
’I'm Going to Destroy Android, Because It's a Stolen Product' - shawndumas
http://daringfireball.net/linked/2011/10/21/jobs-android
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joejohnson
Gruber adds nothing to the discussion.

Previously discussed here: <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3137723>

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joebadmo
Steve Jobs: "Picasso had a saying, 'Good artists copy, great artists steal.'
We have always been shameless about stealing great ideas."

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CW0DUg63lqU>

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enyalius
Exactly. This is the man who stole the mouse (and the UI?) from Xerox 20+
years ago. Boo hoo.

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TomOfTTB
Here's the thing. Apple took the desktop metaphors and input technology from
PARC. But it then made its own interface. The Xerox PARC machines don't look
like a Macintosh. I don't think you can compare that to what Google did with
Android.

Android basically stole the iPhone interface in its entirety. Right down to
the screen resolution and icon placement (bottom of the screen on each app).

In fact, to put an even finer point on it, Google scrapped its version of
Android (see here: [http://techcrunch.com/2007/12/17/android-prototype-lets-
hope...](http://techcrunch.com/2007/12/17/android-prototype-lets-hope-looks-
can-be-deceiving/)) and went to work on a full on copy of the iPhone.

I'm glad Android's out there to provide competition. But there's no doubt
Android's theft of the iPhone interface is more brazen than any other example
I can think of.

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ryandvm
Google should be ashamed at such shameless copying.

By the way, I really like the new iOS 5 notifications and Find My Friends. So
original!

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ChuckMcM
[a copy of the comment I made on the ars submission]

This just popped up on ars, and it provides a plausible explanation for
something that had been bugging me. Why patent-a-geddon?

I mean seriously, Patents, and patent battles, have happened for decades and
they have generally all followed the same pattern, A sues B, B countersues A,
one or more trials get to the point where folks can see how they are going to
go, and then that determines the settlement. Apple->Xerox, Kodak/HP,
IBM/Memorex, Intel/AMD, SGI/Sun, SGI/Microsoft, Microsoft/Sun, Etc etc.

But with Apple suing HTC and all of the other Android makers, to the point of
injunctions and pulling products off shelves and disrupting commerce, have
gone past the 'ok how much to settle?' phase. They have become vindictive.

And that, for me at least, was confusing. Since generally its just business
and once you've normalized the business aspects of things you can proceed. So
why continue this war?

According to Ars, in the upcoming biography, Steve felt so intensely
personally affronted by Android that he would only be satisfied if Android
ceased to exist. Given his conviction, and war chest, that would explain a lot
about the durability (or longevity) of the current patent litigation.

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hsmyers
For a guy (Jobs) who stood on the shoulders of a lot of people, I find this
quote of an obvious rant indicative of some serious misunderstandings. BTW, he
didn't steal the mouse from Xerox, he stole it from SRI down the street...

