DailyTech - Netgear CEO Trashes Steve Jobs, Predicts WP7's Demise

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Gadgets Netgear CEO Trashes Steve Jobs, Predicts WP7's Demise
Mark Kurlyandchik - January 31, 2011 7:28 AM

35 comment(s) - last by rs2.. on Feb 1 at 3:07 AM

Netgear Chairman and CEO Patrick Lo. (Source: Flickr.com/Jeremy Toeman)

Says Apple will eventually lose out to the more open Android

Netgear Chairman and CEO Patrick Lo has never been a shy guy, as evidenced most recently by his "scathing attack" on Apple CEO Steve Jobs in an interview with The Sydney Morning Herald.

"Steve Jobs wants to suffocate the distribution so even though he doesn't own the content he could basically demand a ransom," Lo told The Herald, referring to the closed delivery model of iTunes.

This was just one specific criticism from a broad discussion of closed and proprietary products vs. open ecosystems like Google's Android. Lo said that Apple has succeeded so far because they "own the market" of many of their products, like the iPod with MP3 players. However, Lo predicted that, like Betamax vs. VHS and Mac vs. Windows, the open platform -- again referring to Android -- would win in the long run.

"Once Steve Jobs goes away, which is probably not far away, then Apple will have to make a strategic decision on whether to open up the platform," Lo told The Herald. "Ultimately a closed system just can't go that far ... If they continue to close it and let Android continue to creep up then it's pretty difficult as I see it."

Lo predicted that Android would eventually become the standard for a range of consumer electronic devices, pointing to its recent overtaking of Apple in global market share as evidence.

He also attributed Jobs' trashing of Adobe Flash as nothing more than an issue of ego.

As for Windows Phone 7, Lo said that Microsoft had fallen behind its competitors and would continue to languish there. "Microsoft is over - game over - from my point of view," he told The Herald.

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RE: This coming from a guy.....

By Targon on 1/31/2011 9:37:15 AM , Rating: 2

You obviously have never used a D-link product, or you wouldn't be that harsh about Netgear!

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RE: This coming from a guy.....

By Aikouka on 1/31/2011 11:14:56 AM , Rating: 2

I've actually had rather good luck with D-Link products over the years. I bought a D-Link DGL4300 back in September of '07 and it's still working just fine today. It was one of the few decent routers back then with gigabit wired networking, which is what I wanted. I didn't have much experience with D-Link at that point, but given my previous experiences with Linksys and Netgear products, I'm fairly sold on D-Link.

Although, routers are finicky beasts of burden, and I try to keep an open mind on them. I also think they're a product that you really can't skimp on or you'll soon realize why the router was only $50 or less :P.

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RE: This coming from a guy.....

By Hieyeck on 1/31/2011 1:20:52 PM , Rating: 2

No. Netgear is definitely worse. I used to have a commercial router in my old apartment (courtesy of the landlord) that overheated from mild use. In a room that was at 19degrees Celcius. On a tile floor. Yea, that bad. We have some Netgear hubs at work that reset themselves for no reason. It's just a dumb hub, how hard can it be?

DLink's commercial stuff is pretty bad, but not at Netgear's level. Their enterprise grade equipment is actually pretty solid.

This being said, I run almost entirely linksys (aka Cisco) at home, the only piece being an Asus' RT-N16 for routing.

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"It looks like the iPhone 4 might be their Vista, and I'm okay with that." -- Microsoft COO Kevin Turner