Anonymous sources have fed Wired and MacRumors some choice tidbits from Apple’s employee town-hall meeting that followed last week’s iPad announcement. Steve Jobs took questions from employees, which led to some interesting iPhone nuggets:
Concerning Google and the iPhone (via Wired):
We did not enter the search business, Jobs said. They entered the phone business. Make no mistake they want to kill the iPhone. We won’t let them, he says. Someone else asks something on a different topic, but there’s no getting Jobs off this rant. I want to go back to that other question first and say one more thing, he says. This don’t be evil mantra: “It’s bullshit.” Audience roars.
Jobs’ wrath here is surprising, turning the Google/Apple relationship into a vendetta. Google continues to write some sweet apps for the iPhone, and the Maps app, which runs Google Maps, is one of the iPhone’s best features. Google is a big part of the iPhone’s success, so it’s hard to see how Google is trying to “kill” it so much as fill in the gaps around it with its Android platform.
Concerning the future of the iPhone (via MacRumors):
- Apple will deliver aggressive updates to iPhone that Android/Google won’t be able to keep up with
- iPad is up there with the iPhone and Mac as the most important products Jobs has been a part of
- Regarding the Lala acquisition, Apple was interested in bringing those people into the iTunes team
- Next iPhone coming is an A+ update (ed: emphasis mine)
A major update to the iPhone is welcome news. The iPhone was a leap forward, but many feel the honeymoon is over and there are too many problems with the iPhone’s interface that have gone unfixed. Users have been griping about how bad the iPhone’s Mail app is since its introduction, but updates to the app have been far and few between. Users also have complained about the sheer number of app icons and pages of home screens that now have to be shuffled through, but the iPhone interface remains largely unchanged 2 and a half years after its introduction.