Apple's Steve Jobs calls BS on Google's 'Don't be evil' motto

If for some reason you still think Apple and Google are all buddy-buddy when it comes to accepting your dollars, well, CEO Steve Jobs just put an end to that when addressing his employees at a town hall-style event later in the day. Speaking anonymously to Wired, a tipster says Jobs flat-out called Google's "Don't be evil" motto BS while going on the defensive.

On Google: 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.

Some of that's likely just rallying the troops. But it starts to make you think that possibly Jobs does see Android in his rear-view mirror. [via The iPhone Blog]

Have you listened to this week's Android Central Podcast?

Android Central

Every week, the Android Central Podcast brings you the latest tech news, analysis and hot takes, with familiar co-hosts and special guests.

  • Subscribe in Pocket Casts: Audio
  • Subscribe in Spotify: Audio
  • Subscribe in iTunes: Audio (opens in new tab)
Phil Nickinson
49 Comments
  • Yes. Android's will take over and make insignificant the iPhone.
  • He's went nuts...frist the iPad now this?
  • I think he needs an iPAD. Talk about menstrual...
  • I'm glad to see Steve Jobs upset. It seems to me this means that Google is getting to him. He has been having his reign, which consists of giving us what HE WANTS US TO HAVE. Now Google is giving us WHAT WE WANT TO HAVE. WHICH DO YOU THINK IS THE MORE SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS MODEL?
  • I second everything that Steven said!!! Well Done!
  • Ah yes, Mr. Jobs does seem to need a nice new iMaxipad between his legs. I want him to keep taunting Google. Don't stop. That'll only make them more determined, and they do have the resources to put up a very good fight.
  • Exactly! The only evil is the poison Apple. And nothing but a superior product would get under his skin. Everyone knows it, and now he does too. Rotfl.
  • Google controls how people use the web (videos, search, maps, email, host of other services) If Google plays hard ball with Apple, like for example, introduce a new nifty flash based service in google maps (which works on android, rim, palm etc.) or for that matter in youtube. Not sure what Apple would do, Google might get some -ve press, but Apple will definitely be left in cold. Ultimately, this fight might cost the consumers in the short term, until there is a level playing field, which Mr. Jobs is not acknowledging right now.
  • Look out for more Adobe + Google annoucements, partnerships Enemy's enemy is the best friend
  • FStare in the rearview mirror all u want, Steve. Pay no attention to that big Google tree in front of you.
  • -----------
  • Yawn. Ballmer and Google laughed when iPhone was introduced in 2007. Now WinMo is scrambling to catch-up and Google followed suit with Android. We should document every bit of mockery and antagonism about the iPad, let's see who (again) gets the last laugh. Google is only responding because the exponentially expanding iPhone/iPad/OSX/Macbooks ecosystem threatens the future of its own cloud(y) Chrome OS.
  • Before you defend your Lord and Saviour SteveJobs Christ, Ballmer did not laugh at the iphone he made a very accurate statement about the phone, at the time of launch the iphone was not the phone a businessman was going to pick up because it did not support exchange like winmo did, the ipad is one of those tech things that should of come with kick ass tech like dual core chip/SSD something over 64 gigs/multitask, but it didn't its a bigger ipod touch and this is suppose to kill the netbook? funny thing is people making fun of google labling the N1 as a "superphone" when Jobs went and discribed the MaxiPad as "magical"
  • I always wonder why people that worship Apple come to sites about Android. I'm a Droid user and therefore never set foot on I-phone blogs, because i just don't care. If you feel the need to troll every site for Apple related articles, in my opinion, you are one of two types of people: 1. Fat, pimply faced geeks that sit in their parents basement playing World of Warcraft and hoping to someday touch a boob. or 2. a guy who loves his i-Phone so much that he defends the company as if he personally owns it. i cant imagine anyone wanting to be either of these people
  • Bzzzt! Wrong. Google didn't "laugh" when the iphone came out. Google was one of Apple's first software partners for the iphone. You're misremembering your facts.
  • If anyone is scrambling here, it is Apple.
    DER...
  • Article is fine, but why steve jobs as dr evil when he's calling out Eric schmidt as dr. Evil.
    Basically they're both evil. Power corrupts. Companies want your money. That's what they're in business for.
    Google lulls you with lots of freebees while monitoring everything you read see and search for, to be used against you for profit when it suits them.
  • Haha, Google is getting into Steve jobs head. That means that android can easily beat apple if Google uses all its resources and services
  • People, don't forget Steve Jobs is well know to be paranoid. I like Apple products (I will never buy one, but I think they design good stuff), I don't like Apple as a company. They behave like a slave owner: everything you buy from the first purchase has to go through them. Has anyone noticed that lately the products that they design and promote are service portals? You buy a ringtone for twice the price of the full song on the same iTunes store! Now they want you to buy books from them for 50% more than Amazon. And @Anonymous, Macbook are not gaining any ground. Especially not since Windows 7. I only wish that Google realize 2 things:
    1- They only need one more version of Android to have a better product (hopefully 3.0 will be it)
