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Netgear CEO Says Jobs's Ego Will Bite Apple
AcidAUS writes "The global chairman and CEO of home networking giant Netgear has launched into a scathing attack on Apple and its founder Steve Jobs, criticising Jobs's 'ego' and Apple's closed up products. At a lunch in Sydney today, Patrick Lo said Apple's success was centred on closed and proprietary products that would soon be overtaken by open platforms like Google's Android."
JOBS vision to create "cool" Macs instead of the old beige/bland Macs/MP3s, basically saved Apple from the same fate that hit Atari and Commodore. Plus he had the vision to create the sleek, easy-to-use iPod.
Else we'd all be talking about the bankrupt former company called Apple, instead of today's thriving near-number 1 company. Jobs is still leading the company in the right direction and giving it that cool factor which appeals to consumers.
Information wants to be expensive AND wants to be free. So you have Value vs. Cheap distribution fighting each other.
I don't care much for Apple or it's products for exactly the reasons stated in TFA. The closed nature of the offerings usually locks me out of doing something I considered basic, that I wanted to do. Little or no reprieve from this is often offered. It's Apple's way, or the highway.
But the fact is, this attitude has been nothing but good for them from a business standpoint. Most consumers don't need or WANT options that they consider complex or confusing. Time and again it has been proven through sales that people want simple. People want 1 click, 1 button, no chance of screwing up. When people are more confident with their product right out of the box, they like it more. And Apple is great at giving people something they feel comfortable using the moment they turn it on.
Why would Apple change this? It feels like sour grapes to me. Developers have a hard time, but consumers are happy. In the end, Apple cares more about it's customers than it's partners, which is the right choice to make from a business standpoint. The only way Patrick Lo is going to be proven right, is if people stop buying Apple products. I don't see that happening anytime soon.
From the article:
"Ultimately a closed system just can't go that far ... If they continue to close it and let Android continue to creep up then it's pretty difficult as I see it."
Lo said the industry had "seen this movie play several times", pointing to the Betamax vs. VHS video format war, Mac vs. Windows and various proprietary networking protocols that at one stage tried to compete with the now dominant TCP/IP.
In each of the above cases, the more open platforms won more market share. However, Apple has bucked this trend so far with its closed ecosystems for the iPhone and iPad.
"Right now the closed platform has been successful for Apple because they've been so far ahead as thought leaders because of Steve Jobs," said Lo.
"Eventually they've got to find a way to open up iTunes without giving too much away on their revenue generation model."
The author is positing that the closed model you are so impressed with needs to change if they want to survive Android. Unfortunately, Jobs' ego will not allow this and they'll most likely end up in the same realm as Microsoft -- financially great but viewed as a 'has been' and opportunist by the community.
My work here is dung.
I do. I have an iPhone 4 and an iPad. My iPhone is jailbroken, which was necessary to even turn do certain basic things (like change icons!).
I just got a "3G wireless router", which is actually an underpowered Android smart-phone. Although it's sold as an internet router, you can use it as a (low spec) android play-toy, so I messed around with it a little bit.
First thing... well it has tethering as it's main point of existence in my device's case. My iPhone doesn't show the option, and my carrier would rip me off if they did offer it I am sure. (Yes.. I can install the jailbroken one.. I tried and it killed the batteries in like 10 minutes and wasn't very fast anyway).
I found that I could change the background, change the icons, easily and reliably have stuff like Skype run in the background, modify the keyboard layout, etc. I installed a network traffic graph and signal meter widget on the home screen, which is very convenient given the device's purpose.
In short, it's actually customizable to a large extent! I was amazed when I tried to play with the "phone" program. I entered a number and hit "dial", and it asked me if it should use the native phone capability, Google Voice, or Skype! (The native phone option wouldn't work since this device only has a data plan...). You simply can't integrate stuff on iOS like that.
This isn't to say that everyone in the world needs to heavily customize their device, but having the option to, f.e., have the normal dialer launch skype is like a luxury after dealing with the iPhone. There's also a status bar at the top so you can see what's running. On iOS, for example, if Skype is killed in the background, you never know (except when you find out later that you missed calls). There's nifty screens where you can see what's actually killing your battery (on iOS you have to guess), etc., etc.
The nice thing is that all these options don't seem to hurt the stability of the system at all, and those who don't need them don't have to use them. Likewise, you can install apps only from the "safe" Android market, or you can install from anywhere else you like. After playing that that thing, I kind-of wish my iPhone contract was up, so I could get one of the new Sharp Android phones... :(