“I need Android like I need a hole in the head.” – Tom Conrad, Pandora CTO
Popular music service Pandora is a huge hit on the iPhone, and they were one of the first Palm Pre apps available as well. But when it comes to Android, the company has at best always been “meh.”
In July 2008 Pandora CTO Tom Conrad said “I need Android like I need a hole in the head,” adding “the last thing from a technology standpoint that i need is another OS platform that sits on top of buggy firmware.” The relevant video clip is here (skip to the 55 second mark).
“We’re going to put your face next to that quote when you launch an Android app,” I said at the time (check!). Conrad later clarified his position.
Anyway, back to reality, Pandora has now launched an Android application, and it’s pretty darn cool. Unlike the new Facebook for Android, it doesn’t skimp on features. In fact, it’s the first mobile Pandora application that integrates with the built in music player so that you can create stations from the artists and songs in your local collection. It also integrates with the Android home screen widget system.
So overall I give the product an A, and I give Tom Conrad an A+ for creating drama around an otherwise less interesting launch. Well done.
He was right, but I guess android has matured enough.
In the end, Marissa Meyer is stifling design so much they’ll never make an attractive interface at Google, for any product, ever.
Google (Mayer) doesn’t have ultimate control of the interface on Android, it’s open source. People can make it look however they want… people being the device manufacturers, app developers, etc.
When I bought my hero I thought “if I don’t get pandora soon I’m going to put a hole in my head.”
And just 2 weeks later my wish was granted… I bought a gun and everything :\
ITS ABOUT DAMN TIME!
Good time to launch the Android App.
I think we’ll start seeing a lot of Android phones around in the next 2 years. It’s only a matter of time.
If I were Apple I wouldn’t extend that AT&T deal. That would be a huge mistake. Given the choice people would probably go Iphone. But if there’s no choice people are going to stick with their carriers and start buying android phones. A lot of Android phones.
Haha, nothing like having to eat your own words. As CTO he should be worried about advancing his product and getting more users behind it. IMHO.
Yep, that’s absolutely the case. I was trying to make a point about the challenges faced by mobile app developers and ended up saying exactly the wrong thing. It was an incredibly stupid thing to say — if for no reason other than Android is shaping up to be a tremendous platform for end users and developers alike. Lesson learned.
Tom
CTO @ Pandora
oh come on. don’t be like that. you’re making me feel bad.
I’m still taken aback where the hate came from. I wonder if you really mean what you say now or just “being opportunistic” (see video).
I hope that you honestly believe that Android is a platform that is good for the mobile industry rather than because it will be in a lot of phones.
Yeah, Danny, I can see where you’d be skeptical. I’m really embarrassed about how angry I seem at that moment in the video. Truly don’t know where that came from — didn’t hate Android then and I certainly don’t hate it now. The panel dynamic sometimes brings out extreme positions and I succumbed to that in this instance. Not at all cool, but I did learn a lesson too.
I’m also quite happy to be wrong in this case.
Truth is I’m excited about Android because it’s proven to be a great development platform and actually looks to be our best hope at addressing the very thing I was railing against in the video (the difficulties that developers face when dealing with the proliferation of mobile OS’s). Far from exacerbating that situation, it seems that Android stands to unify the non Apple/iPhone/BlackBerry (”vertically integrated”) world. That’s nothing but good for users and developers.
Tom
By the way, here’s Tom Conrad today celebrating the launch of their Android App at the…Apple event.
and it looks like he is using a razr… haha.
oh its a nano, sorry didn’t see the display in front of him.. damn that would of been ironic
Give the guy a break, it was 2005 that he said that, according to your post!
no, was a year ago.
you are welcome for catching that….
your awesomeness cannot be expressed with mere words.
that quote is so going on my resume! I kid, I kid….sorta.
isn’t 1 year good enough to revisit a company’s strategy? things change mike – so stop fussing about what he said a year ago and concentrate on good and valuable reporting. i guarantee, that a year down the line you will think of this post as stupid too!
Arrington (your god) said “We’re going to put your face next to that quote when you launch an Android app” … So wtf you expect him to do?
yeah. wtf.
Love the role of GOD!
They mist have been impressed by the huge android app sales revenue numbers that came out a week ago.
They should change the name to Pwndora. Cause it pwns. And stuff.
