Steve Jobs and Google head to head again
If Steve Jobs and the folks at Google can’t keep from waging wars of words, such as they are now about Android, the world may eventually be justified in saying that the two companies are at war.
A number of columns in this space have made the point that Apple was not at war with Google, that it was just normal competition between two Silicon Valley giants with a long history together. If Apple and Steve Jobs were at war with anyone, we said, it was Adobe, and then just with Flash. However, at yesterday’s financial conference call, Jobs lashed out at Google over some statements they had made about Android about Android, iOS4, and open source.
Jobs said this: “We think the ‘open’ versus ‘closed’ argument is a smokescreen for what’s really best for the customers. We think Android is very, very fragmented and becomes more so every day. We think this is a huge strength of our approach when compared to Google’s. We think integrated will trump fragmented every time.” In short, according to a CNET article, Jobs feels that Google’s claims of Android superiority on the grounds of open source are utterly false.
Later in the day, Google’s Andy Rubin tweeted back with a cryptic ‘the definition of open: “mkdir android ; cd android ; repo init -u git://android.git.kernel.org/platform/manifest.git ; repo sync ; make”‘ which for the uninitiated is a command line directive to build the Android operating system from scratch, intended to say that Android was about as open source as you can get.
All of this represents an old argument about “open source” software, something for which Google’s Android OS may or may not qualify as, in toto, and the realm of closed source software, such as Apple is fond of delivering. First, with the tendency of Android to be splintered into factions, some of whom are not all that open, Android may not be as open as Google would like to say it is. And second, the way that it is being used in the case of smartphones does not adhere tightly to the open source ethical framework.
In truth, both Apple and Google are in it for the money. This is a competition in the business world, not a friendly fight at some higher plane of software sweetness and light. Methinks Google protests too much, and not so sincerely. Steve Jobs and Apple at least have the advantage of being candid, while Google seems guilty of at least self-serving, and perhaps untruthful, spin.
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