8800GT - Response from Steve Jobs

[Snowshiro]

I also posted this in the support forums on Apple.com:

Yesterday I sent an email to steve.jobs@apple.com with a fairly long and strongly worded complaint on behalf of 'old' Mac Pro owners about the 8800GT non-compatibility issue. I just received the following response:

>Name withheld,
>
>I suggest you calm down. Everyone knows the issue and it is being
>worked.
>
>Steve

So, this is either from the big man himself (I have no reason so suspect otherwise), or from someone with enough authority to be able to personally respond to Steve's email. Either way that's good news. To receive even a brief message saying that Apple is working on it is certainly something that gives me a deal of reassurance, and hopefully we can all take his advice and calm down a bit.

[Hitch]

I suggest we post our ideas of what Steve really wanted to say in his email response:

> Dear Cry Baby:
>
> Don't get your panties in a bunch. I already reamed the product manager
> and they are working on it 24x7.
>
> Steve

[LaJaca]

My spidey sense tells me this is just a little fishy.

[mcarnes]

Oh Geeeeez.

[crazzyeddie]

Originally Posted by LaJaca

My spidey sense tells me this is just a little fishy.

I agree. Doesn't sound like Steve at all.

[Nugget]

I'm skeptical too of the specifics, but does anyone actually believe that this isn't exactly the situation? I mean, even if Steve didn't send that email to "name withheld" I'm sure it reflects reality.

[JML42691]

I highly doubt that this is from Jobs, if from Apple at all, he would not deal with a single email like this, he would never word a letter to a customer as the negative publicity that would result. This sounds like it is completely made up.

[kbmb]

Originally Posted by Snowshiro

I also posted this in the support forums on Apple.com:

Yesterday I sent an email to steve.jobs@apple.com with a fairly long and strongly worded complaint on behalf of 'old' Mac Pro owners about the 8800GT non-compatibility issue. I just received the following response:

>Name withheld,
>
>I suggest you calm down. Everyone knows the issue and it is being
>worked.
>
>Steve

So, this is either from the big man himself (I have no reason so suspect otherwise), or from someone with enough authority to be able to personally respond to Steve's email. Either way that's good news. To receive even a brief message saying that Apple is working on it is certainly something that gives me a deal of reassurance, and hopefully we can all take his advice and calm down a bit.

Welcome newbie.

Now....produce the email headers or it didn't happen.

Personally, I don't think Steve...or anyone on his staff would word an email like this.

-Kevin

[crazzyeddie]

Originally Posted by JML42691

I highly doubt that this is from Jobs, if from Apple at all, he would not deal with a single email like this, he would never word a letter to a customer as the negative publicity that would result. This sounds like it is completely made up.

Steve (or his direct underlings) do(es) actually respond to single emails.

[JML42691]

Originally Posted by crazzyeddie

Steve (or his direct underlings) do(es) actually respond to single emails.

I was intending my wording to mean that they would not respond to an email in this manner (the sense of rudeness in it), I don't know why I put the word 'single' in my original post, sorry.

[Snowshiro]

Originally Posted by kbmb

Welcome newbie.
Now....produce the email headers or it didn't happen.
Personally, I don't think Steve...or anyone on his staff would word an email like this.
-Kevin

The email headers taken directly from Gmail (the only things I have removed are my own personal name and email address which I have marked as 'withheld'.)

