Netgear CEO rails on Apple's Steve Jobs, praises Android
Netgear chairman and CEO Patrick Lo went on a rant Monday against Apple and its CEO Steve Jobs, criticizing Jobs' "ego" and Apple's "closed" business model.
During a lunch in Sydney, Australia, Lo called out Apple as destined to fail because of its closed platform, The Sydney Morning Herald reports.
"Ultimately a closed system just can't go that far," Lo said. "If they continue to close it and let Android continue to creep up then it's pretty difficult as I see it."
Citing several examples, such as the Betamax vs. VHS video format war and Mac vs. Windows, Lo argued that open platforms have repeatedly won out over closed ecosystems.
"Eventually they've got to find a way to open up iTunes without giving too much away on their revenue generation model," said the CEO.
According to Lo, the iTunes distribution model amounts to Jobs effectively extorting content providers such as the movie studios by charging a "ransom" for content. "Steve Jobs wants to suffocate the distribution so even though he doesn't own the content he could basically demand a ransom," he said.
Lo also blamed last year's heated war of words between Adobe and Apple on Steve Jobs' ego. "What's the reason for him to trash Flash? There's no reason other than ego," Lo remarked.
When asked if he had communicated his concerns to Jobs, Lo replied: "Steve Jobs doesn't give me a minute!"
Not all of Lo's criticisms were directed at Apple, though. When asked how Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 will fare against Android and the iPhone, he said, "Microsoft is over - game over - from my point of view."
Lo's comments about Jobs could provoke a controversy, as they may be perceived as a 'low blow,' given that Jobs is currently on medical leave for unspecified medical issues. Apple announced earlier in January that Jobs will take a second leave of absence, with Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook again standing in for him.
For instance, it is unclear what Lo means when he says that Jobs will "go away" in the not too distant future. "Once Steve Jobs goes away, which is probably not far away, then Apple will have to make a strategic decision on whether to open up the platform," Lo said on Monday.
Lo's comments could also be seen as non sequitur because his company, which sells mostly networking equipment, does not directly compete with Apple.
During a lunch in Sydney, Australia, Lo called out Apple as destined to fail because of its closed platform, The Sydney Morning Herald reports.
"Ultimately a closed system just can't go that far," Lo said. "If they continue to close it and let Android continue to creep up then it's pretty difficult as I see it."
Citing several examples, such as the Betamax vs. VHS video format war and Mac vs. Windows, Lo argued that open platforms have repeatedly won out over closed ecosystems.
"Eventually they've got to find a way to open up iTunes without giving too much away on their revenue generation model," said the CEO.
According to Lo, the iTunes distribution model amounts to Jobs effectively extorting content providers such as the movie studios by charging a "ransom" for content. "Steve Jobs wants to suffocate the distribution so even though he doesn't own the content he could basically demand a ransom," he said.
Lo also blamed last year's heated war of words between Adobe and Apple on Steve Jobs' ego. "What's the reason for him to trash Flash? There's no reason other than ego," Lo remarked.
When asked if he had communicated his concerns to Jobs, Lo replied: "Steve Jobs doesn't give me a minute!"
Not all of Lo's criticisms were directed at Apple, though. When asked how Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 will fare against Android and the iPhone, he said, "Microsoft is over - game over - from my point of view."
Lo's comments about Jobs could provoke a controversy, as they may be perceived as a 'low blow,' given that Jobs is currently on medical leave for unspecified medical issues. Apple announced earlier in January that Jobs will take a second leave of absence, with Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook again standing in for him.
For instance, it is unclear what Lo means when he says that Jobs will "go away" in the not too distant future. "Once Steve Jobs goes away, which is probably not far away, then Apple will have to make a strategic decision on whether to open up the platform," Lo said on Monday.
Lo's comments could also be seen as non sequitur because his company, which sells mostly networking equipment, does not directly compete with Apple.
Comments
Everyone knows Jobs has an ego the size of a planet. Given the success of Apple in the last 10 years, as either an Apple consumer or shareholder, you'd have to be pleased. This is needless bleating by someone no one even knows.
"Steve Jobs doesn't give me a minute!"
[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]
I think that says it all right there: both Lo's motivation, and what Lo's opinion on this stuff is worth.
I absolutely love my vertically integrated MacBook Pro and I'm pretty sure it wouldn't be the same machine if it were made by Michael Dell and HIS ego.
So... Apple makes a ton of profit on a product people absolutely love.
What's the problem here again Netgear? Got some Cisco envy?
I had a Netgear router once. It looked like a children's bath toy and never worked properly with my Macs.
Everyone knows Jobs has an ego the size of a planet. Given the success of Apple in the last 10 years, as either an Apple consumer or shareholder, you'd have to be pleased. This is needless bleating by someone no one even knows.
Funny you mention that, since like apple netgear is proud to let you know on the bottom of their products that they were "Designed in California - Made in China"
Closed doesn't matter to those 25+ million people this past quarter either. But allowing people to finally change the background didn't hurt
I laughed when I picked up their wireless routers vs the AirPort Extreme Base Station. Junk versus quality is no wonder he's whining.
