During WWDC 2014, Apple’s CEO Tim Cook did not hold back when he took jabs at competing smartphone platforms, like Android. For example he referred to Android as a “toxic hell stew of vulnerabilities”. Now with Google I/O kicking off tomorrow, we have to wonder if Google has anything to say about that.
Well maybe they already have. Speaking to Bloomberg, Google’s head of Android, Sundar Pichai, made some comments about Apple that felt more like a compliment rather than an insult. Perhaps he’s saving the good stuff for tomorrow, but during the interview he basically called Apple’s iOS a $100,000 Mercedes car.
While it does sound like a compliment, it does seem like a backhanded compliment at the same time. “You have to be careful when you make a $100,000 Mercedes car not to look at the rest of automotive industry and make comments on it. … We serve the entire breadth of the market, globally across all form factors, et cetera.”
He goes on to compliment Apple and claims that they are making a great product, but at the same time believes Google will still win the long-run. “I think of it almost … like two types of government. Some [forms of] governments will be able to do things faster because they are opinionated and get things done. Than you can have a noisy, cacophonous, cantankerous democracy, which is often better in the long run. So you have two different worldviews being presented.”
Interesting comments by Pichai, but what do you guys think? Do you agree with his assessment of Apple, and that Google might just prevail in the long-run?