Google's Larry Page: Steve Jobs is 'rewriting history' by saying Android came after the iPhone
By Nilay Patel 
posted July 9th 2010 6:31PM
posted July 9th 2010 6:31PM
Steve Jobs might have thought he was lightly playing down reports that the Apple / Google rivalry had dramatically changed when he said "they decided to compete with us -- we didn't go into the search business" at D8, but it appears that his phrasing didn't sit so well with Larry Page, who told Reuters yesterday that Jobs was doing a "little bit of rewriting history," and that the "characterization of us entering [the phone market] after is not really reasonable." Page, who was being interviewed alongside Eric Schmidt, also said that Google had been working on Android for "a very long time" and that the goal was always to develop phones with solid browsers to fill a market void.That's true, of course -- Google purchased Andy Rubin's Android, Inc. in 2005 -- but it's also an equally slight distortion: when Android was officially announced in November of 2007, it looked nothing like the OS we know and love today, and the SDK emulator used an image of an HTC-built prototype that had much more in common with the traditional BlackBerry than the iPhone. (Fun fact: that device eventually became the Palm Treo Pro running Windows Mobile.) It wasn't until the G1 shipped almost a year later that Android started to look more like what it is today, and we'd even argue that it wasn't until Android 2.0 hit on the OG Motorola Droid along with Verizon's Droid Does marketing campaign that the platform grew into its own unique and successful identity -- an identity that is now powerfully differentiated against the iPhone and driving accelerating device sales every quarter.
So, does any of this really matter? To the tech historians, perhaps -- and Apple and Google clearly see what they're doing as historically significant. Apart from that, it's a pretty meaningless distinction; Eric Schmidt followed up Page's comment by saying that the market was big enough for the iPhone and Android to coexist, and we seriously doubt anyone's phone purchasing decision will ever turn on what platform was released first. But it's also clear that the competition between these two companies is at fever pitch, which is great news for the rest of us -- let's just hope everyone involved remembers that Jobs closed his D8 remarks by saying "just because we're competing with somebody doesn't mean we have to be rude."
OH SNAP! Them sound like fighting words to me.
I don't care !
@liquidkernel
It fucking prints money.
Oh. My. God. Who freakin' cares - Peter Griffen
@n8equalsd
I want an iPhone 4.
@SolidSnake: iPhone4, where is the iPhone4. I need an iPhone4.
@SolidSnake
ANYTHING BROTHER STEVE SAYS IS RIGHT! NOW THESE ARTICLES NEED TO BE SHORTER? TRY NEWSPEAK ANYONE?
@n8equalsd
It builds you an island and then fucking transforms into a plane and takes you there.
@Raeglatem Jet, not plane.
@n8equalsd
It can grant you three wishes, even if one of them is an iPhone 4.
@liquidkernel While it may be true that Android came before iPhone, the fact that Eric Schmidt was up on stage at WWDC07 tells me he knew about the iPhone long before it was announced.
@walter164
When Steve Jobs says something about history, it's treated just like when the President says something about history..... people run with it and don't check the facts for themselves.
@georgeangelo Whoops, I mean Macworld 2007*. Sorry, but it still makes the same point.
@SolidSnake
This is great, so, now im on topic! (http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/09/youtube-moves-solidly-into-the-future-by-supporting-4k-content/)
I've already said it there, so i really dont want to over post, but the content of that really fits here better.
"Maybe because it lacks support for Flash? A plug-in necessary for this and other internet content to be viewed on your super-phone. Therefore you do not have "the whole internet in your hands" like all mighty Steve said when he launched the device. Or maybe because Apple just lost 1% of its market share and Android grew 4%. Or maybe its because we love to read your funny arguments, defending the device that does not do its primary task correctly (make calls). The list goes on and on......."
@liquidkernel
Screw it. Steve Jobs got the idea for the iPhone (a large screen touchscreen phone) from my posting in slashdot.
http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=163341&cid=13644457
@liquidkernel
Thats Steve for you..
He wanted Google to agree to no poaching within the company. Then his tall tales about flash. I am not surprised. Some people just dont know the real Steve.
@liquidkernel
Apple took the idea of a large screen touchscreen phone from my slashdot posting back in October-ish 2005. They took the idea of multi touch from Jeff Han ..even the 2001 movie minority report .. and others .. some of whom were working on multi touch since the 1980s (check out wikipedia). That's why Apple has no patents on core multi touch concepts. They have a patents on "bounce on scroll" and "slide to activate phone".
