“Google loves characterizing Android as open and iOS and iPhone as closed,” he said. “We find this a bit disingenuous and clouding the real difference between our approaches. Android is very fragmented [and] many [vendors] install proprietary interfaces to differentiate themselves.”
Twitter client Tweetdeck recently launched it app for Android, and it contended it had to deal with 100 different versions of Android software on 244 different handsets, Jobs said. “Compare this with iPhone where there are two versions of the software.”
The strong iPhone sales helped revenue grow 66.5% to $20.34 billion. But the margin shrank to 36.9%, from 41.8% a year ago.
International sales make up 57% of Apple's revenue. “We continue to experience very strong iPhone growth particularly in Asia, Europe and Japan, where sales doubled year-on-year,” Jobs said. The company has deals with 186 operators in 89 countries.
The bumper iPhone sales showed that the Antennagate manufacturing problem - which led to a drop in reception while holding some iPhone 4 units in a particular way - had little to no impact on sales.
The iPad, Apple’s new hit product, generated around $2.8 billion in sales. Apple said around 4.2 million iPads were distributed in 26 countries during just the second quarter of availability.
Speaking on the tablet market, Jobs said the influx of new tablets will not provide much of a threat to the iPad. A seven-inch screen is only 45% of the size of the iPad's 10-inch screen, Jobs said, and couldn’t provide the kind of experience Apple is aiming for with its larger tablet.
“The current crop of seven-inch tablets are going to be dead on arrival,” Jobs said. “We’re out to win this one.”
Despite the strong earnings, Apple's Nasdaq stock declined 6.1% to $298.50 in after-hours trading. Some observers put the decline down to profit-taking, while others believe investors were spooked by the lower margins.
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