Steve Jobs drops knowledge on earnings call: calls out Google and RIM, says 7-inch tablets are ‘DOA’

Steve Jobs hit today’s earnings call with the power of words. In a tone that could be described as “righteous anger” or perhaps just “reppin,” Steve launched into a five minute rant that hit hard against RIM’s entire business model, Android sales numbers and software fragmentation, and the impending wave of Android tablets. With the iPhone surpassing RIM, Steve says that he “[doesn't] see them catching up in the foreseeable future.” As for Android sales, Steve takes issues with the market share figures that are currently floating around, saying that 275k iOS devices were activated on average per day last month, compared to Android’s most recent estimate of 250k per day — though he does admit that Android outshipped iPhone in the June quarter, during the “transition” to iPhone 4. That wasn’t Steve’s only problem with Android, he takes major issue with the fragmentation and the onus he believes it puts on the user: “we believe integrated will trump fragmented every time.” Oh, and 7-inch tablets? You’re in for a bag of hurt . Steve pretty much outright killed any potential for 7-inch iPad rumors, saying that the software just isn’t right for that size (“This size is useless unless you include sandpaper so users can sand their fingers down to a quarter of their size.”), and that users have no need for a pocket sized tablet when they already have a smartphone. He called the iPad’s upcoming competition in the space “DOA.” After he calmed down a bit, the call entered a Q&A period, where Steve was happy to point out that the iPad has already surpassed Macintosh in sales, and that it’s going to affect laptop computers: “it’s not if, it’s when.” We’ll get a copy of the audio and put it up as soon as possible… like most CEO outbursts , this is not one to be missed. Hit up our liveblog of the call for a bit more context, and you can try the source link for Apple’s stream of the entire earnings shindig. Steve Jobs drops knowledge on earnings call: calls out Google and RIM, says 7-inch tablets are ‘DOA’ originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 18 Oct 2010 18:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink

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