Bonum Certa Men Certa

Linux is Hurting Apple, So Steve Jobs Starts Spreading FUD, Gets Told Off


Andy Rubin, photo by Yoichiro Akiyama (Tokyo, Japan)



Summary: Andy Rubin (above) and Iain Dodsworth, the founder of TweetDeck, respond to lies told by Steve Jobs, whose products no longer sell well because of competition from Linux-powered devices

Steve Jobs, the control freak who is suing to prevent companies from selling Linux, is becoming no better than the other Steve (Ballmer, not Wozniak). He is spreading FUD about the competition, which is a loser's strategy when you're a CEO. Yes, Jobs is speaking badly about Android and he only gets backlash for it.



Jobs has reasons to be afraid of GNU/Linux. It does more than Apple's operating system, it runs on more hardware, and it is a lot more affordable. PC Pro currently runs the article "Why I prefer Ubuntu 10.10 Netbook Edition to the iPad" and it's a reminder of the fact that hypePad may have catching up to do as less than 0.1% of the world's people have one and it is far too limiting. Syanide says:

4.2 million people. They expected even more. I doubt any figures for Android tablets even exist.


Android is sold by many companies and they can fork it, too. hypePad is a one-company thing, it's a monopoly.

Here is what PC Pro thinks of the hypePad;

I should admit that I come to the iPad pre-irritated by Apple’s attempts to swaddle the thing in a wholly unearned sense of awe. A “magical, revolutionary device”? Please: the telephone was a revolutionary device. It’s like when some 20-year old would-be Apprentice declares “I am the best manager you’ll ever meet”: I want to smack him twice, once for the arrogance and again for the delusion.


Jobs is speaking negatively about Android right now. He knows that few people (a niche of hardcore clients) would be willing to pay a lot more for just a brand name on a tablet that will always have even more restrictions. As the Financial Times puts it, "Apple iPad sales fail to hit forecasts" and it oughtn't surprise.

Sales of Apple’s iPad have failed to meet the steadily rising expectations for the touchscreen tablet device, letting some of the air out of the enthusiasm that has built on Wall Street in recent weeks.

Apple’s shares slipped more than 6 per cent in after-hours trading after it said it had sold 4.2m of the devices in the three months to the end of September, below the 5m that some had €­projected. It sold 3.3m after being introduced part of the way through the prior quarter.


As we pointed out yesterday, Jobs has started a FUD attack on Android and Google has responded politely to show that he was lying.

If you haven't heard by now, Steve Jobs pretty much lost his sh-- (shut yo mouth!) yesterday during Apple's earnings call -- going way above and beyond his usual diatribe over Google and Android. To say it's entertaining is pretty much the understatement of the year. And what's more -- these were prepared remarks. Somebody thought about this for a bit.

Jobs calls stock Android "a commodity" and invents the "Twitterdeck" Twitter client to rail against all of the different handsets developers must contend with. (Of course he meant Tweetdeck -- only one of the more popular Twitter clients out there.)

[...]

Anyhoo, Android's Andy Rubin fired up Twitter this morning to post his first Tweet, which you see above. Pretty much speaks for itself.

Our take? It's telling how much time Jobs spent on his competitors in the earnings call. Best way to downplay the competition is to dismiss it. No longer. And in the process, Jobs is coming off more a loon and less a sage. Listen for yourself after the break.


Jobs not only lied about Android. In the process, he also lied about application developers for Android and TweetDeck's CEO, for example, responds quite strongly according to Engadget and Business Insider which says:

This morning, Iain Dodsworth, founder of TweetDeck, responded to Jobs with a tweet: "Did we at any point say it was a nightmare developing on Android? Errr nope, no we didn't. It wasn't."

If you look at the original TweetDeck post about all the Android handsets, and Android OSes out there, you can see the company is impressed by it all, not annoyed: "From our perspective it's pretty cool to have our app work on such a wide variety of devices and Android OS variations."


Business Insider has a video of "Steve Jobs's Epic 5-Minute Anti-Google Rant":

In a surprise, Steve Jobs joined Apple's Q3 earnings call today.


Here is the video as ogg. It ought to remind people that Apple is hostile and harmful to GNU/Linux. It's just spreading FUD and suing.

