Rubinstein On HP's Purchase Of Palm: 'Talk About A Waste'

ON THE HOT SEAT

with former Palm chief Jon Rubinstein

Several technology blogs noted Monday that multiple elements of Apple's (NASDAQ:AAPL) new iOS 7, including multitasking and Safari's tabbed browsing, have hallmarks of Palm's webOS design. As part of a forthcoming feature FierceWireless will produce that catches up with former top wireless executives, FierceWireless Editor Phil Goldstein spoke with Jon Rubinstein, former CEO of Palm and a former executive at Apple, about what he's doing these days, the influence webOS has had on other mobile platforms, and whether he would have done anything differently.

FierceWireless: What are you doing now? How do you spend your time?

Rubinstein: I'm on two boards. I'm on Amazon and Qualcomm. And there's a logic behind those two boards. I'm a big believer in mobile and integration of the home, and wearable computing and all that stuff, and having it all tied up in the cloud. There's sort of a common theme across those companies. I think they're uniquely positioned for the future of where things are going. That's how I spend some of my time. I help out some small companies with some time. And I'm taking some time off as well right now.

FierceWireless: It seems like iOS 7 is taking lots of multitasking cues from webOS. How do you think that platform, webOS, influenced other mobile platforms?