Is Android a stolen product?
Summary: Jobs: "I'm willing to go thermonuclear war on this."
Excerpts of the upcoming Steve Jobs biography by Walter Isaacson are doing the rounds, and it's all fascinating stuff. But there's one but that I keep coming back to, and that is what Steve Jobs thought of Google's Android mobile operating system.
It's clear that Jobs really didn't like Android:
"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 [at the time ... this has grown massively since], to right this wrong. I'm going to destroy Android, because it's a stolen product. I'm willing to go thermonuclear war on this."
In a meeting in March of 2010 with Eric Schmidt, then Google's chief executive, at a cafe in Palo Alto, California, Jobs made it clear he wasn't interested in settling lawsuits:
"I don't want your money. If you offer me $5 billion, I won't want it. I've got plenty of money. I want you to stop using our ideas in Android, that's all I want."
And it's this mindset that has led to the seemingly endless patent infringement lawsuits between Apple and Android device makers. As I've pointed out before, Apple doesn't need the hassle of scrabbling for nickels and dimes in patent loot (like Microsoft is doing) because the company already has more cash than it knows what to do with. Apple's not litigating for money, it's doing so to keep the iPhone unique.
The areas of conflict between Apple and Android are well known and include features such as numbers and addresses being turned into clickable links, icons on a touch screen and the use of the pinching gesture for resizing.
But is it 'stealing'?
[UPDATE: Some readers have asked for my opinion here (so they can flame me ... LOL!). Honestly, I don't know. The iPhone was certainly revolutionary in its time in that it was a complete touchscreen device, and since then hundreds of clones have sprung up. But patents are tough to interpret and it is hard to distinguish between inspiration and rip-off. Some aspects of Android, based on my reading of patents, certainly do seem to have stolen from the iPhone. But patents are notoriously complex and ultimately these issues have to be decided by a court.]
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Talkback
Your argument please
AKH: please put up YOUR case ... we prefer to flame you ;-)
2. The patent situation is in a terrible mess and currently holds back progress by many corporations (fearing lawsuits).
3. There is a presumption by global corporates that once they have established a major platform it should be up to them how to milk it. I think the reverse: once a major platform has been established ... in the case of PC on top of CPU's, disks, memory, UNIX OS principles not originally developed by the platform owner ... then it is incumbent on said platform owner to be a good citizen. M$ was OK to start then became evil; Apple is the worst example I can bring to mind of an arrogant, manipulative, greedy citizen (I won't have anything to do with them unless it suits me).
RE: Is Android a stolen product?
Just to correct, I do agree with the 3rd point as well, except the last sentence, since I own an iPad... 8-)
<br>Great point (s)!<br>I have to disagree with the third one...<br>My phone is a Android HTC Desire HD and I love it!<br>I also love my iPad and so far no Android ones could beat it.<br>The idea that Android would be a stolen product is just ridiculous and demonstrates one's inability to understand fundamentals of business and technology.<br>If the arguments are to be supported, then iOS is a stolen product, not android, which is more closely lated to Unix than Apple's iOS.<br>It seems Jobs liked to repackage someone else's inventions and claim ownership of it.<br>I rather think not, but it seems people just want to idolatrate successful business mans like gods, no matter how they've got to that.<br>Let's be reasonable, Jobs did a great work in packaging the iOS in the form of iPhones, iPods and iPads, but he did not invented the concept!<br>I remember some tablets being used in old Star Treks movies, well before Apple, Jobs and the whole computer industry were considering it.
And if someone came up with a real warp engine..
RE: Is Android a stolen product?
Agreed, concepts cannot be patented;
I also have to argue with your statement, <i>"... iOS is a stolen product, not android, which is more closely lated to Unix than Apple's iOS."</i> Android is based on <i>Linux</i> not Unix whereas OS X is a certified UNIX and iOS is a derivative of OS X.
Did Steve Jobs invent the concept? Obviously not. But he did invent the methods which made the iPhone work as smoothly as it does and were were essentially copied by Android.
RE: Is Android a stolen product?
Do you even known what's underneath iOS and Android? Have you ever seen a line of Java, or Objective C?
I'm honestly curious - what do you think you're talking about?
There is a point where common sense should come into play
A [i]concept[/i] created for a movie, say a small touch screen tablet (as was seen in many an eposode of Star Trek through out the franchises) should not be patentable by one company if actually created to the point that others can not produce a tablet.
[b]How[/b] that company's tablet works can and should be patentable, but should not be able to clain the idea as their own it was taken from someone else's design and idea, that of the writer/prop designer's scetches and mock-ups.
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RE: Is Android a stolen product?
RE: Is Android a stolen product?
RE: Is Android a stolen product?
Job$ was very evile second only to Gate$.
His distorted reality made him fight the people's urge for FOSS and innovation.
Unfair to Gates ... and illustrating my point
That's my point: once a company or person has 'made it big' then it is time to start being a good citizen. It would also be unfair to Jobs I think to say he might not have done the same eventually ... for the spectre of death haunted his final years.
On a philosophical note I guess everyone (in the West) needs to recognise that we are lucky and work to minimise our greed and consumption. Our current ills are the direct consequence of a failure to act on that thought.
RE: Is Android a stolen product?
So what are Chrome browser and the Android browser based on?
According to their license agreements Apple's open source WebKit plays a large part.
RE: Is Android a stolen product?
And WebKit is based on KHTML...
This actually shows why Jobs's claim of Android being a stolen product is arrogant BS. No one's product is a thoroughly original idea. The iPhone borrows a lot of concepts from LG's Chocolate (which came a year before the iPhone), now it copied Android's notification UI, BlackBerry's messenger ideas.
RE: Is Android a stolen product?
But One Looming Question....
RE: Is Android a stolen product?
... Has a Very Obvious Answer
RE: Is Android a stolen product?
RE: Is Android a stolen product?
Pot calling the kettle black....