    2- They could (should?) go out of their way to help other smartphone owners download and install Android on their device. Even through third parties like XDA-Developers. You know, some innocent little tips, nods, pushes. :-) I've been enjoying booting Android 2.0.1 on my Touch Pro2. It's not useable yet, but I keep hoping that within a couple of months, I'll be able to flash an Android ROM and ditch WinMo for good.
  • People, don't forget Steve Jobs is well know to be paranoid. Must of been all the pot he smoked back in the day :)
  • Translation: "WAHHHHHH!! GOOGLE'S BEING MEAN TO ME!!!!" {{-_-}}
  • This is good, for the simple reason that Apple will be motivated to keep improving the iPhone, which will motivate Google to keep improving Android. I'm not sure that Apple needed this to keep improving the iPhone and iPhone OS, but it can't hurt.
  • Google has a problem with Apple's control over iPhone applications, and the fact that the iPhone is SIM-locked and jailed. If Jobs wants to get out of Google's cross-hairs, all he has to do is stop being evil himself. However, the iPad is even more locked down than the iPhone. Apple is on a slide into hell. In different words, Apple is evil (nothing new for the company), and Google is good by fighting evil.
  • ........because this a Droid forum !
    Duh!
  • I do not get it - why is every blog on this page so 'anti-Apple'???
    What has Apple done to YOU?
    If not for Apple, there would be no iPhone, and probably NO ANDROID either.
    Apple does inovate - maybe not to every persons desires or needs- but they sure do inovate - and they are in-fact far ahead of any one else in this business - else WHY does EVERYBODY COPY APPLE!
    Get a-life.
  • I agree, Apple do set the standard, but I like the dream of Android= freedom
  • I see this a lot "if it weren't for Apple blah blah blah. The truth is the Lg Prada was out before the original iPhone and it's quite clear to those who bother to do some research that Apple more than likely stole the idea and released it in the US as the iPhone. So we can all thank LG. Apple does not innovate, they 'improve upon'.They also sell overpriced hardware to sheep.
  • I have to disagree with you as well. Apple is more of a redesinger than an innovator. The iPhone was not the first touch screen smart phone. HTC was already making them with WinMo I believe. Apple also found themselves in a lawsuit a few years back for essentially stealing software for the iPod from Creative Labs and there mp3 players. If they'd have fought and lost Apple would have been unable to sell iPods in the US, maybe Canada as well. Needless to say they settled out of court. Like some others I will not totally denounce Apple as a company. Their Macs are great for editing video and audio and are an industry standard. That being said I do not and likely will never have a need or desire to buy any of there products simply because for consumer electronics you can always get a more funtional, and feature packed device for less. And I refuse to be confined to a closed ecosystem with my tech. If nothing else Apple, and Steve Jobs for that matter, has the uncanny ability to make scores of the unsuspecting public believe that only they can provide them with there tech needs. To which I say well played Mr. Jobs. Well played.
  • I don't know why, but everyone does copy Apple, probably due to being the most marketed and in front of yoru face. So what happens is newer versions of existing products loose useful features in order to make room for Apple like features. Its part of what killed windows mobile, the old Windows CE 2.x was nice to use but then to make it more apple like they dropped features that I used. Palm did the same and android lacks some of the same basic features beause Apple lacks them as well.
  • Apple had a great idea with the iPhone. Addressing its weaknesses and improving on its strong points is something Apple should be doing. Jobs just doesn't like that Google is doing a better job of it than Apple is.
  • The funniest part about the rant is supposedly flash causes Macs to crash. Could it be that Macs just crash and he's using flash as an excuse? I can't remember the last time flash crashed my web browser. I think it's been years to be honest. Macs are supposed to be immune to crashing, right? What about the tons of iPhone reboots and crashes because of crappy apps? He can't blame that on flash now can he? What a pompous douchebag. I always had a weird feeling about him and now it's confirmed.
  • Also I love Steve Jobs as Mini Me. I'm very tempted to make it the background on my G1.
  • LOL! Good idea...
  • Personally I don't believe Steve would have engaged in such an outburst. But honestly, who cares? We all know that Android as a whole will overtake and pass the iPhone in market share.
  • Why would anyone want a device that does not have standard usb connector (iPhone/iPad). Why trap uses into the Dr Stevil world, for crying out-loud Apple you uses code from the opensource community why not play nice.
  • Mr Jobs don't come Crying to us because u are weaker than your adversary !
  • Apple fanboyism is bad...
    But random apple bashin not based in fact is just as bad.
    Some folks here are embarassing. Apparently some folks are here simply because they don't like apple. :(
  • uh.........this is a droid forum on a droid website!
  • When you are signing up for a new domain name for a website make certain to embed the main keyword you are going after right in your domain name. Its the main way the search engines find you. For example, if you are in the insurance business a great domain name would be insuranceservices.com If that is already taken do not despair, by simply adding a hypen to the domain, making it insurance-services.com you will still have the search engines loving you!
