Netgear CEO apologizes for part of anti-Apple rant

According to Macgasm, Netgear CEO Patrick Lo has clarified his earlier statement about Steve Jobs' ego. On Monday, Lo made reference to Steve Jobs "going away" soon, which most commentators (including us) found to be a fairly unsavory remark given the Apple CEO's health issues. "I deeply regret the choice of words I used in relation to business decisions Apple must grapple with in the future in relation to open vs. closed systems, which have been construed by some to be references to Steve Jobs' health and which was never my intention," Lo said. "I sincerely apologize that what I said was interpreted this way, and I wish Steve only the very best."

Lo did not, however, take back the other questionable things he said, including the idea that Apple including Flash was in support of "openness." Flash is a proprietary format, and Apple has done more to push the adoption of the far-more-open H.264 codec. Lo characterized Apple's blocking of Flash from iOS as nothing but ego, but research done by Ars Technica proves that having Flash installed reduces a Mac's battery life by 33 percent -- we can only guess how an iPhone or iPad would fare. Steve Jobs also reported that Flash was responsible for a large number of all reported crashes in Safari, and security experts -- again, not Apple itself -- said when dealing with browser security the main thing is to not install Flash.

There are many reasons Apple doesn't like Flash, and the company has backed those reasons up with facts and data. Many organizations have independently verified those reasons, so "ego" has nothing to do with keeping Flash away from iOS. More than a year after it became clear the iPad wouldn't support Flash, the fact that "ego" is still being thrown around as the primary motivating factor in the Flash vs. iOS debate says a lot more about Apple's detractors, Lo included, than it does about Apple itself.