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Apple's Shareholder Meeting Notes: Leopard, Apple TV, Research

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Apr 12, 2001
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Macworld.com and CNBC have notes from Apple's shareholder meeting which took place today.

In it Steve Jobs fielded various questions covering the backdating stock options, Fred Anderson, Greenpeace and the iPhone. Some of the interesting tidbits are posted below:

• "Leopard will be worth the wait" - Steve Jobs
• When a shareholder asked Jobs for high-definition video content on iTunes and asked if his Apple TV could allow him to rent movies, the CEO smiled. “One never knows,” he said cryptically.
• Regarding .Mac, Jobs admitted that Apple’s suite of online services hasn’t achieved its full potential, but said the company was working on it.
• Regarding a decreasing research budget percentage, Jobs said research is a lot more about people and quality engineers than it is about the money. "I wish developing great products was as easy as writing a check," said Jobs. If that were the case, Microsoft would have some great products."
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2007/05/10/apples-shareholder-meeting-notes-leopard-apple-tv-research/
A few kind of lame things I picked up:

- Apparently only like 3 members of the board were at the meeting. You'd think that all or almost all would be present for such a meeting...
- A shareholder brings up a valid concern regarding Apple not keeping up with staffing their R&D teams, and Steve deflects and pokes at Microsoft? Come on! Some may think its funny, but the jokes do get old, especially coming from Apple when they are having issues of their own. Remember when they shipped iPods with viruses, and they mocked Windows? (that had all sorts of class)
 
R.o.l.a.i.d.s.

.

What a relief. It's just good to hear from you, Steve.

Ya know, I'm guessing that a lot of use are not so mad about the fact that new tech is taking so long as much as that you rarely hear these casual encouragements from him.

It's like when kids get calls from their teachers only when they are doing something bad, and never a call when they are doing something good.

Steve, set up a BLOG. It would calm a lot of nerves... be upfront about the fact you know we are frustrated and cooling our heels...

m2cents
 
longofest said:
Remember when they shipped iPods with viruses, and they mocked Windows? (that had all sorts of class)
Click to expand...
A problem, absolutely. But then again, it only affected people running Windows! ;)

I like the notion that you may be able to rent HD movies through iTunes. That would be a big plus for me and actually get me interested in an Apple TV.

What I would have liked to see is someone ask when all the new Macs for 2007 will be released? It's freakin' May and still only one machine has been released (the Octo).
 
longofest said:
- A shareholder brings up a valid concern regarding Apple not keeping up with staffing their R&D teams, and Steve deflects and pokes at Microsoft? Come on!
Click to expand...
...a concern that had already been addressed and isn't really much of a concern in the first place.

"The Apple CEO also said that his company can’t make up for a limited amount of engineering resources simply by throwing money at the problem. He said that the reason Apple is innovative is because the company is careful in who it hires, and so the process of growing the company’s talent pool can take years."

You can't just hire new people, get them up to speed, and then dismiss them all when you don't have continuous projects for them. Delays in product development are not unusual, nor does hiring a mass number of new people to "help out" actually get anything done faster. In fact, more often than not, adding lots of new people to a project only slows it down. That's why it's only done when a project has been floundering for so long that it has to be restructured and partially restarted.

This isn't the first time Apple employees have been overtaxed, and it won't be the last. That doesn't mean they should hire more people--"seasonal hiring" for software development rarely makes sense unless you need a lot of simple tasks done a large number of times (in which case, it'd be cheaper to farm it out to a third party to provide project help, rather than hiring and firing).
 
The R&D quote is so great. Apple has only been spending half a billion or so in the past couple years on R&D while microsoft has been spending billions(4-6) for years now. Microsoft seems to have a big problem getting from point R to point D.
 
longofest said:
A few kind of lame things I picked up:
- A shareholder brings up a valid concern regarding Apple not keeping up with staffing their R&D teams, and Steve deflects and pokes at Microsoft?
Click to expand...

I think that's pretty funny... Steve makes a valid point about research being more about people... the consumers. Last time I checked it was free to talk to people. Why would they need a big R&D budget. We are their R&D department and I think Steve's on the right track. If more companies like Microsoft would put the consumer first...maybe they would have better quality products.
 