They took the idea of putting accelerometers in phones from myOrigo http://www.mobileburn.com/review.jsp?Id=547
They took the idea of full HTML browsers with the ability to zoom into parts for clarity from Nokia: http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=iphone
http://maddox.xmission.com/e70_web8.gif
They took the idea of GPS in phones from loads of other vendors. They took the idea of a camera phone from others as well.
And the new iPhone, it stole the idea of a front facing camera which was present in many phones.
The iPad too has stolen design ideas, for example they stole the bookshelf view in iPad from an Android ebook reader maker.
While other companies had to invent most of the core principles in phones .. Apple was able to bypass having to invest in all that by stealing their inventions.
@aubreyq It puts the lotion in the basket or it gets the hose.
@JS
I got one more for you. That ringer switch...they stole that from Palm. HAHA
@Seven2k
I expect figures like Larry, Brin to stay out of statements like this. When it comes to Eric, Steve... I'm used to them being typical CEOs but I had really hoped the geniuses behind google won't indulge in cheap speak. They are in totally different league - young genius billionaires.
@JS
So why hasn't anyone taken the initiative of copying a company like Apple with 41 billion dollars CASH MONEY in the bank. And no debt.
HHHHHHHHMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!
@lerxst LOL. I wonder if I'm the only one old enough here to get this.
@who said what
yeah they are young and are learning to play the game. They will learn and im pretty sure they will over through Steve. I guess he thought he would point that out.
I still think that Apple was trying to use Google when they were buddy buddy and Google saw their success take off and started doing their own thing. Thats when Steve turned on them. Steve even called them liars and Google produced proof that Steve wanted to practice bad business.
At the end they all make their own bed. but im really pulling for Google on this one.
@JS You really want to try and say that they stole everything they've ever sold? Really? Wow... you're clueless. Every company emulates other people's ideas and expand upon them. Technology is iterative and if you weren't able to emulate others, then technology would stagnate as most new ideas are patented by at least someone out there, that's why Apple patented the "silly" stuff like bouncing on scroll, all the others were already taken. As long as they don't make a 100% exact replicas then it's not illegal. You can see hints and ideas of other's ideas in every product in the market.
@JS
"They took the idea of full HTML browsers with the ability to zoom into parts for clarity from Nokia"
Do you have any idea how dumb that statement is?
If Larry Page is correct, then Apple shareholders such as myself should sue the snot out of Eric Schmidt for being on Apple's board of directors. It was clearly a conflict of interest and unethical of him to know Apples tech and strategies in regards to the iphone. His inside knowledge definitely shaped Android which is a competitor and is currently affecting my shares.
I hope Larry continues to tell us what the real history is
@okok only Apple Fanboys bought i they explained this when the cards came up they said that the reason the scores r there at this moment and as they are is cuz they rated them at that time when it came out and at the time the g1 came out it was an 8 out of 10 but what i find bull is the iphone got a 9 and droid x got a 7 i belive engadget loves the iphone even tho android is the same or better at a lot of things the iphone has and doesnt have and u can say the same for the iphone but i dont thin droid x deserves a 7
@liquidkernel As if apple wasn't working on the iPhone for years...
@KarlW and @FanClerks
Herp Derp I don't know what sarcasm is.
@georgeangelo So Larry page says that Google started work on Android years before the iPhone, while Vic Gundotra says that Android was undertaken by Google to counter a "draconian future, where one man, one phone and one carrier ruled mobile phones".
Gundotra's pitch sounds a little more noble, what with Google looking out for all of us and all, but really, these two guys should get their story straight.
@PavelAK
Dont you get it?
Iphone was no where near launched when google bought Android.
So they didnt copy Apple, they had the plan also.
And LG showed the KE850 (Prada) in september 2006, thats before we saw the iphone.
Samsung managed to have an working prototype of a touchscreen phones, in febuary, so if they stole from someone, they stole from LG.
But as the History goes for Apple fans, and the way Steve Jobs make it sound, iPhone was the first and the original fingerfriendly touchphone. All other stole from them.
Google just proved they had the plans as well, long before they knew of iPhone.
