Apple’s Steve Jobs was reportedly ready to to unleash “thermonuclear war” on Google and Android because he felt like Google was going after Apple but if you ask Google CEO Larry Page, that was just “for show” to motivate the Apple troops.
In an interview with Bloomberg, Page said Jobs was a mentor and friend and that the beef between the companies may have been exaggerated for effect.
“I think that served their interests. For a lot of companies, it’s useful for them to feel like they have an obvious competitor and to rally around that,” Page said. “I personally believe that it’s better to shoot higher. You don’t want to be looking at your competitors. You want to be looking at what’s possible and how to make the world better.”
Page definitely knows Jobs better than I do but reports suggested that Jobs and Apple were hurt by Google’s Android. Eric Schmidt sat on the board of Apple for a while and Jobs was reportedly furious that it entered the smartphone space using technology that Apple believed it had patented. That may be why it has been on a patent war with various Android handset makers. I do think Page is on to something though, as I’m sure Jobs used the “hatred” of Google as something of a rallying cry.
As for not looking at your competitors, that’s a nice statement but you have to pay attention to the competition or you’re not doing your job. Besides, we know that Android looked at the iPhone.
[Via Bloomberg, image: thfire]