Delivered-To: withheld@gmail.com
Received: by 10.115.108.3 with SMTP id k3cs150420wam;
Sat, 12 Jan 2008 17:37:19 -0800 (PST)
Received: by 10.140.251.1 with SMTP id y1mr2944284rvh.292.1200188238912;
Sat, 12 Jan 2008 17:37:18 -0800 (PST)
Return-Path: <sjobs@apple.com>
Received: from mail-out4.apple.com (mail-out4.apple.com [17.254.13.23])
by mx.google.com with ESMTP id b8si4866692rvf.31.2008.01.12.17.37.18;
Sat, 12 Jan 2008 17:37:18 -0800 (PST)
Received-SPF: pass (google.com: domain of sjobs@apple.com designates 17.254.13.23 as permitted sender) client-ip=17.254.13.23;
Authentication-Results: mx.google.com; spf=pass (google.com: domain of sjobs@apple.com designates 17.254.13.23 as permitted sender) smtp.mail=sjobs@apple.com
Received: from relay12.apple.com (relay12.apple.com [17.128.113.53])
by mail-out4.apple.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 92D1D1EB9EA5
for <withheld@gmail.com>; Sat, 12 Jan 2008 17:37:18 -0800 (PST)
Received: from relay12.apple.com (unknown [127.0.0.1])
by relay12.apple.com (Symantec Mail Security) with ESMTP id 7B63328091;
Sat, 12 Jan 2008 17:37:18 -0800 (PST)
X-AuditID: 11807135-a641abb0000010e7-37-47896b4e0898
Received: from earhart.apple.com (bond.apple.com [17.150.10.13])
by relay12.apple.com (Apple SCV relay) with ESMTP id 5FC9C2804D
for <withheld@gmail.com>; Sat, 12 Jan 2008 17:37:18 -0800 (PST)
MIME-version: 1.0
Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT
Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed; delsp=yes
Received: from wave1.apple.com ([17.248.4.64])
by earhart.apple.com (Sun Java(tm) System Messaging Server 6.3-0.15 (built Feb
9 2007)) with ESMTP id <0JUK00HM97661N00@earhart.apple.com> for
withheld@gmail.com; Sat, 12 Jan 2008 17:37:18 -0800 (PST)
Message-id: <6CE8BD10-FF0A-4D74-9DF3-6A72CED6091B@apple.com>
From: Steve Jobs <sjobs@apple.com>
To: withheld <withheld@gmail.com>
In-reply-to: <7b342f3d0801111808m6890f42aof1a5d4439068abcb@mail.gmail.com>
Subject: Re: Do the right thing
Date: Sat, 12 Jan 2008 17:37:18 -0800
References: <7b342f3d0801111808m6890f42aof1a5d4439068abcb@mail.gmail.com>
X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.915)
X-Brightmail-Tracker: AAAAAA==

Now perhaps the people with no manners could please refrain from basically calling me a liar. I came here to try and reassure people, not to be insulted. As I stated, I have no knowledge of whether this is definitely Steve, however it is certainly someone who reads Steve's email, and signs themselves as Steve, so they have to have the authority to answer for him.

The main reason why I suspect it may actually be from Steve himself, would be that he's got Macworld 2 days away and this Mac Pro issue explodes in his face. He's already a busy guy, so he doesn't have a lot of time to deal with this kind of thing. I think a slightly terse response would be more likely to come from Jobs, rather than an assistant who would would answer in a less personal way and would likely give a more 'corporate' response.

[kbmb]

Originally Posted by Snowshiro

The email headers taken directly from Gmail (the only things I have removed are my own personal name and email address which I have marked as 'withheld'.)

Now perhaps the people with no manners could please refrain from basically calling me a liar. I came here to try and reassure people, not to be insulted. As I stated, I have no knowledge of whether this is definitely Steve, however it is certainly someone who reads Steve's email, and signs themselves as Steve, so they have to have the authority to answer for him.

The main reason why I suspect it may actually be from Steve himself, would be that he's got Macworld 2 days away and this Mac Pro issue explodes in his face. He's already a busy guy, so he doesn't have a lot of time to deal with this kind of thing. I think a slightly terse response would be more likely to come from Jobs, rather than an assistant who would would answer in a less personal way and would likely give a more 'corporate' response.

Well, if this is true then accept my apologies for my rudeness.

Please realize that new members that only have 1 post and post something like this, ARE usually false.

Now if this is true, I am still surprised at the tone on the email.

-Kevin

[timb]

X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.915)

Why is Steve still running Tiger?

[Snowshiro]

Originally Posted by kbmb

Well, if this is true then accept my apologies for my rudeness.

No worries. On reflection I can understand your cynicism. I was a bit surprised at the bluntness of the response myself! You're right, it does look a little unusual, especially from a newbie poster. I would probably have had the same doubts.

I know that there has been quite a storm brewing on this one, with online petitions, discussion boards going crazy etc. so it could reflect his frustration at the fact that the company kinda dropped the ball on this one, and he's left fielding the complaints when really it's the kind of thing his engineers should have picked up weeks ago. Right now I'd want to be totally focused on my keynote in a couple of days, not this mess.

As for running Tiger, I have no idea. Maybe he's too busy to upgrade

[kbmb]

Originally Posted by timb

X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.915)

Why is Steve still running Tiger?

Probably on an older Mac that doesn't support Core Animation, and he can't get a new video card for it

-Kevin

[LaJaca]

Originally Posted by LaJaca

My spidey sense tells me this is just a little fishy.

