Google CEO Says Steve Jobs' Anger Over Android Was 'Actually for Show'

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Posted April 4, 2012 at 6:52pm by iClarified

Google CEO Larry Page says Steve Jobs' anger over Android was 'actually for show', in an interview with Bloomberg.

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According to the Steve Jobs biography by Walter Isaacson, when you became CEO you went to Jobs for advice. I know you had your differences at the end around Android, but what did you take from him as a mentor and a friend?

I think the Android differences were actually for show. I had a relationship with Steve. I wouldn't say I spent a lot of time with him over the years, but I saw him periodically. Curiously enough, actually, he requested that meeting. He sent me an e-mail and said: "Hey, you want to get together and chat?" I said, "Sure, I'll come over." And we had a very nice talk. We always did when we had a discussion generally.

He was quite sick. I took it as an honor that he wanted to spend some time with me. I figured he wanted to spend time with his family at that point. He had a lot of interesting insights about how to run a company and that was pretty much what we discussed.

Wait, the fury around Android was for show?

I think that served their interests. For a lot of companies, it's useful for them to feel like they have an obvious competitor and to rally around that. I personally believe that it's better to shoot higher. You don't want to be looking at your competitors. You want to be looking at what's possible and how to make the world better.
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Page's view certainly does not mesh with what Steve Jobs told Walter Isaacson in an expletive-laced rant that Google's actions amounted to "grand theft".

"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, to right this wrong," Jobs said. "I'm going to destroy Android, because it's a stolen product. I'm willing to go thermonuclear war on this."

Steve Jobs also told Eric Schmidt that he was not interested in settling. "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."

Jobs' anger doesn't seem like a show to us.

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Google CEO Says Steve Jobs' Anger Over Android Was 'Actually for Show'

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Nitro Junkie - April 5, 2012 at 5:48am

I have to admit Google has done a lot of cool things with android since it came out but It's kind of the same thing with the android os. 75% of it was either bought or Stolen/Copied from other companies or the developer community including the android OS itself. Yes some of things in iOS were bought or used from the community and developers recruited to apple but apple wrote and designed 75% of iOS from the ground up themselves and they design, marker and sell their own products. Unlike Google who relies on other companies for hardware or products because they can't to it themselves and who bought their OS which was Copied from work Apple had been doing for years.

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DacksMac - April 5, 2012 at 4:57am

Love my iPhone. Definitely prefer this OS over Android. Much cleaner, more secure, and better on an enterprise. Android is for the birds. Also, Apple makes their own phones and Google relies on everyone else do there is no competition there.