somebody with the stage presence of Steve Jobs,
they would sell a lot more Android phones,
Chrome OS based netbooks, Android based tablets,
etc, etc.

Lets not even talk about Steve Balmer's
presentations, I might vomit.
0 Votes
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You're so right Donnie Boy!
Ron Bergundy 1st Feb 2010
The ONLY reason (and it really is) that Linux and Google stuff don't sell nearlly as well as M$ and Apple'$ crappy stuff is all about stage presence!!

I bet if Google had a Jobs like kind of guy, with big press events like Apple does, Nexus One would have outsold the iphone on its first day.

Google Apps? A little slice of heaven, so far and beyond superior to that piece of garbage known as "Office" that the only thing I can think of that would keep it from surpassing M$ by now is that NOBODY knows about it. If people knew, they'd be switching in droves!

Why is it that it seems only people like us can see this? I guess most of the people here don't understand what really happens outside in the real world, like you obviously do!!!
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How was it magnificent?
os2baba 2nd Feb 2010
I saw the presentation and came off completely underwhelmed.
0 Votes
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Android will kill iHype
Linux Geek 1st Feb 2010
and Adobe has to GPLed their code to stay relevant.
Flash SUUUUUUCCCKKS.
0 Votes
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Don't tell us...
Hallowed are the Ori 1st Feb 2010
We already know it does.

You need to convince the websites that use it of the err of their ways.
0 Votes
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HTML5... Please, but...
IssacS 1st Feb 2010
As much I want to see farther HMTL5 adoption.... for video/audio, codec's are a BIG issue. Judging from the H.264 v OGG debates it's unlikely to settle by the end of the year.

And well... personally, I can't nor want an future that involves H.264 for video for the web. The consequences just to have HD-playback are WAY too steep.
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Dear Steve ...
johnfenjackson@... Updated - 1st Feb 2010
... I note you have re-entered the consumer microprocessor market with your A4 silicon in the iPad product. Pity we will have to close you down, sorry I meant your account.

No longer yours truly,

Paul S. Otellini
President and CEO Intel Corporation
and why won't Apple make a competitor to Flash? Or is Apple lazy?

Android is garbage and anybody reading Google's terms of service and having an IQ of 70 or higher would have enough intellect to stay as far away from them as humanly possible and beyond. Mr. Jobs is right that their 'no evil' mantra comes freshly yanked out of the cow.

But while Flash the development tool has bugs, Flash animations seem to be solid enough. Others postulated it's about control; since Apple wants it and Flash can do an end-run around it. I've to side with Adobe on this, even if Jobs is right that the Flash development tool has bugs. (Like OS X doesn't? Or Windows and how they took bugs to the next level and far beyond?)
0 Votes
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Why hit Adobe when most of the people that use Macs are creatives and also use design programs? Flash is, well, just that - Flash. But it still has a valid place in web design. If he doesn't want to support it, I see that as a control issue of Jobs', not a failure of Adobe.
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Adobe is slow moving
Clewin 10th Feb 2010
but he's right - flash is buggy and Adobe has been slow to fix the bugs. I think they don't favor their bought assets (in this case Macromedia) - it took 16 months to fix a major flash bug and others get fixed at an anemic rate.

As for Android vs iPhone I can see Jobs seeing that as an invasion of turf, but there were rumors of "google phone" around the same time rumors of iPhone appeared (the initial google phone rumors turned up to be Android OS, not an actual phone). This is also a turf war, because Droid phones are on Verizon and iPhone on AT&T networks and those two have had it out for one another as of late. I personally could care less because I don't believe in paying more than $40/month on a phone (so no data or phone messaging service for me - though some people IM me on my computer through their mobile devices).
0 Votes
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How has Flash ruined the web? My clients love it and when used correctly (sparingly and with searchable content), can be a dynamic experience. It's flash that helped make the web a destination instead of just a research tool.

That said, I will agree that the frantic banners of soccer mom's gyrating to some inaudible beat in an ad about life insurance are pollution, but the program is still very relevant in the hands of a responsible designer.
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mom's [sic] moms
Jobs is right, Adobe is buggy.

I have never seen such poorly written software except from classical Microsoft.

It doesn't interface nicely on my Mac Mini - crashed several times. It screws up my laptop when I try to use iPod Touch from iTunes.

Adobe is an arrogant company with expensive software that is not adequately tested.

As for Google - being big can lead to arrogance and they are well on the way. At least their search engine is better than Bing, Yahoo and others out there. Just hope they can hang on to their lead over time.

We need Apple and other companies to start providing better competition - which will lead to better software.

Will be the USA, China or India who are the dominant suppliers of future software?

Or maybe Apple with software that matches welll defined hardware (a revolutionary concept).
0 Votes
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in the post, where did you get this in the blog post?

>>I have never seen such poorly written software except from classical
Microsoft.

Where am I missing? I don't see Jobs bashing Microsoft for buggy
software and being lazy.

???

--Ram--
0 Votes
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ROFL

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