Apple CEO Steve Jobs made a surprise appearance on the company’s fourth quarter earnings report conference call Monday afternoon where he took on Google’s Android platform and 7-inch tablet computers.
Mr. Jobs called the Android platform fragmented and said that the number of proprietary interfaces phone makers drop on top of the OS make it difficult for end users to sort out how to perform the same tasks on different devices. In contrast, he pointed out, Apple’s iOS model offers a consistent interface across the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.
“Google loves to characterize Android as open and IOS and iPhone as closed,” Mr Jobs said. “We find this a bit disingenuius and clouding the real difference between our two approaches.”
Jobs calls Android “fragmented”
It was open season on the soon to be released wave of 7-inch tablet devices from competitors, too. Mr. Jobs claimed the 7-inch form factor offers less than half the screen space compared to the iPad’s 9.7-inch display. He added that the iPad offers the smallest screen size possible to offer an acceptable tablet user interface.
“We’re out to win this one,” Mr. Jobs said.
Apple reported Us$4.34 billion in profit on $20.3 billion in revenue for its fourth fiscal quarter. The company sold a record number 3.89 million Macs, 14.1 million iPhones, and 4.19 million iPads during the quarter.
Apple is currently trading after hours at $301.32, down 16.68 (-5.25%).