By When TechCrunch’s Erick Schonfeld suggests, “We have to talk about Android,” at the Mobile Web Wars Roundtable, some village’s idiot whined, “Why? Why do we have to talk about Android – nobody cares.” Then Michael Arrington popped a squat on his pitiful one man parade lecturing, “That’s ridiculous. That’s absolutely ridiculous. As soon as it launches you’re going to be kissing Google’s ass.”
Its funny cause its true. I’m not sure how I missed this (2 weeks ago) but its pretty hilarious and definitely worth AT LEAST the first 1:30 seconds (below) if you can’t watch the entire thing:
The purpose of the Mobile Web Wars Roundtable was to discuss the arrival of the Mobile Web. To even think about the concept of suggesting that nobody even CARES about Android is nothing short of absurd. It appears as if either Tom Conrad (Chief Technical Officer of Pandora, wearing yellow blazer) or David Hornik (Partner at August Capital, guy with Goatee to the right of Tom) – is the village idiot in question. Can anyone distinguish who it is? Let me briefly explain why he (whoever he is) is an idiot:
- Google is one of the most revolutionary Tech companies and THE most revolutionary web companies in modern times. The simple fact that they are working with manufacturers and carriers on groundbreaking phones is in and of itself exciting. People care.
- You’re at a freaking event to discuss the mobile web… and you’re a panelist… and you don’t understand why Google and Android are important? Pardon me while I borrow from Billy Madison, “Mr. Conrad, what you’ve just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your whiny, moronic remark did you even come close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to you. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.”
So I’m being a little harsh in good fun… I don’t have anything against Tom Conrad and he must be a damn smart guy for the position he holds. But seriously Mr. Conrad, don’t you have to admit that your “point” in this video is flat out wrong?
FYI here is a list of all the panelists:
David Rivas, Nokia, Vice President of Technology Management for S60 Software
Walt Doyle, CEO Ulocate
Tom Conrad, CTO Pandora
Greg Yardley, CEO of Pinch Media CEO
Bart Decrem, CEO of Tapulous
David Hornik, partner, August Capital
Jed Stremel, Director of Mobile at Facebook (replacing Joe Hewitt)
Guy Ben-Artzi, Founder of Real Dice and CEO of Mytopia
Jason Devitt, CEO of Skydeck
Gannon Hall, CMO of Kyte
Sam Altman, CEO of Loopt
Marc Davis, chief scientists of Yahoo’s mobile group
Omar Hamoui, CEO of AdMob
Richard Wong, partner at Accel
Andreas Weigend, people & data (former chief scientist, Amazon)
Tatsuki Tomita, SVP of Consumer Product, Opera
Mike Rowehl, chief architect, SkyFire
Mary Ann Cotter, CEO, Cooking Capsules
John Faith , GM and VP of Mobile for MySpace
[Via TechCrunch]
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/193/503059337_075f1471dc.jpg
David Hornik, partner, August Capital
After the “raise your hand” question you’ll see him falling back into his seat… ;)
Also made me laugh some days ago :D
“…some village’s idiot whined…”. Nothing but awesome !! :D
You know it’s one thing for someone as involved in the mobile web industry to be a little pessimistic with all the Android hype, there is a lot of high expectations with the software, but to say no one cares? This guy just brought all his credibility into question.
I don’t want to sound like I’m bashing Apple fans in this, but doesn’t it seem like this guy is genuinely upset that someone dare bring something out to compete with the iPhone? There are definite holes with the iPhone where Android can and does fill (Open dev, no lame NDA’s, different carriers, more phones, etc just to name a few).
As long as it has GPS and google maps, I’m buying one.
I’m buying NOW -for up to $300, and I’ll figure out the rest (gmail, gcalendar, some other apps I don’t even know I need yet) later.
I want it, I want it now. lol :)
The iPhone is amazing. If Android is just as fluid, functional and beautiful (please be a prototype), then the Android Dream can never lose this battle.
I think it’s funny that he used the buggy firmware line as an example of Apple being better than Android considering the problems that the 3G iPhone is having with their buggy firmware.
Personally – I do not care about Android. If you are getting into the cell phone industry and don’t realize it’s all about sex, drugs and rock and roll – you will fail. The iPhone is prime example. It can be buggy – it just has to be advertised with the latest in bad college music and you have set a trend.
I mean seriously… anyone ever used OS X… it really is for the computer illiterate. Giant, bulbous, cutesy icons that bounce when clicked upon?
No one is going to flock to Android but a bunch of nerds that make for a small percentage of consumers. When someone installs Android on their iPhone and Apple is OK with it, then you will see Android hype.
Call me a moron or a village idiot if my point of view doesn’t match yours.
@D,
I don’t get it. You’re bashing the iPhone, and at the same time you don’t care about Android. Have you SEEN the URL of your browser window? Why are you here? For example, I’m here because I’m interested in what the future has to offer in terms of the best technology of cell phones. The top phone, as far as almost everyone’s concerned, is the iPhone. WM, Palm OS, and RIM’s OS don’t seem to cut it against Apple. So if Google can release an OS to compete with Apple’s, and they get a phone worthy of the potential, it could be the iPhone’s best competitor.
If you’re not interested in cell phones, that’s fine, but I think most of us here are.
I’m the village idiot in question — it certainly was a stupid thing to say and wish I hadn’t said it. The entire event was an exercise in hyperbole and I fell right into that trap. The truth is that I’m hopeful about Android, but i fear that at least in the US the purchasing behavior of the consumer (where they vastly prefer carrier subsidized phones) and the walled garden behavior of the carriers (where they seek to control everything they possible can) may prove to be considerable obstacles to the “openness” of Android. Hope I’m wrong. It’s also true that other attempts at cross-phone platforms (J2ME, BREW, Windows Mobile) often prove to be incredible difficult for mobile devs due to bugs in the underlying chipsets and firmware that the OS doesn’t directly control. Here again would love to see Android do better than these other attempts.
One thing I know for sure: Google is an incredible company and they have a dream team of sorts working on Android. If anyone can do it, they can.
Tom
CTO @ Pandora
Holy crap, Tom… rarely does someone step to the plate like that. Bravo. Sometimes I fall into the same trap on the opposite side with, “Android will be the best thing since electricity,” ideology. Its equally irresponsible to overlook the challenges and hurdles that face Android which I know I have done on several occasions, even if out of pure hope.
Thanks for swinging by to comment. Glad to hear that you’re rooting for Android, even if you think its an underdog. In my opinion, when you consider the movement that Android represents, all the more reason to root!
Here’s a bit more on what I really think about all of this…
http://tomconrad.net/2008/09/12/android-what-i-really-think/