A funny thing happened on the way to the Apple earnings announcement. Besides smashing their own records in terms of earnings, Steve Jobs called out his competitors in the smartphone market. In particular, Research In Motion. Here’s one thing he said:
Q: You are the tablet market right now. Like RIMM with the smartphone, can you hold onto market share?
A: Jobs: We have a hard time seeing the strategies of our competitors. They’re not matching us in pricing, and lack of Flash doesn’t seem to be causing us difficulties. We’re out to win this one.
Here’s another thing El Jobso said:
Commenting on avalanche of tablets heading to market. Just a handful of credible entrants. Almost all use 7″ screen, compared to iPad at nearly 10″ screen. 7″ screen is only 45% as large as iPad’s screen. Hold an iPad in portrait view and draw a horizontal line halfway down. What’s left is a 7″ screen…too small. There are clear limits to how close elements can be on the screen before users can’t touch accurately. We believe 10-inch screen is minimum necessary.
In case you haven’t kept track, the Playbook tablet that RIM is coming out with has a 7″ screen. If I was Jim Balsille, I’d be just a bit ticked at these comments.
Oh, wait. He is ticked. Here’s what he told the CBC:
But he goes further:
You know, I have to agree with Jimbo. Steve-O’s thoughts may win him raves with the fanbois, but I don’t like being told what to think or what’s good for me. Don’t get me wrong, I like Apple products and own a few of them. But El Jobso really has to stop with trying to broaden the reach of the reality distortion field. It’s really annoying.
UPDATE: El Jobso also called out the Android bunch:
Discussing Google claiming Android is “open”. We find this disingenuous. Android is fragmented.
And:
Amazon, Vodafone, and Verizon have announced creating their own Android app stores. A mess for users and developers. Contrast with Apple’s integrated App Store.
Ouch. I guess he feels threatened or something.