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Comment by raganwald | Hacker News Reader

Did we read the same Daring Fireball post? The one I read is responding to Marco's post rather than (mis)quoting Schmidt directly, and says so clearly. Furthermore, he casts Schmidt in a reasonable light, arguing that Schmidt must have meant what Schmidt may have actually said.

Based on his track record, I would not be surprised to see a follow-up addressing the accuracy or otherwise of the quoted words.

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Gruber's assessment is more reasonable, but watching the video, I completely fail to see the controversy. In context, Schmidt's response seems almost humble, and he seems to be addressing two separate concerns raised by the question: 1) The actual challenges for developers (in terms of both the software being good enough to deliver killer apps and the store being able to generate money for developers) and 2) The perceived uncoolness of Android/perceived lack of developer interest

On the first point, he's conceding that Android, up until ICS, fell short. On the second point, he's saying that, whether Android suddenly sparks developer interest or not, it's gonna be on so many devices that developers won't be able to say no (to the fame and fortune). I can't say whether he'll be correct, but I think he could be. It's an honest, if not direct, answer to the question asked -- and doesn't come across as a threat.

Gruber analyses the same mangled quote. I'm not commenting on the interpretation.

Consider if it had been a Job's quote. I suspect Gruber would have been more thorough.

Having said that, I think you're probably right regarding a follow-up from Gruber.

He links to and quotes the same source article one post previous:

http://daringfireball.net/linked/2011/12/07/schmidt

However, I agree; given Gruber's track record I expect him to post a correction soon.

Done: http://daringfireball.net/linked/2011/12/08/eric-schmidt-rea...

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