+1
just You all felt that smooth wind..? It’s the iPhone slowly passing away ;]
I mean Android is building up its position in smart phones’ market. And there are more and more devices with Android and it seems like apps also. So in not-such-a-long-time…
hehehehehe [;
just You all felt that smooth wind..? It’s the iPhone slowly passing away ;]
I mean Android is building up its position in smart phones’ market. And there are more and more devices with Android and it seems like apps also. So in not-such-a-long-time…
hehehehehe [;
It’s the past, no harm done. I won’t hold it against ya but I’m with those that say “IT ABOUT TIME!” A neat start, no progress bar?
-Mig
I am glad to finally see Pandora on Android. IMHO it’s the best streaming service of it’s kind.
Yet another report for yet another service that no one outside the U.S. can access. suckage.
Pre in Canada comes with Pandora app – done simply to mock us I guess…
Tom Conrad is SO right regarding crappy hardware. Samsung Bluray Players that stream Pandora just released a buggy firmware upgrade that kills Pandora after 1 Minute, but introduces useless Blockbuster streaming and YouTube. Aaaargh!
Installed on my G1, and the app fails. I receive the following error:
“Sorry, there is a problem with your account. Please contact Pandora listener support at pandora-support@pandora.com”
I’ve contacted support. Hopefully they can fix it, as I’ve wanted this app for a while!
i had the same issue. Is your pandora account really old?
Wow folks, Pandora responded to my support e-mail within less than an hour, with a fix:
The problem is related to ppl with really old Pandora accounts. If you have this issue, login via the regular Pandora website interface, click your account options, and fill in any missing information (zip code, etc.)
I did this, and the android app worked perfectly afterwards. Kudos to Pandora for awesome tech support!
A smart decision to join the Android market. Whether Android users give you warm hug or not. It surely benefit Pandora.
More video converter for smartphone
http://www.111d...nverters-1.html
“We’re going to put your face next to that quote when you launch an Android app”
Poor guy. I’m sure he was terrified of getting huge exposure on the front page of a prominent tech blog.
“So overall I give the product an A, and I give Tom Conrad an A+ for creating drama around an otherwise less interesting launch. Well done.”
Which just proves that if you play your cards right, no publicity is bad publicity. The tech support anecdote above is also really good. All of it sounds and feels organic (the Mozilla kind, not the USDA kind). After all the royalties that Pandora is paying now, I doubt they could afford any marketing.
Have a good day!
Pandora rocks. I can understand the frustration when it comes to ironing out tech glitches when developing across platforms, but I am surprised that Pandora was reluctant to add Android to the stable…
Oh well, I don’t have a Google phone yet anyway, but Christmas is coming
In a way, I have to give props to both parties here. Arrington for calling him out and getting to do exactly what he said he would, and Tom Conrad for holding his hands up in an earlier comment and saying he was wrong.
THAT SAID, if the only downside of making extreme statements like this is that you apologise in a comment on the very article which gives PR to your company, it’s not a bad trade-off. I’d call bullshit but for the fact he was extremely humble and you can’t argue with that
+1
Tom ROCKS!
Been using Pandora for BB since it’s launch. I love it. If only Verizon had an Android phone, then I would know the true joys of this article.
Wait for Motorola’s announcement next week. I believe at least 1 Android phone will be on Verizon.
Tom is very handsome.
Tom’s cool. Pandora on my iPhone is the best. Now what’s my edge over friends with Android phones?
You can tell them how rich you are by paying more for less.
Hello there,
Maybe it is me, but I come up blank when trying to do an Android Market search for Pandora.
Running a Hero on Swedish operator Telia network.
Any hints?
Pandora doesn’t exist outside the US. The good news is that those of us in Sweden can use Spotify instead.
I just interviewed Tim Westergren, the founder of Pandora, as a guest-host on the DishyMix podcast. He had some interesting comments on how they’ve made decisions about which platform to pursue (and very relevant to this post).
Take a listen: http://itunes.a...mp;id=258633626
Come on, don’t tell me to “Skip to 55 seconds”. Add a &t=55s to your link!
This is great news! Great banter between Tom & MA to boot! Listening to U2 on my G1 now…yay!
V. excited Pandora got a hole in the head-congrats! I hope it wasn’t too painful. And Tom, (as you know) your apologies have been heartily accepted for answering my question (It was really not interrupting, technically since I hadn’t started speaking yet) on the TC Mobile Web Wars panel… and besides, it has made for fun fodder.
(btw- Michael, is there a character limit on Twitter names in comments? I can’t fit @cookingcapsules on there with the @.)
Ah, I miss the days when Pandora was available outside of the U.S.
Come on! Tom really meant what he said. That was exact Android state. They progressed by time.
Don’t blame him for saying the facts. Mike show his nature in “I told you so” manner and rubbing it in Tom’s face ….