  • I was an Apple Developer until 2008 and a very vocal CRITIC of the Apple' usual cut and paste of ideas from other' works of genius. Each and every blog has refused to print my crystal clear observations on their blogs like Boy Genius(?) Report, Engadget, Gizmodo, and on and on! Pure Apple kissass fanboi's who don't give a shit about reporting or providing a fair view of facts surrounding all things Apple. Since I left the Apple Developer's Connection in 2008 I've been an Adroid Developer AND LOVING IT! Before and after the release of the gizmo they call a phone (I hate just saying Apple' term for it - a word which will NEVER be heard from my mouth) I repeatedly argued for better features, reported most of the initial bugs and NOBODY wanted to hear it. That was the final straw for me - I will NEVER own an Apple product again. I, like others, have predicted Apple demise once Android was finally released and am evern more certain after the release of the DROID from Motorola and ultimately the Nexus One. I'm thrilled to death Google has finally started the revolution to TRULY THINK DIFFERENT - something Apple lost sight of long long ago. Personally Blow Jobs comments are total bullshit! And no I'm NOT hiding behind an anonymous/fake name to share my humble EXPERIENCE and views.
  • I am confused, someone mentioned that if there was no iPhone there would be no Android... Am I wrong but I thought Android was announced way before the iPhone came out, or did Android get announced before the app store became available on the iPhone?
  • Where do you think Google came up with Android's design...Maybe their CEO was spying on Apple by sitting on the Board of Directors. Jobs is probably pissed because he always assumed that Microsoft would copy the iPhone (which they are doing with WinMo 7) but Google, by having the inside scoop, was able to copy the iPhone much sooner than Microsoft! Google == Microsoft!
  • What is this "don't be evil" motto? This is the first I've heard of it. Can anyone link me to an official article explaining it and it's origin? As far as Jobs' comments, it's clear Apple is aware of it's competition and is concerned. That is the best thing any competition can do to Apple... make them watch their back and be scared! Loyal Apple people wonder why ANY other PC product or phone competitor is so critical of Apple yet they don't understand what kind of regime they are being loyal to. I like how someone said above that Apple makes products with features Apple wants their customers to have whereas Google is starting to make phones and other new products with features their customers WANT to have! Thank you! Even though Google is becoming larger and more prominent, I still don't think it's even close to being a monopoly and attention whore like Apple or Microsoft.
  • I can't recall where I've seen it but "don't be evil" was google's official motto. When they first came onto the scene companies like yahoo were the big names in search engines and web service. Those companies started the evil type of adveritising with popup ads, spyware supported games, selling e-mail addresses to spammers, potting (sometimes offensive) ads into e-mail footers, etc. Remember we were all using IE because netscape was just killed by AOL and there was very little else out there and no popup stoppers, no anti spyware, etc yet. Google came on to the scene with its don't be evil unintrusive adveritsing, not selling your data to third parties, etc. They are still less evil that other companies like yahoo, microsoft, aol, apple even if they may not be slightly evil.
  • Ummmm I agree with steve here. Google IS evil. So is Apple. And Microsoft. If by evil, you mean self serving. Its the nature of business. And people, for that matter. What I don't agree with Steve about is that Google is self serving in a way that hurts consumers. Not yet they aren't, anyway. If Microsoft wasn't evil, we would all be stuck with the choice of expensive Macs or IBM PCs. Evil competition is giving us choice, and Google at least opened up their evil product and has other evil companies involved in spreading their evil, which means evil competition and evil choice for the evil consumer. Viva La Evil!
  • There are/were a lot of people happily using Apple and Google products who Apple now seems to want to force to choose between the two. Before it was iphone owners using google maps, google calendar, etc and still used them on their iphone despite google having their own os and phone but then Apple goes and backs Bing to give an inferior search. Sure you can change the default back but it seems like a first step to me. It seems of how Apple didn't care about Android for the couple years the G1 was available but when it gets more popular and people start to see that open OS's are superior to close OS's then Apple gets their pantys/ipads all up in a bunch.
    WRT whose evil, no company is going to be completely not evil so its a choice betwee whose less evil and i'd have to go with Google as being far less evil than Apple.
  • hes so full of shit. didnt he enter the computer business? then the MP3 player business.. then the phone business? what, only Apple is allowed to do that? LOL. Evil google for being JUST LIKE APPLE AND BRANCHING OUT...LOL besides, google doesnt make the phones, they just make the OS, Apple mfctrs most of their parts cutting out many businesses and therefor theres less jobs because of the way Apple does business.. soo.. whos evil? LOL
  • Let's face the facts....Google pulled a Microsoft! Google copied the iPhone OS with Android thanks to the fact that Googles' CEO sat in on Apple's Board of Directors. That is evil!
    I have lost all respect for Google and Bing is my new default search engine.
  • Work at home jobs can be hard to trust. That's why we research and publish only the best of the best... carefully pre-screened, 100% scam-free work at home jobs you can depend on. No get rich quick schemes. No scams. Just 100% real work at home jobs
    www.onlineuniversalwork.com