Google’s Larry Page: Steve Jobs’ fury over Android was ‘for show’

12 years ago

“On April 3, Google co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Larry Page sat down with Bloomberg Businessweek to discuss his first year at the helm of the technology giant, his plans for the future, and the company’s relationships with its competitors.,” Brad Stone reports.

An excerpt:

People have been critical of your values of late. As in: As Google tries to compete with Facebook or Apple, is it sacrificing the contract they established with users 15 years ago?

I would—obviously—say no. Producing the best thing we possibly can for users is our paramount thing. I think we have demonstrated that over a very long period of time with a whole variety of different issues we’ve faced around the world. We would love to have better access to data that’s out there. We find it frustrating that we don’t. It’s the tendency of the Internet to move into a well-guarded state.

According to the Steve Jobs biography by Walter Isaacson, when you became CEO you went to Jobs for advice. I know you had your differences at the end around Android, but what did you take from him as a mentor and a friend?

I think the Android differences were actually for show. I had a relationship with Steve. I wouldn’t say I spent a lot of time with him over the years, but I saw him periodically…

Wait, the fury around Android was for show?

I think that served their interests. For a lot of companies, it’s useful for them to feel like they have an obvious competitor and to rally around that. I personally believe that it’s better to shoot higher. You don’t want to be looking at your competitors. You want to be looking at what’s possible and how to make the world better.

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: You know, because Steve Jobs was more interested in constructing paper tigers than in shooting higher, looking at what’s possible, and making the world better.

We’re not sure exactly how stupid the “genius” Larry Page thinks the rest of us are, but it would have to fall somewhere between Steve Ballmer and a squirrel.

You can listen to Larry Page, who’s frustrated that Google doesn’t have “better access to data that’s out there,” or you can listen to Steve Jobs, for whom producing the best things he possibly could for users truly was his paramount goal as evidenced by, oh, you know, a succession of revolutionary products spanning decades:

I’m going to destroy Android, because it’s a stolen product. I’m willing to go thermonuclear war on this. – Steve Jobs

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Dan K.” for the heads up.]