Yes, Palm CEO Did Say He Never Used an iPhone and More Video from D@CES Event

Except for the fact that he misses the ability to comment on the iPhone’s weaknesses. If he hasn’t tried the competition’s product (regardless of who feels the iPhone IS competition or not) how can he speak to his product’s strengths. This is idiocy.

I'm shocked to see that Jon Rubinstein seemed to be proud that he has 'never used an iPhone'. I would seriously question his ability to lead a major telecommunication company if he shows such disinterest in the competitors products.

I guess you would also be shocked if Bill Gates has not used an iPhone. Oh by the way, Bill Gates has banned his children from using an iPhone. I am sure he did that to prevent people from saying “that even Bill Gates children love the iPhone”. Maybe Jon Rubinstein knows something about leadership that many would be wise to follow.

Are you paid to type out press releases as comments? I mean you used, “innovations” “revolutionary”, “incredibly fun to use”, “refreshingly different”. PR-speak doesn’t get any better than that!

You’ve called Rubinstein a “smart guy” twice. And, he is supposedly “wise not to have used the iPhone”, and yet you don’t explain why? Why does that make him wise, because he himself explained it as “strange”.

As for public perception, if you’re read the comments, you’d see that people think he’s nuts, not wise. It’s only natural to size up the competition, and perhaps learn something, but no, sticking one’s head in the sand is somehow “wise” in your opinion.

The funny thing is, most people assume he’s lying, cause he can’t be that unwise.

Rubinstein is succeeding at Palm for a reason!

I respect Bill Gates and all that he has accomplished, but if Bill Gates is in a completely different league, then it is akin to Bill Gates being in the National Football League and Rubinstein being in the National Basketball League. Bill Gates is brilliant businessman and a visionary, Rubinstein is an engineer and a genius. But you completely missed my point. You took issue by my using Bill Gates as an example to make a point. And you made an arrogant statement calling Rubinstein arrogant and inferring “how dare I compare Rubinstein to Bill Gates”. Bill Gates is a brilliant man, and I am sure he would have accepted it as an honor to be compared to Jon Rubinstein. Many of the greatest people are quite humble and do not sit themselves upon a prideful pedestal. Rubinstein has been at the top of the most stunning developements in the history of computing. Genius expresses itself in many forms, in music, in painting, in business, in sports, etc. Many people thought that the iPhone was a difficult act to follow. Then came the Palm Pre, providing a completely different paradigm with webOS and its fun to use (cards based) user interface, synergy, gestures, and the innovative use of the cloud. The Palm Pre is so different from the iPhone, it is as if the difference is between a dumb phone and a smart phone.

(1) Rubinstein has been elected to serve as a member of the National Academy of Engineering.
(2) Rubinstein is a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.
(3) Rubinstein ran hardware engineering at NeXT, a company co-founded by Steve Jobs, before moving to Apple. In fact, the operating system OS X used by Apple was obtained from NeXT.
(4) Rubinstein joined Apple in 1997 while Apple was in the process of losing $816 million for the year, and many expected the company to go bankrupt. He was tapped by Steve Jobs to restructure Apple's engineering department, holding the position of Senior Vice President of Hardware Engineering.
(5) Rubinstein was in charge of the development of the iPod, and ran Apple's iPod division until 2006 – the year he left Apple. The following year – in 2007, he joined Palm. And by the way, Apple announced the iPhone in 2007.

So you are right to say that Bill Gates is in a different league. But as the fact shows, Rubinstein's league was what Apple was riding on and what formed the foundation (via the iPod) in making the iPhone a success. And Rubinstein is repeating the same thing at Palm. Apparently he has based his life's successes by developing revolutionary products, ones that are radically different from anything before them. That is why he is succeeding at Palm – he refuses to look at competing products (or other companies products) for inspiration, something that nearly everyone else does. No wonder people find it hard to believe him when he said, “I have never used an iPhone”. But I think the problem is ignorance; most people have not paid attention to the man's many accomplishments – they assess a person from a thirty minute interview. Thinking is not an easy thing to do. It is easier to rush to an opinion than to take the time and effort to gather the data upon which to base ones opinion. No wonder so many people are quick to rush to judgment.

I really liked this interview; the best in a long time!

Actually, this is one of the best interviews I have seen in a very long time. Kara was very direct. She threw out a few quips, but I found them very entertaining. Yes, she called him names, but that was in response to his jokes; but also you could clearly see she was joking! He also had his moment later – and jokenly returned the favor. But if you paid close attention to the interview, you could see that Kara genuinely respects Jon Rubinstein. In fact, her entire demeanor was friendly towards him. Also I should say, Jon Rubinstein looks pretty relaxed, but totally focused. He exuded a real sense of mission and purpose, with a keen sense of the bigger picture of the mobile industry.

One of the things I liked about her interviewing style was how about 80% of the time she would ask a question and let him fully convey his thoughts. But she would nudge him back when he wanted to cover things she wanted to address in greater detail later. But above all else, she got out of him some important information about how he viewed his product offerings and his elaboration about the JavaScript, HTML, and CSS programming model for webOS, and how Palm has now enabled C and C++ development for the webOS platform. You might think this information is available elsewhere, but pay closer attention on how Jon Rubinstein describes the development model, and you will get a new perspective. He spoke very few words on the subject, but there were some nuggets to be gleaned from them (i.e. those words).

Overall, I give Kara's interview an A+. Kara is intelligent, witty, abrasive, and friendly. A real fireball! In fact I liked it so much, I watched it a second time!