That seems unlikely if the breakdown in negotiations was as last-minute as others have speculated. Asking someone to implement an open API the night the product

That seems unlikely if the breakdown in negotiations was as last-minute as others have speculated. Asking someone to implement an open API the night the product ships would be a bit extreme. It's possible that Apple had implemented such an API, but cancelled it at the last minute, but I don't think so. If Jobs didn't want an open API, he wouldn't agree to it in the first place. With these two companies, it's hard to say who was in the wrong until we have details on what the sticking point was. It could be privacy, it could be advertising, it could be revenue-sharing, etc.