Jobs joins conference call, declares Android tablets ‘DOA’

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Jobs joins conference call, declares Android tablets ‘DOA’

Making a rare appearance on the company’s Q4 2010 earnings conference call, Apple CEO Steve Jobs made several comments regarding tablet competitors to the iPad that have been announced but have yet to ship. Jobs said that there were only a handful of credible entrants out of the many tablets that have been announced, and keyed on the fact that most of them use 7-inch screens. According to Jobs, these screens offer only 45% of the touchable surface area of the iPad’s 9.7-inch screen — he said to hold the iPad in portrait orientation, draw a line across the middle, and the screen of one of the new tablets would be a little smaller than the bottom half of the iPad’s display. Jobs then half-jokingly suggested that competitors could include sandpaper with the tablets so that users could sand their fingers down to 45% of their current size.

Jobs went on to call 7-inch tablets “tweeners,” saying they were too big to compete against smartphones—something Jobs said every tablet user would likely own—but too small to compete against the iPad. Furthermore, he pointed out that while most of the new tablets are based on Android, Google is telling the companies not to use the current version of the Android software, and to instead wait on a new, tablet-friendly version of the OS set to arrive next year. Jobs also said that their competitors were having trouble matching the iPad’s price point despite using smaller screens, and noted that while there are over 30,000 iPad apps available, most of the new tablets would launch with close to zero. Finally, he declared the new entrants “dead on arrival,” adding that competitors will increase their tablets’ screen size next year after they realize the 7-inch screens are too small, and that the process “sounds like lots of fun.”

« Notes from Apple’s Q4 2010 Conference Call

Apple Q4 2010: 14.1m iPhones, 9m iPods, 4.19m iPads sold »

Comments

1

Ah, finally, the secret to typing on any touch keypad (particularly Apple’s) ... sand your fingers down to 45% of scale!

Posted by BillyBobJack on October 18, 2010 at 2:27 PM (PST)

2

@ #1,

Hey, MS has asked people to knock down their expectations 55% for years - and it’s sold lots of crap!

Posted by sb on October 18, 2010 at 3:52 PM (PST)

3

I use his products (but I’m not necessarily in love with every aspect of them).

That said, Steve loves himself to grating degree. It’s weird, he’s pulled off possibly the biggest comeback in the history of business, and yet he still acts childish.

He’s still the only guy in the world when, upon being informed that one his products didn’t work when being used the same way that every competing product is used, told the complainer “you’re holding it wrong”.

Posted by mwrg on October 18, 2010 at 4:32 PM (PST)

4

I don’t think it’s a matter of being childish. If you listened to Schmidt, Ballmer, the HTC, Acer and Samsung CEOs over the past year talking smack about the iPhone and iPad, I think you’d give Jobs some slack for shoving it back in their face.

Posted by Don Funk on October 18, 2010 at 6:31 PM (PST)

5

Right on mwrg! This sandpaper quote gives “you’re holding it wrong” a run for it’s money in the bonehead quote department. This is from a guy who has, in his product line, a touch screen device small enough to lose with your loose change. If I have to sandpaper my fingers down 45% for a 7-inch screen, I guess I need to just shove my fingers into an automatic pencil sharpener in order to use the new iPod Nano.

Posted by S. Hamlin on October 19, 2010 at 5:25 AM (PST)

6

So he’s using the old “bigger is better” argument? Hmmm… anyway, I seem to remember him predicting the death of netbooks (citing numerous shortcomings) yet there are a slew of products to add keyboards and the like to the iPad. Too funny!

I wouldn’t count on Steve Jobs to predict the weather, much less where the tech industry is heading.

Posted by ajira99 on October 19, 2010 at 8:00 AM (PST)

7

@ 6,
you just gave credence to Job’s prediction. and in fact analysts believe that netbook sales are going to plummet and even notebook sales are going to wain because of both the iPad and the coming tablets

Posted by hydra-calm on October 19, 2010 at 8:50 AM (PST)

8

I love you Apple haters. Your beloved MS is getting their a$$e$ handed to them, and you just can’t take it.
Jobs has always been so laid back - I like a little sparring. If you guys/gals are so thin-skinned, you should just focus on watching TMZ…

Posted by sb on October 19, 2010 at 10:42 AM (PST)

9

I’m not a Microsoft lover or hater, and I’m not an Apple fan-boy. I’m just someone who doesn’t think Steve Jobs is God. He is fallible and eventually “the runner will stumble.”

Posted by billyBobJack on October 20, 2010 at 7:33 AM (PST)

10

These comments from Jobs is to be expected. When his products are declining in market share and the statement that these tabs wont have any apps when released is a false statement. Then Android OS version of these tables will have access to the Android Market with over 100k of apps. The iPad is not that easy to type on anyway so maybe the suggestion of sanding your fingers down might help with that. This whole Jobs statement reminds me of a little kid who gets angry when someone is in his territory…. just say’n

Posted by TheGrimReaper on October 23, 2010 at 3:39 PM (PST)

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