Edit: Apparently some of you are either offended by money or have mistaken this for a joke. My bad in either case. I was (and am) unable to think of a way to point to the proverbial elephant in the room without sounding at least a little bit smarmy.
I am not an uncomprehending oaf here. I can look at this and say "Oh, neat!", too, but if this is to be taken as a reaction to Jobs's criticism, then I don't think you can escape the context of that criticism. Jobs did not say "open is not neat", he said "open does not always win"--where "winning" is inescapably to do with profit--and this, I believe, only serves to clarify what exactly does not win without actually refuting the claim. "Open" is not a panacea. It is not magic pixie dust that turns shit into gold. It's a cop out answer to the tough question of how do you build a great product, and it makes correspondingly little money for Google. If you were in Jobs's position would you not take this as a sign that your approach--the approach which relies dramatically less on partner companies not dropping the ball and that has already made you money hand over fist--is one to have greater confidence in?
Edit: Apparently some of you are either offended by money or have mistaken this for a joke. My bad in either case. I was (and am) unable to think of a way to point to the proverbial elephant in the room without sounding at least a little bit smarmy.
I am not an uncomprehending oaf here. I can look at this and say "Oh, neat!", too, but if this is to be taken as a reaction to Jobs's criticism, then I don't think you can escape the context of that criticism. Jobs did not say "open is not neat", he said "open does not always win"--where "winning" is inescapably to do with profit--and this, I believe, only serves to clarify what exactly does not win without actually refuting the claim. "Open" is not a panacea. It is not magic pixie dust that turns shit into gold. It's a cop out answer to the tough question of how do you build a great product, and it makes correspondingly little money for Google. If you were in Jobs's position would you not take this as a sign that your approach--the approach which relies dramatically less on partner companies not dropping the ball and that has already made you money hand over fist--is one to have greater confidence in?