[an error occurred while processing this directive]



Steve Jobs with patent
Original photo by Matt Buchanan; edited by Techrights

Recent Techrights' Posts

Brett Wilson LLP "Takes it Personal" (Character Assassination, Not Professionalism). Everybody Can See That.
On behalf of violent men
Pissing Contests and Pissing Off Everyone
people who came from Microsoft are trying to vex and divide the community
Microsoft Repeats the Mistakes Made by the EPO After We Exposed a Major Microsoft/EPO Scandal 10 Years Ago
That scandal was all over the media, not just in English
Turns Out LLMs for Code Don't Save Time and Don't Improve Quality
Neither legal nor useful
 
People Who Assault Women Are Not Victims of "Distress"
It seems like an American tradition. In a country with almost 50 presidents, not even one was a female.
copyleft.org 'Hijacked' by the People Who Attack the Person Who Created Copyleft
So far there's nothing "tasteless" in copyleft.org, but that can change at any time in the future
Asking People to Take Down Articles and Videos Only Makes These More Popular and "Viral"
If you do something bad, one of the worst things you can possibly do it try to silence those who speak about it
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, July 13, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, July 13, 2025
Two-Thirds Towards FSF Goal, Richard Stallman to Give Talks in Europe
There are 67 left before reaching the target
Gemini Links 14/07/2025: Politicised Tech and "Leaving GitHub"
Links for the day
The Demise of LLMs
We've just checked BetaNews again. They've dropped all the slop and went back to human authors.
Gemini Links 13/07/2025: Sonpo Museum of Art and FCEUX
Links for the day
Links 13/07/2025: UnitedHealth's Censorship Campaign, Australia Wary of China
Links for the day
Firing Away With Nonsense
Or fighting fire with fire
Links 13/07/2025: Climate Crisis, GAFAM Poisoning the Water
Links for the day
The Microsofters Will Have an Obligation to Compensate Us
This story isn't just about Microsoft. It's also about corruption, there are many women victims, there is abject "abuse of process", and many more scandals to be illuminated in years to come.
Reproducing at the EPO Instead of Producing Monopolies for Foreign Monopolies With Their Price-Fixing Cartels
Does the EPO recognise the need of well-educated Europeans to bear kids?
Valnet Inc. Dominates Real (Not LLM Slop) GNU/Linux Coverage in 2025
And likely in prior years, too
Free Software Foundation (FSF) Fund Raiser Goes on
Later this month we'll expose another OSI scandal
EPO Staff Representatives Issue a Warning About Staff's Health and Inadequate Care
Even the EPO's own stakeholders (money sources) are openly protesting against what the EPO became
Links 13/07/2025: Partly Assorted News From Deutsche Welle and CBC
Links for the day
Gemini Links 13/07/2025: Board Games and Battle Styles
Gemini Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, July 12, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, July 12, 2025
Plunder at the Second-Largest Institution in Europe
cuts, neglect, health problems, even early deaths
Links 12/07/2025: Political Developments, Attack on Opposition, Climate Actions
Links for the day
Gemini Links 12/07/2025: Melodic Musings and Small Web July
Links for the day
Links 12/07/2025: Jail in China for Homoerotica, South Korea Discriminates Against Old Workers
Links for the day
If Only Everything Was Rewritten in Rust, We'd Have No More Security Issues?
Nope.
Links 12/07/2025: Birdwatching and Fake/Misleading Wall Street 'Valuation' Figures
Links for the day
Gemini Links 12/07/2025: How to Avoid Writing, Apps for Android
Links for the day
Using SLAPPs to Cover Up Sexual Abuse and Strangulation
The exact same legal team of the Serial Strangler from Microsoft and Garrett already has a history fighting against "metoo"
EPO Staff Committee on Harassment in the Workplace
slides
Adding the Voice of Writers to UK SLAPP Reform
The journey to repair antiquated (monarchy era) laws will likely be long
EPO Takes More Money From Staff for Speculation (Pensions), Actuarial Study Explains the Impact
"The key change in this year’s Actuarial Study, due to cascading the new “risk appetite” from the financial study, is a significant increase of the total pension contribution rate of 5.7 percentage points, up to a total of 37.8%. This is driven by an unprecedented decrease in the discount rate of 105 bps down to 2.2%."
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, July 11, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, July 11, 2025