“I’m going to destroy Android, because it’s a stolen product,” Jobs told Isaacson. “I’m willing to go thermonuclear war on this.”
“Our lawsuit is saying ‘Google, you f---ing ripped off the iPhone, wholesale ripped us off.’” He also said he was willing to spend “every penny of Apple’s” then-$40 billion in cash to “right this wrong,” and he vowed to “destroy Android, because it’s a stolen product.”
My parents asked me, "Do you think it's true?" My response was yes and no.
Yes, Android implemented some ideas from iPhone.
No, it's not a big deal and the issue is overblown.
There is a great quote I heard along time ago. I can't find it despite my Googling efforts, but it goes something like this:
"The vast majority of research and development is continual iteration and improvement on previous designs. There is very little innovation."
Was Apple Macintosh the first GUI based OS/computer? Nope. Multiple designs were done prior. In fact, there is evidence that Apple modeled Macintosh off of a previous Xerox computer.
Was iPod the first portable digital music player? Nope, there were tons before that played MP3s.
Was iPhone the first technology with a multitouch interface? Nope. It'd been done for years.
In my opinion, this is just what happens in the world of technology. Various companies "borrow" ideas from their competitors and they iterate and improve on them.
When did Facebook support newsfeeds? After Twitter became popular.
When did Google support +1 support? After Digg became popular.
When did Apple support multitasking in iOS? After Android released support for it.
We could go on and on ... This type of iteration has gone on forever. In my opinion, it's somewhat silly to suggest that Google "stole" from Apple, but Apple never stole from others.
To end, I'm reminded of this semi-famous scene in Pirates of Silicon Valley.
While this scene is fiction, I think the analogy is right on.
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