In a discussion with All Things D’s Kara Swisher at CES, Palm’s CEO, Jon Rubinstein, came out with the most utterly unbelievable line.
He claims never to have even used an iPhone. Here is the actual exchange:
How does Palm (PALM) view Apple (AAPL)?
“We don’t pay that much attention to Apple….I know it sounds really strange,” says Rubinstein.
“Really?” Kara replies. “You don’t worry about the iPhone?”
“No, I really don’t,” Rubinstein answers.
“I don’t believe you,” says Kara, telegraphing a sentiment I imagine is widely held among the audience.
Rubinstein: “I don’t have an iPhone. I’ve never even used one.”
Gizmodo’s Adam Frucci had a great quote for him:
“So it is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you can win a hundred battles without a single loss.”—Sun Tzu, The Art of War
Anyway, we’re having a hard time believing the veracity of his sayings, but if it’s the case, isn’t this a major mistake?
What do you think about this?
Sun tzu was genius. Rubinstein is obviously not
Then how can Palm come out with adverts that in effect slate the iPhone (all be it subliminally) when the CEO doesn’t even know how it works?
He is lying… they have to know the competition…
Jon Rubinstein probably spends most of his time handling investors and money in general. But go ask the design team and engineers if they haven’t use an iPhone and they’ll probably just take one out of their pocket (and a nexus, and LG, etc..
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this Rubinstein fella comes form the same mold as MSFT’s CEO, very smart but completely stupid!
They don’t pay that much attention to apple? And yet somehow they miraculously were able to fool iTunes into thinking that the Pre was an iPhone in order to allow syncing, again, and again, and again.
Steve Jobs wouldn’t let him use it.