Apple CEO Tim Cook Trash Talks Android

By Marcus Yam
published

Tim Cook says that buying an outdated Android phone is like running iOS 3.

Apple CEO Tim Cook gave critical words about Android in an interview with BusinessWeek. Despite Android now being more popular than iOS, Cooks says he's not just looking at the raw numbers: "when you look at things like customer satisfaction and usage, you see the gap between Android and iOS being huge."

If one were to look at numbers, however, NetMarketShare attributes nearly 55 percent of all mobile traffic to iOS, while Android only made up 28 percent. Tim Cook looks at that stat to suggest that even though there are more Android devices sold, people are using their iPhones and iPads more often.

"Does a unit of market share matter if it’s not being used?" Cook questioned. "For us, it matters that people use our products. We really want to enrich people’s lives, and you can’t enrich somebody’s life if the product is in the drawer."

Cook is also points out that problem with Android fragmentation, saying that a consumer can walk into a phone store to find many different versions of the OS, some of which are outdated. "And so by the time they exit, they’re using an operating system that’s three or four years old. That would be like me right now having in my pocket iOS 3. I can’t imagine it."

Of course, it's part of Tim Cook's job to beat his chest to his competitors, but Android is still growing rapidly. Nokia was once the undisputed leader in smartphones, and it too was eventually unseated. All it would take to extend Android's lead even further is for a Chinese phone maker like Xiaomi to have a modest hit in its home country.

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Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam served as Tom's Hardware News Director during 2008-2014. He entered tech media in the late 90s and fondly remembers the days when an overclocked Celeron 300A and Voodoo2 SLI comprised a gaming rig with the ultimate street cred.
59 Comments Comment from the forums
  • legacyBIOS
    I see this more as a statement than trash talking. Then again, some people are uber fanboys and get offended so easily.
    Reply
  • merikafyeah
    For the end user, fragmentation actually doesn't come up as a problem very often. Most apps are quickly updated for all but the most ancient Android versions. What is a problem though is being able to update the OS yourself when a new version comes out. Most carriers/phones don't allow that. Still, likening running a slightly older version of Android to running iOS 3 is a bit of an exaggeration. Even older Android versions are still very functional for nearly all smartphone needs.
    Reply
  • fyend
    When your own product has nothing to write home about bash the competition I guess.
    Reply
  • JD88
    As per usual, when someone or a company doesn't have anything positive to report about itself or its own products, it resorts to trying to tear down someone else. Same with Microsoft lately.

    When was the last time you heard Larry Page say something negative about the products of a competitor?
    Reply
  • xroe
    I find it funny that the old coot can still talk with a straight face considering all of their so called "innovation" here lately has just one gimmick after another, Gimmicks that were already available on the android platform. He bashes a bulk of android devices because they are made of plastic then has the audacity to claim he has perfected plastic like it hasn't been available since the 50's thanks to DuPont. But the worst part is that he still wants to claim that the Android operating system is the knockoff when development was started in 2003 (not by Google but what isn't started by a small party and bought by a bigger one these days) and nearly if not all modern features of the smartphone made since Android's debut have made their own debut on the Android platform. Keep trying to keep that sinking ship above water Cook, just know that consumers are not as dumb as you would hope and they are starting to wake up and take a look at the options around them.
    Reply
  • ddpruitt
    nearly 55 percent of all mobile traffic to iOS, while Android only made up 28 percent

    I don't think Tim knows what's being measure or why an iOS device will almost always a lot more data traffic than an Android device.

    If I didn't know any better I would think that Tim Cook works for the GOP the way he blinds himself by skewing numbers :)
    Reply
  • xroe
    11565305 said:
    As per usual, when someone or a company doesn't have anything positive to report about itself or its own products, it resorts to trying to tear down someone else. Same with Microsoft lately.

    When was the last time you heard Larry Page say something negative about the products of a competitor?

    I think he made a Bing joke back in 2009, other then that though never. I guess the guys at Google are far to busy doing real innovative work to worry about it.
    Reply
  • JD88
    11565332 said:
    I find it funny that the old coot can still talk with a straight face considering all of their so called "innovation" here lately has just one gimmick after another, Gimmicks that were already available on the android platform. He bashes a bulk of android devices because they are made of plastic then has the audacity to claim he has perfected plastic like it hasn't been available since the 50's thanks to DuPont. But the worst part is that he still wants to claim that the Android operating system is the knockoff when development was started in 2003 (not by Google but what isn't started by a small party and bought by a bigger one these days) and nearly if not all modern features of the smartphone made since Android's debut have made their own debut on the Android platform. Keep trying to keep that sinking ship above water Cook, just know that consumers are not as dumb as you would hope and they are starting to wake up and take a look at the options around them.

    Don't be surprised. Apple, like Microsoft has become a largely "market reactive" company. What this means is that they wait to see what new ideas are successful and then adjust their product line accordingly. This translates into a device cycle that is typically about 6 months behind the competition. Apple in the past directed this cycle, but now it's actually one of the slower companies to react. Companies that fall into this trend typically lose market share. Apple's brand image is propping them up, but that can only last so long. This is exactly what happened with Nokia so it's funny that Tim mentioned that.

    Samsung used to be this way when they copied some of Apple's work early on. Now they (along with Google and others) are the innovators. The Galaxy note is a good example of this. Samsung makes a product and creates a market for it (in this case the phablet market) and everyone else copies. Now there are rumors of Apple doing the same.
    Reply
  • JD88
    11565350 said:
    11565305 said:
    As per usual, when someone or a company doesn't have anything positive to report about itself or its own products, it resorts to trying to tear down someone else. Same with Microsoft lately.

    When was the last time you heard Larry Page say something negative about the products of a competitor?

    I think he made a Bing joke back in 2009, other then that though never. I guess the guys at Google are far to busy doing real innovative work to worry about it.

    Who hasn't made a bing joke? LOL
    Reply
  • chimera201
    "If one were to look at numbers, however, NetMarketShare attributes nearly 55 percent of all mobile traffic to iOS, while Android only made up 28 percent."
    Does that mobile traffic include net traffic or are the stats only for America? Because if it does then a lot of people living in developing countries that owns an Android phone(Android phones are cheaper than iPhones in developing countries) wont contribute to this traffic stat because they have poor internet.

    "We really want to enrich people’s lives"
    Enrich the rich(and dumb). Good luck.
    Reply