Quote

Entrepreneurs need to recognize that, especially in the digital domain, they are unlikely to come up with something that is going to be permanently on top, that impermanence and ephemerality is the nature of the beast.

Microsoft, Apple, Facebook all bought huge patent portfolios to further their strategic game. They're doing what I'm doing!

Nokia and Research in Motion needed a modern operating system. They could have bought Palm or Android before Google did, but they didn't. Today, it's probably too late, and at the time they would have been criticized for overpaying, but as they say - shift happens.

I get a lot of criticism for telling founders to focus first on making something great, instead of worrying about how to make money. And yet that is exactly what Google did. And Apple, for that matter. You'd think examples like that would be enough to convince people.

Entrepreneurship is the key to emerging technologies.

The reality is, is that we love competition, at Apple. We think it makes us all better. But we want people to invent their own stuff.

I've felt a little culpable that we entrepreneurs often invent businesses just to drive people to buy more things.

Future is mobile computing - smartphones and tablets are just elements of it. The industry is on the verge of a whole new paradigm.

Most companies don't have the luxury of focusing exclusively on innovation. They have to innovate while stamping out zillions of widgets or processing billions of transactions.