Jon Rubinstein, the former CEO of Palm who now runs the business as a unit of computing giant Hewlett-Packard, has gotten endless ribbing for his claim that he&'s never touched an iPhone.
Rubinstein, before joining Palm, was a longtime Apple executive, including a stretch of time when the iPhone was under development.
He defended his comment in an interview with AllThingsD&'s Kara Swisher, explaining that he didn&'t want to be &''tainted&'' by the user experience of another device in developing Palm&'s WebOS devices.
&''Did I ever use an iPhone as my personal device No,&'' said Rubinstein. &''Have I touched one Yes.&''
Rubinstein went on to explain why he sold Palm to HP.
&''We saw a way to get to profitability, but we didn&'t see a way to get to scale,&'' said Rubinstein. &''We&'d be a small, successful company, but I don&'t think that&'s long-term sustainable. &8230' HP has tremendous scale.&''
Rubinstein wouldn&'t comment on the other companies who engaged in acquisition discussions with Palm, referring to them as &''Companies A, B, C, D, and E&'' &8212' a nod to Palm&'s SEC filings which had similarly vague references.
HP &''needs to be in mobile,&'' said Rubinstein. &''This is something they had to do. HP needs to be in control of its own future.&''
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Companies: Apple, Hewlett Packard, Palm
People: Jon Rubinstein, Kara Swisher
Companies: Apple, Hewlett Packard, Palm
People: Jon Rubinstein, Kara Swisher
Owen Thomas is the executive editor of VentureBeat.
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