14 DAY TRIAL // During an event in Sydney, Australia, Netgear chairman and CEO Patrick Lo said that Apple was poised to fail because of its closed business model, mostly citing iTunes. He also took the liberty to criticize Steve Jobs “ego,” recalling the company’s spat with Adobe over Flash.
The Sydney Morning Herald reports that Lo cited closed and proprietary products as the main ingredients for Apple's success, but that these would eventually fail as customers flock to open platforms like Google's Android.
Lo believes that the only reason Apple's closed model worked was because they own whole markets, such as the MP3 player market.
Pointing out to Google’s Android OS, which recently overtook iPhone in market share in the US, Lo said Apple’s success is short-lived.
Perhaps most upsetting of all, however, were his comments in regards to the company’s Chief Executive Officer, Steve Jobs.
"Once Steve Jobs goes away, which is probably not far away, then Apple will have to make a strategic decision on whether to open up the platform," said Lo.
"Ultimately a closed system just can't go that far ... If they continue to close it and let Android continue to creep up then it's pretty difficult as I see it," he added.
Such comments could easily attract controversy as Steve Jobs is currently on medical leave for an undetermined period of time.
Jobs fought a rare form of pancreatic cancer years ago which left him weakened and extremely thin in appearance.
The CEO also had a liver transplant operation during his first medical leave between 2008 and 2009, yet still needs medical attention to fully recover.
"Steve Jobs wants to suffocate the distribution so even though he doesn't own the content he could basically demand a ransom," Lo went to say.
He also criticized Jobs for publicly trashing Adobe’s Flash last year, when Apple’s CEO clearly outlined some pretty solid reasons for keeping the format away from iOS devices.
"What's the reason for him to trash Flash? There's no reason other than ego," Lo said.
