Palm CEO, former Apple exec says he's never used an iPhone
In an interview at CES this week, Palm chief executive and former iPod chief Jon Rubinstein said his company doesn't pay much attention to Apple, and noted he has never even used an iPhone.
Rubinstein sat down with BoomTown's Kara Swisher to talk about his company's new lineup of webOS-based handsets due out this year. In the course of the conversation, Apple and its market-leading iPhone unsurprisingly came up.
Rubinstein said that although it sounds "really strange," his company doesn't pay much attention to Apple, and he doesn't worry about the iPhone. To that, Swisher responded: "I don't believe you." Rubinstein then claimed he has never touched an iPhone
"I don't have an iPhone," he said. "I've never even used one."
The Palm executive also spoke about the iTunes sync spat that developed over the course of 2009. Through a back-and-forth battle, Palm repeatedly attempted to circumvent Apple's software to allow its Pre handset to sync with iTunes. Subsequent updates to iTunes broke the capability.
The dispute finally came to an end after the USB Implementers Forum sided with Apple and chastised Palm for violating its policities. The USB-IF said Apple is within its right to limit iTunes syncing to proprietary hardware like the iPhone and iPod.
Though the fight has been dropped, Rubinstein this week said he still believes Apple was in the wrong.
"We don't think what Apple did is good for their customers," he said. "But Apple's going to do what Apple's going to do."
Rubinstein said his company has no plans to create their own syncing app -- something he feels the developer community would be better suited to handle. He also said he doesn't "see the point" of approaching Apple to create a joint solution.
Palm CEO Jon Rubinstein with Kara Swisher of BoomTown. Credit: AllThingsD
On Thursday, Palm announced two new handsets, the Pre Plus and the Pixi Plus, available exclusively for the Verizon network in the U.S. starting Jan. 25. The Pre Plus will offer an application called Palm Mobile Hotspot, which allows up to five devices to tether via Wi-Fi and gain 3G Internet access. The company also plans to add video recording to its existing webOS-based devices, the Palm Pre and the Palm Pixi.
In 2005, Rubinstein retired from Apple. He first began working with Apple co-founder Steve Jobs in 1990, when he joined the company NeXT. Jobs later brought him to Apple as senior vice president of hardware engineering. In his time there, he was instrumental in the creation of the iPod and the original iMac.
Rubinstein sat down with BoomTown's Kara Swisher to talk about his company's new lineup of webOS-based handsets due out this year. In the course of the conversation, Apple and its market-leading iPhone unsurprisingly came up.
Rubinstein said that although it sounds "really strange," his company doesn't pay much attention to Apple, and he doesn't worry about the iPhone. To that, Swisher responded: "I don't believe you." Rubinstein then claimed he has never touched an iPhone
"I don't have an iPhone," he said. "I've never even used one."
The Palm executive also spoke about the iTunes sync spat that developed over the course of 2009. Through a back-and-forth battle, Palm repeatedly attempted to circumvent Apple's software to allow its Pre handset to sync with iTunes. Subsequent updates to iTunes broke the capability.
The dispute finally came to an end after the USB Implementers Forum sided with Apple and chastised Palm for violating its policities. The USB-IF said Apple is within its right to limit iTunes syncing to proprietary hardware like the iPhone and iPod.
Though the fight has been dropped, Rubinstein this week said he still believes Apple was in the wrong.
"We don't think what Apple did is good for their customers," he said. "But Apple's going to do what Apple's going to do."
Rubinstein said his company has no plans to create their own syncing app -- something he feels the developer community would be better suited to handle. He also said he doesn't "see the point" of approaching Apple to create a joint solution.
Palm CEO Jon Rubinstein with Kara Swisher of BoomTown. Credit: AllThingsD
On Thursday, Palm announced two new handsets, the Pre Plus and the Pixi Plus, available exclusively for the Verizon network in the U.S. starting Jan. 25. The Pre Plus will offer an application called Palm Mobile Hotspot, which allows up to five devices to tether via Wi-Fi and gain 3G Internet access. The company also plans to add video recording to its existing webOS-based devices, the Palm Pre and the Palm Pixi.
