Steve Jobs Felt Betrayed After Rubinstein Joined Palm

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Posted March 22, 2015 at 10:55pm by iClarified Staff

Steve Jobs has not a happy person when he discovered his longtime friend and trusted Apple executive, Jon Rubinstein, was joining a competitor.

Rubinstein worked as a hardware engineer at NeXT and later joined Apple once Steve Jobs returned to the company. Apple announced Rubinstein's retirement in 2005. By that time, he was Senior Vice President of Hardware Engineering. In 2007, Rubinstein decided to join Palm as executive chairman of its board of directors.

As Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli explain in their upcoming book, Becoming Steve Jobs, Rubinstein had emailed Jobs the year following his departure to let him know that he had been hired by Palm. It only took about four seconds for Jobs to call Rubinstein after he sent that email.

"He couldn't understand," Rubinstein told Schlender and Tetzeli. "He said, 'You've got plenty of money, why are you going to Palm?' I'm like, 'Steve, what are you talking about? I mean, you've got orders of magnitude more money than I have and you're asking me? Are you joking?"

To Jobs, the move was like treason and the two never spoke again.

The book, Becoming Steve Jobs, appears to have a host of interesting new tidbits about the Apple co-founder's life. You can pre-order it here.

via BI

Steve Jobs Felt Betrayed After Rubinstein Joined Palm

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SimonSays - March 23, 2015 at 1:31pm

He probably caused the downfall of Palm.

Fresh Boss - March 23, 2015 at 5:28am

Rubinstein made a business choice, but to many, Steve was a real hero. He changed how we see and use mobile communication and brought us to the future. His legacy lives forever.

Jackson Browne - March 23, 2015 at 1:31am

How was Palm a competitor at that time? They were working on their Palm Pilot. What competing product did Apple have?

gamerscul9870 - March 23, 2015 at 2:35am

Some other company I can't think of that to made touchscreen before everyone else did it like Apple did.

stevenlacross - March 22, 2015 at 11:08pm

Steve Jobs was known to be very difficult to work for, why is he praised so much?

gamerscul9870 - March 22, 2015 at 11:16pm

You are being sarcastic. Comparing two completely different men makes no sense; you are comparing someone who changed technology to someone who was cruel to the world.

gamerscul9870 - March 22, 2015 at 11:17pm

What does this have to do with praising his professional achievements?

Sai Praneeth - March 23, 2015 at 12:09pm

Great people just feel like that.

stevenlacross - March 23, 2015 at 3:12pm

Have you heard real life accounts of how his employees said he treated them in the private work place? He was known to be very harsh to them when they were working.