Comments on Jobs conference call

In the release of Apple’s 2010 Q4 earning, Jobs gave a long talk about the status of Apple, and this was a big quarter with 20 billion in revenue and 14.1 million iPhone 4’s sold, a record.

He says ‘Eric Schmidt reiterated that they are activating 200,000 Android devices per day, and have around 90,000 apps in their app store. For comparison, Apple has activated around 275,000 iOS devices per day on average for the past 30 days, with a peak of almost 300,000 iOS devices per day on a few of those days.’ So yeah, here is how Jobs has entirely avoided talking about how Android is outselling the iPhone in the US, by only focusing on global numbers. Apple is actually losing the US market, most likely because of the exclusivity on AT&T. The US market is a big deal, with the success Android has in the US and the size and influence of the US tech media, this momentum will quickly move to other countries.

Then he says ‘Google loves to characterize Android as “open,” and iOS and iPhone as “closed”. We find this a bit disingenuous, and clouding the real difference between our two approaches. The first thing most of us think about when we hear the word “open” is Windows, which is available on a variety of devices.’ Wait, who exactly thinks of Windows as being open? It’s a proprietary system built of closed standards that are entirely Microsofts property. Windows is very far from an open platform. But it is more open than iOS, because at least the user has administrator access to the system, and can run any software of their choice without needing all software to be approved signed code. Censorship and control by the manufacturer on Windows is not possible, and neither is it on Android. And this is what people really mean by open, and Steve Jobs does not address this point, at all.

He also says ‘In reality, we think the open versus closed argument is just a smokescreen to try and hide the real issue, which is, “What’s best for the customer – fragmented versus integrated?” We think Android is very, very fragmented, and becoming more fragmented by the day. And as you know, Apple strives for the integrated model so that the user isn’t forced to be the systems integrator.’ This is an excellent point, and it is the main problem with Android. But it is not an issue of open vs closed systems. It would be very easy for Google to create an open source license that forbids carriers and hardware makers from making their own UIs and adding their crapware onto the system. Google decides not to do this because they figure it would discourage uptake of the OS by hardware makers. ‘We see tremendous value at having Apple, rather than our users, be the systems integrator. We think this a huge strength of our approach compared to Google’s: when selling the users who want their devices to just work, we believe that integrated will trump fragmented every time.’ Well actually… it’s Google and the hardware makers on Android that act as system integrators, not the users. Hardware makers figure out how to get the OS working on the device, and users do not see on the Android Market Place apps that are not compatible with their hardware. So they can basically trust apps to just work.

He then goes on to talk about tablets, about how 7″ is inadequate for a good touchscreen UI. ‘While one could increase the resolution of the display to make up some of the difference, it is meaningless unless your tablet also includes sandpaper, so that the user can sand down their fingers to around one-quarter of their present size.’ Bazinga!

Morn’s blog