Gruber says nobody is arguing that there's a “How dare Google compete with Apple?” sentiment. That Apple merely took the gloves off and started taking the fight

Gruber says nobody is arguing that there's a “How dare Google compete with Apple?” sentiment. That Apple merely took the gloves off and started taking the fight more seriously. But aggrieved sentiment is written all over Steve Jobs's reaction to Android. 'They want to kill the iPhone' -- remember that little gem? How did he know this? Because Android-based products were looking more and more like iPhones. But the reason for the convergent evolution of the two platforms is quite obvious: it's a winning design. It's a ridiculous justification for preemptive retaliation, on par with 'Saddam tried to kill my daddy'. The reason Google decided to get involved in smartphones is the same reason Apple did: the internet. Before the current sheer-slab-of-touchscreen became the recognised form-factor of an internet-friendly phone, we waited years and years for Nokia, SE and Motorola and crucially, the carriers, to give us a device that could freely access the services and content that we knew were all around us. What did we get? Push email. The pressure was building and by 2005 the industry was ripe for disruption. Apple's prestige, combined with the exclusive AT&T deal, was what forced the carriers to abandon their walled-garden ideal and take the internet seriously. The iPhone was an offer they couldn't refuse. Google could not have done that. The problem is that having freed us from the carriers' walled gardens, Apple now wants to take their place. I think Jobs was being just a little disingenuous when he said Google wants to kill the iPhone. What he could have more honestly and accurately said is that Google wants to kill the iPhone OS's chance of achieving a monopoly position. Why do they want that? For the same reason they got into smartphone design: the internet.