If you don’t have anything nice to say, good news, you may be a prime candidate to run a tech company. Tech CEOs have never been ones to pull punches when it comes to discussing how competitors are run. In fact, they seem to thrive on issuing such outspoken critcism–and yes, we certainly thrive on reporting it.
Netgear CEO Patrick Lo had all kinds of less than flattering things to say about the way Apple is run, and how the company will stumble once Steve Jobs takes his exit, “which is probably not far away.”
The iPhone, Lo told The Sydney Morning Herald, will ultimately fail, due to Apple’s restrictions on the device, comparing it to VHS vs. Betamax and, closer to home, Mac vs. PC. “Ultimately a closed system just can’t go that far,” said Lo. “If they continue to close it and let Android continue to creep up then it’s pretty difficult as I see it.”
Lo attributed Jobs’s policy to his “ego,” stating, “Steve Jobs wants to suffocate the distribution so even though he doesn’t own the content he could basically demand a ransom.”
As for Microsoft’s ability to compete in the mobile space? The picture is even less rosy, “”Microsoft is over. Game over, from my point of view.”
Lo sees Android overtaking the iPhone globally–something that, according to mobile analyst group Canalys, already happened in the fourth quarter of last year.
