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Google co-founder Larry Page says both he and Steve Jobs were right, despite disagreeing

Speaking in his first major interview since the formation of Alphabet, Google co-founder and now Alphabet CEO Larry Page said that both he and Steve Jobs had been right in their different approaches to running their respective companies.

Steve Jobs had argued that Google was doing too many things, and should adopt Apple’s focused approach of doing a few things really well. Page said both approaches worked.

He was right. He did fine as well […] We’re trying to make a company for entrepreneurs [we’re trying to] think creatively.

Page said that part of why the company has its fingers in so many pies is that each time Google hits a problem with an external supplier, they start wondering whether it has to be like that. He gave the example of a transformer that took a year to arrive.

Why does it take a year? Why does it have to be shipped on a train car and then a special truck? Is that really the resolution? It makes you wonder […] so ten years later, that might turn into a business.

More on the interview, and the full video, over at 9to5Google.

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Comments

  1. rnc - 9 years ago

    That’s why Apple is full of successful products, while Google can’t make a single out for the last 5 years, at least.

    • vandiced - 9 years ago

      You’ve obviously never heard of a little something called ANDROID, the most popular mobile operating system in the world, in installed number base?

      • Free will get you pretty far.

        Google’s product line is pretty simple really: Search & Ads.

      • mytawalbeh - 9 years ago

        “Android” Most popular because it is open source, free and the devices running it cheap too.

  2. AeronPeryton - 9 years ago

    What is up with the current trend of people at odds with Apple saying “We were both right/wrong”, but obviously feeling they possess the high ground?

Author

Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Ben Lovejoy

Ben Lovejoy is a British technology writer and EU Editor for 9to5Mac. He’s known for his op-eds and diary pieces, exploring his experience of Apple products over time, for a more rounded review. He also writes fiction, with two technothriller novels, a couple of SF shorts and a rom-com!


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