Still doesn't make sense. No offense, and of course I don't know you, but this just doesn't pass the common sense test.

[timb]

My big thing is this; why him? Why did he just get a response? Also, "...worked."

[mcarnes]

I don't suppose we could see the message you sent him? Might help us understand his response...

[joshwillmarth]

Originally Posted by Snowshiro

>Name withheld,
>
>I suggest you calm down. Everyone knows the issue and it is being
>worked.
>
>Steve.

"worked." should be "worked on." I am not questioning you, but don't you think Steve (or his people) would proofread email before sending it?

[AdvocateUK]

Actually Steve does reply to emails and from the (only) other reply I've seen he can be quite abrupt. It was in response to a question about hardware not being able to run panther and was somehting like

"Not going to happen. Embrace Tiger it's great"

or words to that effect.

Sounds quite true to me.

[Snowshiro]

Originally Posted by mcarnes

I don't suppose we could see the message you sent him? Might help us understand his response...

Below is my email to Steve. I should point out that I'm not particularly proud of it - it was written in a pique of frustration shortly after the announcement and during some particularly bitter words being uttered by many people in the official Apple support forums. I tried to make it strong and highly critical without using abusive language to really hit home how a lot of Mac Pro owners were feeling at the time.

To those people who still express doubts about the validity of the email, there's not much I can say or do to convince you. I thought about posting a screenshot of Gmail, but you're still going to question it. Just know this: I'm a graphic designer. I don't have the knowledge to fake an email header of the complexity of the one I posted earlier. Especially in such a short space of time. As for the proofreading comments ("...worked") that's what happens when people are busy and send emails in a hurry. I'm sure we've all done the same.

Anyway - the email I sent:

Dear Mr. Jobs,

I have no doubt that this email will never get to you, however I am
writing in the vain hope that your assistant will bring this matter to
your attention.

Recently the new range of Mac Pros was announced by Apple, and fine
machines they are too. However, there are a significant number of
existing Mac Pro owners who have been patiently waiting for a long
long time now for an upgrade path for the graphics card (currently the
top of the line is a Radeon 1900XT which is well over a year out of
date - eons in graphics card terms).

I'm sure you can imagine how pleased we were when it was announced
that the new Mac Pros will have the option of an Nvidia 8800GT card,
and this was offered as an upgrade in the Apple Store. However, now
it has come to our attention that these cards will not work in older
Mac Pros (and by "old" I mean a machine purchased last week). The
fundamental reason for buying a Mac Pro aside from its power is that
it is the ONLY Apple machine that is expandable and upgradeable. Yet,
your company has decided to remove that option. I can assure you that
this has already had an impact on your sales. A brief look around the
'net has indicated that orders are being switched to PC workstations
because you have destroyed the confidence of potential Mac Pro buyers
by taking away the main reason we buy them.

Let me be very clear. There is utter disgust, disappointment and
contempt being expressed by the Mac Pro community for Apple right now.
Go into the Support>Discussions area on the Apple website and you
will see that the community is up-in-arms about the way we have been
treated. You have a serious revolt on your hands. Let me remind you
that we are your best customers. We spend many thousands of dollars
on our Mac Pro workstations, and yet we feel like your company cares
more about someone who spends a couple of hundred bucks on an iPod.

Mac Pro owners are the hardcore of your customer base -your power
users. We are the ones who have supported your company through the
leaner times, when the OS wasn't quite what it should have been, or
sales weren't so good. We use your machines in a professional
capacity and we make large orders for expensive equipment and
software. Well, no more. We won't be treated like second class
customers, at the back of the queue behind kids buying iPhones.

Do the right thing. We deserve better.

Sincerely,

[Norco]

Damn you wrote a book to him and he wrote you 2 incomplete sentences, love it, lol.

Can I send Steve an e-mail too? Hi Steve, It's LEEEROOOYYY JENKINS

[Snowshiro]

Originally Posted by Norco

Damn you wrote a book to him and he wrote a sentence, love it, lol.

The point is (and this is really all I came here to say, despite people doubting me) is that it's an important sentence. It's basically what we've all been wanting to hear - that Apple is aware of the problem and working on it.

[mcarnes]

Yeah, ok. I can see Steve reacting that way. The guy does have a temper. But still dude, it's Steve! Go easy on him. Not like he has much to do with graphics cards and their upgrade path.

[LaJaca]

Fair enough...