“We’ve now had a chance to see the prototype G1 phone. Google is hoping to carve out its own niche in the cellphone market in much the same way Apple (AAPL) has recently done. Can we expect to see lines outside of T-Mobile stores when the phone goes on sale next month? Highly unlikely. Instead, Google’s gPhone appears headed down the same path of irrelevancy as the Microsoft Zune. According to Walt Mossberg, “The G1 won’t win any beauty contests with its Apple rival. It’s stubby and chunky, nearly 30% thicker and almost 20% heavier that the iPhone,'” Jason Schwarz writes for SeekingAlpha.
“It’s on days like today, when someone comes out with a product like the gPhone that we remember just how dominant Apple has become. Aren’t new product releases supposed to be better than the existing ones? Apple competitors are shamefully years behind and it’s all because of one man, Jonathan Ive,” Schwarz writes.
“Senior VP of Industrial Design, Jonathan Ive, is the most important man in the tech world. He is more important to Apple than Steve Jobs,” Schwarz writes.
MacDailyNews Take: Whoa there, Nellie!
Schwartz continues, “Jonathan Ive should be the next CEO of Apple.”
MacDailyNews Take: Well, our own SteveJack said as much… over five years ago!
Schwartz continues, “Apple’s software is good, their end to end user experience is great, but the look and feel of their products is what set’s [sic] them apart.”
MacDailyNews Take: Well, okay, so Schwartz doesn’t get it. It’s still a fun read.
Full article here.
Nothing much to say other than the takes are funny.
I’ve fielded several calls from clients asking about the Google phone and how it affects Google’s relationship with Apple. My remark has been and will continue to be that Google bit off more than it can chew and that Apple is frankly unconcerned with what Google is doing.
As long as they don’t replace Steve with a accountant or a sales/marketing guy like Ballmdr.
He had something good going until he said Ive was more important that Jobs. And even if he were (*gasp*, don’t kill me!), making him the CEO would be the worst mistake Apple could make. Hide him as much as you can within Apple, and make him churn out the awesome products. That’s what he’s good at. Not being a CEO.
The Android-Zune comparison is true though!
I wish I could find the quote, but His Steve-ness recently spoke of the design process saying it wasn’t as simple as it seemed. He mentioned that it involved saying no to a lot of potentially good things, and saying yes to the right one. The iPhone didn’t take on its final form until “scarily close” to the release date.
The point is, Ive is a masterful designer, but don’t misunderestimate Steve’s role in what Apple’s products look like.
Ouch! Insulting Google using the know very low opinion of Microsoft and their pathetic Zune!
So, Apple sets the high standard or the high bar. Microsoft set the low bar.
Apple is Steve Jobs and visa versa. No one will ever be able to replace him. Yet, someday somebody will. When that happens Apple will start to become something other than what it is now. That is the nature of life. Everything eventually passes away and new things arise to take their place.
I do not think a leader strong enough to replace Steve Jobs could coexist with him at Apple today. That person will have to arrive later. Hopefully, it will be a very long time from now.
The iPhone is a Steve Jobs invention (and it is patented that way), not Jonathan’s. Steve is the genius behind all the success of Apple because he knows what people needs before they know they need it (I copied that from the MacHeads trailer, but it is true).
Steve Jobs is a genius because he knows how to move the pieces, he knows who to hire and who to fire, he knows what to upgrade and what to take out of the market. He says when a product is acceptable and when it is not. Apple’s success is not about design, it is about strategy.
Jonathan Ive’s strength is industrial design. If he wanted to be CEO he would’ve stayed at his consultancy, Tangerine, years ago. Let Ive do what he’s best at and leave him be.
all these devices that compare themselves to the iPhone just keep promoting the brand..G1, G2, G2 whats next? besides everything else they are doing right, Apple is smart enough to keep the iPhone brand consistent.
…and Microsoft is dumb enough to keep the Zune brand consistent.
“but the look and feel of their products is what set’s [sic] them apart.”
How do these grammatically challenged writers ever get a job? And, where in the world is his editor?!?
“Jonathan Ive should be the next CEO of Apple.”
But isn’t he just an old Cupertino insider with no executive experience?!?
TOO LATE TO THE PARTY GOOGLE!!
In other news, APPLE to start their own online ad business.
@Viktor
“He says when a product is acceptable and when it is not.”
Yes, but Steve Ballmer does exactly the same, he says when a product is faulty enough to lock people on to maintenance contracts. If a products looks too good, Steve Ballmer rejects those products until it is faulty enough.
Of course, this is a joke; Microsoft can’t do “too good” products, but the rest is true…
I can see the M$ and Google phone in the future. You’ll Aunt Mary in Redmond and the phone will display every coffee shop within 10 miles.
The lines outside T-Mobile stores must be 10 times as long as the ones during the first few days of the iPhone introductions for the G1 phone to make a difference for Google. Google is not making any money on the OS. And to have a significant impact due to advertising barrage at users, they need hundreds of millions of them out there.
This whole G-phone business is really a strategy to prevent Microsoft from encroaching on Google’s ad market, by not leaving the mobile phone search and ad business exclusively for Microsoft.
Google does not expect to sell hundreds of millions of phones in the next couple of years. All they want to do is to push Microsoft’s Mobile OS to the same graveyard the Zune is resting in peace.
Rubbish, as much as I adore Ive’s work on the iPhone and other apple products, it’s quite obvious that the software drives the design on the iphone, turn the phone off and it’s just a simple shell, with minimal buttons etc, why? Because the software negates the need for them. The real beauty is when you switch the thing on, period.
As for the gphone…a resounding and chucklesome “meh”.
MacDailyNews Take: Whoa there, Nellie!
roflmao. (thanks, i needed that.)
As a shareholder, I vote for Bertrand Serlet.
Al Gore should take over Apple. I’m drunk again.
And the G1 comes in brown, too! No kidding.
@ realitycheck
Glad someone is thinking more than 1 move down the chess board.
I continue to be extremely concerned that Apple doesn’t have “Selected Partners” that can license the software and bring out different form factors. – Note every Tom Dick and Harry like M$, but one or two other large hardware makers could make it a very much more interesting and accelerate the switch to Apple OS’s.
There are VERY VERY large well financed competitors out there colluding (content + Software+Hardware companies) absolutely determined not to let Apple achieve dominance. C’Mon Apple, line up some of your own partners and lets kick some A$$.
“…and developers start making use of the open-source software and freedom to develop applications of their choice…”
Good point; but does Google have a one-button App store to distribute all this disparate development? The iTunes Store & App Store are the cornerstones of Apple’s current mobile-space success. Until someone can build something comparable to Apple’s software/content distribution model, they gettin’ nowhere.