@bandsaw how can you uprank such a blatant disregard for spelling? jesus christ mary and joseph
@jwdav Well if you tun the clock back a few years, to before Apple entered the phone market, the same concern was there, just about different players. It is certainly ironic that, with how much the market has changed in the last few years, this particular motivation for Android is even more apropos today.
@JS
What about this, not smartphones but proto-cellphones:
- Nikola Tesla predicted mobile phones in 1909
http://recombu.com/news/nikola-tesla-predicted-mobile-phones-in-1909_M11683.html
- Dick Tracy watch (1940s):
http://www.answers.com/topic/dick-tracy-watch
- Communicator (Star Trek):
Dr. Martin Cooper, inventor of the modern mobile phone, credits the TOS communicator as being his inspiration for the technology. Although the first "brick" mobile phones were much larger, modern flip phones strongly resemble the original series communicator.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communicator_(Star_Trek)
@Beatnik
Marty Mobile -- inventor of the cell phone -- says Android 'every bit as good' as iPhone:
http://www.androidcentral.com/marty-mobile-inventor-cell-phone-says-android-every-bit-good-iphone
@pspitts
Sure they have, but then they have to copy a company like Microsoft or Cisco who has the largest CASH pile in in the industry with about 39 billion each and Google comes third with 26.
Apple cash pile is 23 billion and not 41 billion, as long term investments can't be considered cash.
And debt is good for a solid company it gives a tax shield.
So why hasn't anyone taken the initiative of copying a company like Apple with 41 billion dollars CASH MONEY in the bank. And no debt.
HHHHHHHHMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!
@Plazmic Flame LOL as you obviously do. Listen I love Android, But anyone with a brain can see that Google chose to switch from competing with RIM to competing with Apple after the success of the iPhone was known. Come on guy.
@Plazmic Flame Because no one but The Steve is allowed to talk about Apple's internal history. Who knows how long they've really been working on a smartphone. I wouldn't be surprised if they had a Newton MessagePad 2100 with some sort of cell chip wedged into it. That thing sure had a lot of weird phone-like features on it for something that wasn't a phone.
@liquidkernel Wow google just go away, they argue on the teeny facts just because they're insecure, "the iPhone came first" no one cares and we move on, but then google has to say "no technically we started making it first" just cYse they want attention and to look smart and make Steve jobs look stupid, and I'm pretty sure apple started thinking about the [iPad] a long time ago and turned it into a phone if Steve jobs remembered that he could make google look dumb :P but google has done this before, for no reason other than publicity they check apples facts, which they do it on the ones that don't even matter or are loose ideas rather than "this happened exactly April 47th"
Dear google,
Instead of badmouthing your competitor and having bad facts, try making your product better, good even, I see you have made one step in the right direction though by requiring hardware on 3.0 like 1 ghz and above, now for the software
Thx
Ps there is a tiny slight chance that I would possibly consider using android instead of ios if you make your software good, and to do that, you would need to be psychic and know what apple is about to unveil and one up that, which will never happen, so yah, apple will always one up you, so I will never use android in the forseeable future (maybe if Steve jobs retires and apple starts doing things differently which would be a sad day when apple isn't apple anymore)
i know I will be downranked for this, but Android is a ripoff of iPhone story indeed!
@Rajivsri: I downranked you because you said I should.
@Rajivsri I downranked you because you're a fool.
@Rajivsri I upranked you to be a rebel against society.
@Rajivsri I just sat there looking stupidly.
@rmbrown09 hahaha! awesome.
@Rajivsri What kills me is how Google supposedly completely revamped their OS UI to so called look like the iPhone between the time of the iPhone launch and the G1. Thats some might fast work. Mind you I STILL don't see how the G1 resembled an iPhone when it had 3 customizable desktops, changeable parallax scrolling backgrounds an app drawer and a notification pulldown. The iPhone has none of this till this day. Its just a grid of icons which looks like a Palm or old iPaq anyway. How anyone thinks this is a so called clone I don't know. The ONLY idea I believe they probably took from Apple was kinetic scrolling.
@Rajivsri
You were shaded so I figured I had to reply.
@Rajivsri
and apple invented multitasking
@Blaque14K
it's not like they had anyone on the board is it ? can you only deal with one fact at a time ?
@bandsaw
i see what you did there!