Another choice quote from steve today, "A few of us have been using the iPhone a lot and if you wanted it back, you would have to pry it from our dead hands.”"
 
matticus008 said:
...a concern that had already been addressed and isn't really much of a concern in the first place.

"The Apple CEO also said that his company can’t make up for a limited amount of engineering resources simply by throwing money at the problem. He said that the reason Apple is innovative is because the company is careful in who it hires, and so the process of growing the company’s talent pool can take years."

You can't just hire new people, get them up to speed, and then dismiss them all when you don't have continuous projects for them. Delays in product development are not unusual, nor does hiring a mass number of new people to "help out" actually get anything done faster. In fact, more often than not, adding lots of new people to a project only slows it down. That's why it's only done when a project has been floundering for so long that it has to be restructured and partially restarted.

This isn't the first time Apple employees have been overtaxed, and it won't be the last. That doesn't mean they should hire more people--"seasonal hiring" for software development rarely makes sense unless you need a lot of simple tasks done a large number of times (in which case, it'd be cheaper to farm it out to a third party to provide project help, rather than hiring and firing).
Click to expand...

MacDudePro said:
I think that's pretty funny... Steve makes a valid point about research being more about people... the consumers. Last time I checked it was free to talk to people. Why would they need a big R&D budget. We are their R&D department and I think Steve's on the right track. If more companies like Microsoft would put the consumer first...maybe they would have better quality products.
Click to expand...

The main point I'm making is that Steve had no need to bash Microsoft.

However, on the point of Apple's R&D budget... I understand that it may be good for Apple to not hire quite as fast as Microsoft might have, and to be selective. But there's a lot of talent out there, in order for them to continue growing while making quality products, they will need to keep growing their R&D budget at least at the same pace as they are growing as a company.

An example from Mac OS 10. You can't argue with the fact that as more users begin using OS 10, it becomes more of a target, and more security vulnerabilites will be uncovered. Apple will have to adequately man its development team to patch such vulnerabilities quickly.

Bash Microsoft all you want for all the holes they have, but they at least get stuff patched quickly. Imagine if they didn't get stuff patched as quickly, and imagine Apple in those shoes...
 
"Jobs did acknowledge that the company is still struggling to decide if third-party developers will be able to create software that will run on the iPhone. It’s a decision Apple “is wrestling with,” according to Jobs."

Whoa..
 
I would LOVE to rent movies by download from iTunes.

I don't want to buy, I don't want to subscribe (a la Netflix), I want to RENT, one at a time.

Music, no. Movies, yes.

And I want high-def, but at the right price, I'd rent lower quality. Buy, no. Rent, yes.

Project said:
"Jobs did acknowledge that the company is still struggling to decide if third-party developers will be able to create software that will run on the iPhone. It’s a decision Apple “is wrestling with,” according to Jobs."

Whoa..
Click to expand...

Sounds like a compromise may emerge! Not open it to total freedom so your phone loses its reliabilty as an appliance (lets face it, Macs are stable, but not AS stable as an iPod) but open it with limits?


longofest said:
However, on the point of Apple's R&D budget... I understand that it may be good for Apple to not hire quite as fast as Microsoft might have, and to be selective. But there's a lot of talent out there, in order for them to continue growing while making quality products, they will need to keep growing their R&D budget at least at the same pace as they are growing as a company.
Click to expand...

More developers on a project doesn't always mean faster results--and often means WORSE results. See also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mythical_Man-Month
 
nagromme said:
Sounds like a compromise may emerge! Not open it to total freedom so your phone loses its reliabilty as an appliance (lets face it, Macs are stable, but not AS stable as an iPod) but open it with limits?




More developers on a project doesn't always mean faster results--and often means WORSE results. See also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mythical_Man-Month
Click to expand...

Still, the possibilities are enormous if the iPhone is at opened up to even partial support.

I want a full set of OmniMobile apps.
And I would kill for Skype.
 
Well said Steve...

“I think your organization particularly depends too much on principle and not enough on fact,” Jobs said to the Greenpeace representatives. “You guys rate people based on what people say their plans are in the distant future, not what they are doing today. I think you put way too much weight on these glorified principles and way too little weight on science and engineering. It would be very helpful if your organization hired a few more engineers and actually entered into dialog with companies to find out what they are really doing and not just listen to all the flowery language when in reality most of them aren’t doing anything. That’s my opinion.”
 
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