Jobs says Google’s ‘don’t be evil’ mantra is ‘bullshit’
An already interesting weekend just got a little, well, more interesting. There is, of course, no way to confirm anything in this write up, which is presented as hearsay. Still, in view of the simmering competition between Google and Apple, as well as the shooting war with Adobe, this information almost passes a sniff test.
Earlier, Mac Blorge brought the story of how Adobe, or least one of their (soon to be former) employees blogging on a site with an Adobe trademark in its name, used a porn Web site screencap to highlight the iPad’s supposed lack of Flash. False alarm — there’s plenty o’ iPad consumable porn out there!
Now, here’s a Wired write up that only directly attributes two words to Steve Jobs and otherwise paraphrases some things he purportedly said about Google and Adobe at last week’s employee-only town hall meeting at the company’s 1 Infinite Loop headquarters in Cupertino:
On Google: We did not enter the search business, Jobs said. They entered the phone business. Make no mistake they want to kill the iPhone. We won’t let them, he says. Someone else asks something on a different topic, but there’s no getting Jobs off this rant. I want to go back to that other question first and say one more thing, he says. This don’t be evil mantra: “It’s bullshit.†Audience roars.
About Adobe: They are lazy, Jobs says. They have all this potential to do interesting things but they just refuse to do it. They don’t do anything with the approaches that Apple is taking, like Carbon. Apple does not support Flash because it is so buggy, he says. Whenever a Mac crashes more often than not it’s because of Flash. No one will be using Flash, he says. The world is moving to HTML5.
Does that “sound” like the Steve Jobs we all know and love? Yes, and even though the initial report comes from Wired, this is all still very, very thin and should be taken with rather large bag of rock salt.
Get ready for heavy spin from these three companies’ proxies in the days and weeks ahead…
What’s your take?
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January 31st, 2010
Hi Ronald,
Fascinating insight into Job’s MO to read his alleged words. I wonder if these are tactical leaks in order to put pressure on Adobe and Google, making them waste energy and time look nervously over their shoulder at Apple’s approach.
Perhaps if you speculated a bit or did an analysis on the possibility that Jobs himself made sure that his comments reached the public, it surely would make for an interesting read. Cheers.
January 31st, 2010
I think these quotes are highly twisted. Steve Jobs is much more polite than some of those statements make him seem.
February 1st, 2010
It is! Don’t be fooled by Google as a “benevolent” company.
For one, they do not respect the rules of law.
February 2nd, 2010
re the “don’t be evil mantra is bullshit” comment attributed to Jobs.
To me, it’s a case of the pot calling the kettle black…