He's complaining his company can't be a key player in helping route all that content.
Netgear makes junk and is pissed at Apple?
I laughed when I picked up their wireless routers vs the AirPort Extreme Base Station. Junk versus quality is no wonder he's whining.
He's complaining his company can't be a key player in helping route all that content.
I wouldn't get a netgear either but don't forget what happened to all those time machines from 2 years ago apple made either.
"Ultimately a closed system just can't go that far," Lo said. "If they continue to close it and let Android continue to creep up then it's pretty difficult as I see it."
He's spot on. We all know how successful Linux has been, don't we?
"Steve Jobs wants to suffocate the distribution so even though he doesn't own the content he could basically demand a ransom," he said.
As it now stands, clause 11.2 of the app store guidelines do exactly that. And Apple have less than a year to fix it, or all content distributors will move from the iPad to Android. And no longer produce for the iPad.
Its that serious. Lets see what they do on Wednesday.
Can someone who works in tech journalism please take the time to point out to these bozos that vertically integrated does not mean closed and that that "openness" (Especially openness for openness's sake) is, at best, a nebulous concept which has no demonstrable real-world advantages? I'm particularly keen for Google to get called out for this crap, but apparently NetGear need a talking to as well.
Steve Jobs said at All things digital conference D8 that Open v Closed is a smokescreen, the real issue is integrated v fragmented.
Lo also blamed last year's heated war of words between Adobe and Apple on Steve Jobs' ego. "What's the reason for him to trash Flash? There's no reason other than ego," Lo remarked.
This dude has obviously never noticed what happens to the CPUs on his computer when Flash starts playing. The reason has nothing to do with ego and everything to do with performance of Apple products lashed to Adobe's lack of progress in making Flash a good performer on Mac Products.
I suspect a different person's ego is at play here.
I wouldn't get a netgear either but don't forget what happened to all those time machines from 2 years ago apple made either.
Hey, Apple at least has a repair extension program for those.
I've a closet-ful of dead Linksys and Netgear routers that crapped out after a year or two of time. Meanwhile, in the last 6 months, I just retired the last of the silver UFO AirPort Base Stations, in use at end-users' homes...
As for 'open' always triumphing over 'closed' (I hate these terms for the record), it's not always the case (Sony Blu Ray, Adobe Flash). Crucially, Apple's system is only 'closed' for hardware manufacturers wanting to make use of their software and ecosystem, it's very open indeed for developers, albeit with some caveats some are not comfortable with.
Steve Jobs hates Flash because it's awful. It is the epitome of what Apple has been so successful as the antibody of; corporate tick-box software that doesn't do its job as well as it could, but because it can be bought off the peg companies just use it rather than innovating or developing bespoke, more effective solutions. Flash DOES hang my 2010 MbP, it burns my battery life for fun and since they added GPU hardware acceleration in the Mac version, it performs appallingly on integrated hardware. I have to disable Automatic Graphics Switching to watch HD iPlayer and I get blank screens for several seconds when I go full screen in Flash videos (I have to hit escape and go full screen again and it all works fine because the discrete GPU has been told to kick in finally). To top it all off, as we all know, there is no valid Flash client for a mobile device, and that's not down to Steve Jobs' ego.
Time and again we see rival hardware manufacturers knocking Apple. Why? Because they are all in Apple's shadow when it comes to design quality and current success. I wish they'd all stop bemoaning Apple's success and start looking at why Apple is currently storming ahead. Stop making plastic laptops and ugly black PC towers, stop releasing poorly-conceived, clunky smartphones (also plastic), start investing the money Apple invests in R&D and actually bring something to the game rather than outsourcing every part of your product. Apple is hated because it doesn't need to kowtow to anyone else, and that drives its competitors crazy.
What he says about Microsoft being game over seems very cut and dry. I agree that Microsoft is in a true crisis when looking at the bigger picture, but to call it game over for them is premature to say the least.
I doubt his comments about Steve Jobs leaving the industry are as sinister as they might appear in the circumstances. Sooner or later Jobs will retire or reduce his input, and his poor health would suggest that might not be decades away. It's a fair point to make that he will leave a huge hole. That said, my impression is that Apple has hired some serious talent over the last few years and just as importantly, it's developed a company ethos that I think will help when the time does come for Apple to stand on its own two feet without its talisman.
It has to be said, railing against Apple and writing off Microsoft isn't the smartest move when you make hardware.
What is 'closed'? Apple's platform or his mind? Crazy stuff from someone who hasn't yet learnt that customers ultimately determine whether a product succeeds or not - not CEO's or techos who want to reinvent the wheel a thousand times and expect their customers to thank them for making their lives far more complicated than they need to be.
Content also matters. Apple is holding content holders to ransom. Thats the case.
What's the reason for him to trash Flash?
My battery life improved dramatically after installing click2flash. Seems like reason enough to trash flash.