I don’t generally expect vulgarity from men in black turtlenecks. More often I expect unreadable poetry, pretentiousness, and often a beret. Perhaps, a heroin addiction.
Rubin was working on Android well before Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) introduced its first iteration of its iconic iPhone in 2007. In fact, Google purchased Android from Rubin for around $50 million in 2005. Yes, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) beat Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) to the punch, but it was hardly a sucker punch.
Rubin, clearly beaten to the punch (sticking with the metaphor) was in a cab when Jobs introduced the iPhone; he had the driver pull over in order to watch the presentation in its entirety, and was shocked at best. “Holy crap, I guess we’re not going to launch that phone,” said Rubin at the time.
Ethan Beard, an early Android business development executive told Vogelstein, “We knew that Apple was going to announce a phone. Everyone knew that. We just didn’t think it would be that good.”
Essentially, not only did Apple scupper Google’s plans, it made them feel like they were a decade behind.
Continuing in his profane vein, “Everything is a f**king rip off of what we’re doing,” Jobs said of Android, according to Vogelstein’s reporting.
Jobs is meant to have had a bit of a hissy fit when he first saw Android. Remember, Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt was on Apple’s board and it’s been repeatedly reported that he trusted Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin and insisted on wholesale changes to Android under threat of an immediate lawsuit.
Jobs had trusted Google’s co-founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin. All three has been telling Jobs about Android, but they kept telling him it would be different from the iPhone. And for some reason he believed them until he actually saw the phone and its software.
After Jobs’ first meeting with Rubin?
“It got incredibly personal,” says one Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) executive who was briefed by Jobs on the meeting. “Jobs said that Rubin was steamed, telling him his position was anti-innovation. And this is where Steve was demeaning to Andy, saying Andy was trying to be like him, look like him, have the same haircut, the same glasses, the same style.”
After the meeting with Jobs, Rubins famously hung a sign on his office white board that said, “STEVE JOBS STOLE MY LUNCH MONEY.”
It’s believed that Rubin was even more angry with Google’s capitulation to Jobs’ demands for the first Android redesign.
End of the day, Android rules the smartphone OS world while Apple is doing just fine.
via: [BusinessInsider]