In 2005, Rubinstein retired from Apple. He first began working with Apple co-founder Steve Jobs in 1990, when he joined the company NeXT. Jobs later brought him to Apple as senior vice president of hardware engineering. In his time there, he was instrumental in the creation of the iPod and the original iMac.
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Jon Rubinstein said his company doesn't pay much attention to Apple, and noted he has never even used an iPhone.
Rubinstein said that although it sounds "really strange," his company doesn't pay much attention to Apple, and he doesn't worry about the iPhone.
The Palm executive also spoke about the iTunes sync spat that developed over the course of 2009. Through a back-and-forth battle, Palm repeatedly attempted to circumvent Apple's software to allow its Pre handset to sync with iTunes.
Bit of a contradiction there if I'm not mistaken.
Jon Rubinstein said his company doesn't pay much attention to Apple, and noted he has never even used an iPhone.
Sheesh. I was considering shorting Palm, that seals it. The CEO of a small player hasn't even used the market leading solution? Is that supposed to give us confidence?
Competitive analysis is key to success. It's one thing to consider yourself a leader and to not feel the need to copy other efforts, but to be willfully ignorant of what's going on in the market? Jesus. These guys are doomed.
"We don't think what Apple did is good for their customers," he said. "But Apple's going to do what Apple's going to do."
[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]
Then why don't you do what's good for YOUR customers and create a solution of your own? Did this guy really work for Apple at one time? Sheesh.
Rubinstein said his company has no plans to create their own syncing app -- something he feels the developer community would be better suited to handle. He also said he doesn't "see the point" of approaching Apple to create a joint solution.
In other words, Rubenstein doesn't see the benefits of going about things the correct way. He doesn't even want to leverage iTunes' plugin system, as RIM does with their new Blackberry Desktop Software, to access iTunes and sync with Mac apps legitimately.
Either Palm's programmers are intensely incompetent or Rubenstein is just looking for headlines. With such low sales of the Pre and Pixi, it might just be the latter.
Bit of a contradiction there if I'm not mistaken.
He says ?not much?, he doesn?t use any absolute like ?not any?, so it can?t be quantified.
That was an arrogant and stupid career move he made. If the CEO of my company would have said that, they would have been fired.
Did anyone really think the CEO of Palm was gonna come and say "Yeah, the iPhone is really great. I love all the features and boy, talk about good design..."
Of course not, but there is a difference between praising your competition and stating that you pay no attention to your competition or their devices. I guess when your entire business is based on stealing from them it?s best to deny everything.
Did anyone really think the CEO of Palm was gonna come and say "Yeah, the iPhone is really great. I love all the features and boy, talk about good design..."
no--but he could say "I've used the iPhone, and while its a good product I think the functionality of the Pre is superior, blah blah. . ."
saying he's never used it just makes him look uninformed--and naive. neither of which is an attractive quality in a CEO.
There are probably dozens of iPhone disassembled at Palm's lab. This man is a damn liar. There is no phone company on the planet earth who has not disassembled an iPhone to see the "magic" inside.
Rubinstein is ashamed to admit that Apple is beating the pants off Palm. Screw him!
his company doesn't pay much attention to Apple, and he doesn't worry about the iPhone.
Maybe he doesn't but I'm sure the software writers for his company do. After all, they made the Pre sync with iTunes...several times after Apple release patches to prevent them from doing it. They used Apple's USB ID, for f*cks sake.
He says “not much”, he doesn’t use any absolute like “not any”, so it can’t be quantified.
Ah solipsism haven't heard from you in awhile how are things in the ansible my friend?
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John who? ohhhhhh John the traitor okay, isn't he the same guy that had the debut with McNamee Last year at D7 and made it known to the public that "APPLE WOULDN'T CARE, ABOUT OUR DEVICE SYNCING WITH iTunes" hmmmmm apple did care... Actually Apple cared enough that now John the traitor says "Developers are better equipped to write a syncing app for palm" ... well john that's pretty hard to do when you have just a handful of developers compared to even windows
*bc = bull crap
Glad I'm not a Palm stockholder.
I wish I bought Palm stock back when they announced the Pre a year ago. Stock jumped over 10x in 5 months. Still on high with 11% increase on Friday. Buy on rumour sell on fact! Looking for my next quick win at CES. I love Vegas!