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Anyone else think that the constant Apple jabs at I/O are really poor form?
Don't get me wrong, Apple's flogged the condescension horse nigh into oblivion with their Get a Mac campaign, and there's some perverse satisfaction in seeing them get theirs. But, really, Google?
"It turns out that on the Internet... (yelling) people use flash!"
"We've discovered something (whispered) it's called the internet!"
"This isn't some kind of 'push notification' service that tries to make up for not having real multitasking"
I think it's right that Google point out where their products trounce the competition. I think the attempt to be pithy is just coming off as petty. If your products are better, people are going to buy them instead, that's your vindication. What are they trying to prove?
- silkodyssey 16y agoThis is typical competitive business behaviour. I don't see a problem with it as long as it doesn't go overboard and I don't consider this to be the case here. People tend to choose between competing products based on comparisons so the perceived value of the android platform would be based on how it compares to the iphone platform.
- tptacek 16y agoI think it's fantastic. I like Apple. I like Google. As an iPhone/iPad user, I think I'm going to benefit enormously from the genuine competitive pressure Google will apply. The more direct and pointed they make it, the more likely it is Apple is going to respond.
- eob 16y agoI agree. Of course, we also benefit from everyone playing along (Google Maps on the iPhone, for example). But I think we need to have more all-out competition between the big companies in the mobile market. When everyone plays it too-nice, we end up with situations like the current cell provide market or cable provide market: essentially rackets of collusion that occurs passively (through a refusal to compete hard) instead of actively (through smokey backroom meetings)
- alanthonyc 16y agoI absolutely agree. I think that competition between Apple and Google (and whoever else) can only benefit us, their customers. I only wish that Google did a better job of it. I agree with the OP in that they do sound petty. I wish they would just focus on building a better product. They're instead trying to channel the nerdrage about all the missing features everyone is supposedly going to miss. As far as I can tell, the only ones who are going to miss anything are the ones who already know or have been told that the things are missing. People like my mom, who are clueless about a lot of this stuff, just think the iPad is great. Multitasking, Flash, what's that?
- staunch 16y agoThose are truly tame quotes. They could go far stronger and I wouldn't think it's a bad thing. Google should give as hard as it gets. Apple dishes it out very rough, and Google should fire back. These are technical put downs, not personal. And they're honest, not FUD.
- sgentle 16y agoI suppose I should clarify. I like competition, and I think it's great that Google's driving a tank through the ol' walled garden Apple's got going. It's not that their comments are unkind or harsh that gets me, it's that they're weak. Some of the things that have come out of I/O this year have been serious jaw-droppers. Wifi tethering, wireless sync, Flash, speed boosts akimbo, and most of all, this feeling of "everything just works together everywhere" that you don't get with Apple's equivalent. That's the king hit. That's the brown trousers moment. "Hey, Apple, heard of the internet?" just sounds to me like impotent nerdrage. For what it's worth, I think the speech at the start was spot on. ("If we don't act, we face a Draconian future where one man, one company, one device, one carrier would be our future. That's a future that we don't want.")
- bdickason 16y agoWhen Apple takes jabs at MS we applaud. When Google takes jabs at Apple, we boo? I think that Google's identification of a 'competitor' gives them alot of internal momentum. Hate, wether legitimate or good natured, is powerful for an organization.
- cmelbye 16y agoWhen's the last time you can remember them doing that? I think they've moved on. Sure, they make a few jabs here and there, but from what I've heard it was just one slight after another towards Apple following every new product they announced.
- bdickason 16y agoThis is true. I completely agree that the presentation took it from 'good natured fun competition' to 'F* apple.'