Verizon CEO Waiting for Jobs to ‘Get Old’

Ivan Seidenberg, chairman and CEO of Verizon, when asked about Apple in an interview with The Financial Times:

As handsets become banking tools and games controllers, he argues, mobile operators can up-end other companies’ business models. “It’s very cool. And Steve Jobs eventually will get old… I like our chances.”

What’s particularly odd about this remark is that Seidenberg is nine years older than Jobs.

Update: Here’s another interpretation of the same quote, where by “getting old”, Seidenberg perhaps meant it in the sense of falling out of favor with the public, like that “Who Let the Dogs Out” song or something. Best-of-breed user experience design and affordable high-quality hardware engineering are the next Cabbage Patch Dolls, perhaps.

★ Saturday, 28 June 2008