Google's Andy Rubin, TweetDeck CEO respond to Steve Jobs' Android slam

October 19, 2010 10:46 AM
Devindra Hardawar
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Apple CEO Steve Jobs didn’t hold back on his Android criticisms during the company’s fourth quarter earning call yesterday, and now defenders of Google’s mobile platform are retaliating.

Google’s Android chief Andy Rubin tweeted the following after Jobs’ tear about Android not actually being open:

the definition of open: “mkdir android ; cd android ; repo init -u git://android.git.kernel.org/platform/manifest.git ; repo sync ; make”

The tweet refers to the commands you would use to build your own copy of Android on any Linux machine. Rubin is basically shouting to Jobs: “Is that open enough for ya?” Google CEO Eric Schmidt went on to retweet Rubin’s message.

Jobs also pointed out that the Android version of the Twitter client TweetDeck had to compensate for “more than 100 different versions of Android.” He was referring to a chart TweetDeck constructed to show the variety of Android’s handsets. But it seems like TweetDeck didn’t actually have as much trouble as Jobs figured, as the company’s CEO Iain Dodsworth tweeted:

Did we at any point say it was a nightmare developing on Android? Errr nope, no we didn’t. It wasn’t.

Dodsworth went on to say that “we only have 2 guys developing on Android TweetDeck, so that shows how small an issue fragmentation is.”

Jobs was noticeably worked up when he started ranting about his mobile competitors, so it’s not surprising that he completely misread some details. Now let’s wait and see if he actually responds to Rubin and Dodsworth.

via Engadget, TechCrunch – image via Gizmodo

  • joshcaza

    You know, for a long time I was always such a fan of Apple being the little guy fighting the big M$ giants. Now, I kind of feel like Steve Jobs is the tool and is always slamming anything thats a competitor. He makes me kind of want to sell my apple computers, and my iphone4 on ebay and go to Linux / Android simply because he's turned into a first class prick.

  • http://www.devindra.org Devindra Hardawar

    Hah. Honestly I feel like he's always been that way, but now that Apple is on top in many ways, it's getting to be even more obvious.

  • http://www.bigjobsboard.com Steve Jobs

    Steve really knows how to sow intrigue to spice up his own company. For just five minutes of ranting, he made three top executives respond to his rant and made the news instantly. Just in time for Apple TV’s launch.

  • Billish

    Ironically, Mac computer OS's are all built on Unix, so Apple and Android are really siblings.

  • http://twitter.com/KenPascoe Ken Pascoe

    Surely the fact that a small internet software company was able to release an application that's implemented across 100 (different?) operating system releases is a testament to the open nature and universality of Android? Coming from Apple, notorious for lack of backward operating system and hardware compatibility, Jobs' statement is disingenuous to say the least. But not unusual.

  • http://network-wiring.com/the-definition-of-open-acording-to-android-chief-andy-rubin.html The definition of open acording to Android chief Andy Rubin – Network Wiring

    [...] Mobile Beat] Posted in News Tags: Apple, jobs, Rubin, Schmidt, tweetdeck « myTouch 4G video shows [...]

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