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Wasn't Steve Job's comment driven by his belief that Eric Schmidt used his insider knowledge of the iPhone project to inform the direction of the Android team?
by rbarooah 15y ago
Wasn't Steve Job's comment driven by his belief that Eric Schmidt used his insider knowledge of the iPhone project to inform the direction of the Android team?
It seems to me that he wasn't calling it stolen because it was a similar product - other comments of his indicate that he was was well aware that the technology would be cloned.
He was calling it stolen because he felt the time-to-market advantage had been stolen by an insider who breached his trust. I think this is what drove his animosity.
Android is obviously deeply influenced by the iPhone. The iPhone is obviously influenced by a whole load of other products (though not to quite the same extent).
What makes it 'stealing' is whether the influence was underhand or not.
We don't know whether Eric Schmidt did use inside information in breach of trust, but if he did then Jobs' position seems a lot more supportable.