Tim Cook: Competitors Are Still Catching Up To First iPhone
5:54 pm, October 19th, 2009, Leander Kahney
Apple’s COO Tim Cook says competitors are still trying to catch up with the original iPhone, which was launched more than two years ago.
During a conference call discussing today’s Q4 earnings, Cook was asked about competition hotting up for the upcoming holiday season. How will Apple maintain momentum and differentiation?
“We feel very confident,” Cook said. “People are still trying to catch up to the original iPhone, and we’ve long since moved past that.”
Ouch. Take that Google and Palm. And although it wasn’t mentioned by name, the question was clearly referring to the upcoming Droid phone from Verizon and Motorola, which is based on Google’s Android.
Verizon has launched a weird iDon’t advertising campaign that supposedly highlights all the things the iPhone doesn’t do — like run simultaneous apps. But while the Droid is getting early notice for being very thin (even with a slider keyboard), there’s still no sizable library of apps for it to run — and that’s what Cook is referring to.
The iPhone is a true mobile platform, not just a nice piece of standalone hardware. And a platform is something that takes years to build.
Posted by Leander Kahney in Apple, News | Comment on this article
Leander Kahney wrote:
> there’s still no sizable library of apps for it to run — and that’s what Cook
> is referring to.
Oh, please.
Hard to say which is more annoying; Cook issuing that baloney bit of empty
spin rather than a direct response, or you trying to analyze/justify/dignify his
blather as though it were a direct response, implying….what, that you and he
have a mind-meld going?
> a platform is something that takes years to build.
Years? Too true.:
1.5 years for SDK
1.5 years for AppStore
….and, then, it was mainly mainly produced as their response to the rampant
success of ‘black market’ apps., allowing Apple to monetize the work of those
independent devs while also cementing users into an unnatural dependence
on iTunes.
And let’s not forget…
2+ years for anything like decent phone performance/radio reception
2+ years for ‘cut-and-paste’
2+ years for MMS
2+ years for tethering…oh, wait. maybe I’ve jumped the gun on that one.
…during which the only answer has been ‘Hey, just jailbreak your phone!’
Yep, Leander. When you’re right, you’re right.
Fact is, Cook’s remark shows that Apple have been caught a little flatfooted,
with no good response to Android, except to stand pat. Maybe that’s going
to work; maybe it won’t. Guess we’ll all find out, sooner rather than later.
Justa Notherguy, on October 19th, 2009 at 11:33 pm
I am ashamed to be an Apple lover when I read articles like this. Pretty humorous to read works by authors who don’t bother to do any research before reaching for the keyboard to spew outdated and out-of-touch facts. Android now has a marketplace with 10,000+ apps already, and with the newly released C\C++ SDK’s for the platform, more big name developers are developing for Android. Competition drives innovation my friend. If iPhone wins the war, great! If Android wins the war, great! Either way were going to end up with a phenomenal device.
Blake, on October 21st, 2009 at 4:18 am