Arrogant Gates.. and contradictory

[Phobophobia]

you mean it will fold

Gold. Pure gold.

 

[emaja]

OK, let's try this again...

1. Steve Jobs referred to the flash-based players up to that point as disposable because most were. They used AAA/AA/etc batteries, and had terrible software interfaces and design. He wasn't trashing competing products with the Shuffle, he was trashing bad flash MP3 players--which weren't competing with the Shuffle at all.

This was before the introduction of the shuffle. He was defending Apple's absence from the low-end MP3 player market. He said it several times. He mentioned it in conjunction with their less user-friendly interfaces and a lack of style.

The lack of a display on the shuffle is a major shortcoming in a lot of people's opinion. People's blind praise of everything Apple is silly.

2. He promised 3ghz because IBM promised it to him--not because he wants to lie.

I never said that he wanted to lie. He committed the cardinal sin of marketing - he over-promised and under-delivered. He should have been more conservative with his estimates - even if that is what IBM told him. By his own admission he got burned.

I'd be willing to bet that Intel promised him the 2GHz and 2.16GHz chips for the MacBooks all along and that he didn't want to be burned on their intro, so he scaled that back then delivered more than what was promised. That is great marketing - under-promise and over-deliver.

3. Steve Jobs is one of the most considerate CEOs I've ever seen when it comes to talking about other companies and their products. Your post is immature and flawed in the way that it tries to make a point.

You are reading an awful lot into my post. I never said that Jobs was arrogant or inconsiderate. I never said anything of the sort. I simply said that it is easy to see how the same quality can be seen in two different ways. To call me immature for being able to see the same characteristics from two different perspectives shows a lack of understanding on your part.

There are many stories about Jobs' tempestuous temper and impulsiveness from people on the inside of Apple. Just because he is a visionary and drives innovation at Apple doesn't mean that he is flawless. I can love and support the company without thinking that Jobs is god-like.

 

[Phobophobia]

Fine, whatever. Steve Jobs and Apple are the devil. Have a nice day.

 

[EGT]

you mean it will fold

Wayhey!!!

 

[emaja]

Fine, whatever. Steve Jobs and Apple are the devil. Have a nice day.

Where did that come from? I never said that anywhere.

All I was trying to say was that there was more than one way to look at it. Apparently you are too blindly focused to see another perspective.

 

[Abstract]

^^I agree somewhat. People to analyse every word too closely and never seem to look at the entire sentence. He was obviously trying to give slight jabs at the flash based mp3 player market when he made his comments.

And about being blind........the iPod Shuffle isn't any better designed than any other flash based mp3 player on the market. It just works with iTunes, which is reason enough to buy it. However, it's not better --- it doesn't even have a screen, and then Jobsy even manages to convince you that you don't need one at all. Then he pulls out his cape and drapes over himself and POOF!!.....he disappears like a magician and leaves some people in a completely daze of bull*****.

 

[Abstract]

I like the Origami concept, but it fail if they do not price them for mass adoption. Around $500 or less is the key to people getting them, and I don't think they can do that yet.

Yeah, Origami products, even their size, is great, but you really do need a flash memory based one and not use harddisks in order to save space and battery life. Oh, and an OS better suited for the Origami based products would be better than a full version of XP.

And what happens when Vista comes out and none of these little machines are powerful enough to run it? Again, MS needs a new OS to run this particular part of the market.

 

[Diatribe]

Steve Jobs has twisted the truth in regards of marketing so often that defending him is kinda funny. Marketing is saying things you don't mean at the right time and taking them back when they don't work for you anymore. Deal with it people, it doesn't make him any worse than others, it's just how business works.

 

[XNine]

Not if you smoke.

lmao. Gary, you're a riot.
if i were gay i'd marry you

While Bill Gates is an *******, I'm sorry, the 100 dollar laptop is crap. Why are we trying to develop 3rd world countries when our own Countries (or, at least, the US) have so many uneducated people? Don't our children deserve some attention? No, the kids who most likely have no effing clue on how to use a computer in the first place, kids who barely have clothing or food or are dying of some terrible disease get a laptop. THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT THEY NEED!

 

[plinden]

Three hours is what I hear. That REALLY means 2.4 hours in the real world, and more like 1.4 in 6 months.
I mean, how DUM is that! Only a FOOL would buy one.

Well, according to last week's Twitcast, the target market is soccer moms with 10 minutes or so to spare while waiting for their kids. Not sure what point I'm trying to make here ...

 

[Linkjeniero]

While Bill Gates is an *******, I'm sorry, the 100 dollar laptop is crap. Why are we trying to develop 3rd world countries when our own Countries (or, at least, the US) have so many uneducated people? Don't our children deserve some attention? No, the kids who most likely have no effing clue on how to use a computer in the first place, kids who barely have clothing or food or are dying of some terrible disease get a laptop. THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT THEY NEED!

You're being kind of narrow minded here... What those kids need is not only food and medication, but also an education that will allow them to help themselves and their countries later in life; that is, to break the vicious circle of poverty. That's the whole point of the program. And it's not like they're taking money from the poor, uneducated people in the US to make those laptops; what they're doing is offer it to the governments of those countries at a price they can afford, and at no loss. They are able to offer them at just $100 because they're made cheaply, without any bells and whistles, and in really big quantities.

About the idiotic comments of Bill Gates: he is clearly showing that he doesn't know sh*t about designing a product with the user in mind, instead of pulling it out of his ass and let the user struggle with it, as he has been doing his whole life. He laughs about the crank, but completely ignores the fact that the kids who will be using the thing live in places with no electricity! Perharps he wants to have them use metanol instead? . IIRC, in places like Africa they have crank-powered radios, and they work just fine. It's not like you have to crank it continuously to have it work, like Bill is trying to imply; instead, you crank it every hour or so (probably more for the laptops; but if you ask me, that's better than having to plug it after an hour of use, like it happens with many laptops nowadays). He also says they should offer broadband connection... Maybe he isn't aware that there are whole countries in Africa that have a 1 mb/s connection? (that's 1 mb/s for the WHOLE country. And it's all for the government). Instead, what they did in the MIT is give the laptops an easy to set up MANET, something they can actually use (I bet Bill would just toss in an AOL coaster ). He said a lot about the computer being "shared", but AFAIK these laptops are personal (I remember Negroponte clearly stating that it should be one per kid, to give them a sense of ownership). According to gates, the thing is useless without a big ass HD... but what is it for? Those kids are just gonna be doing homework with it, and text and images aren't THAT heavy... maybe he doesn't recall that not so long ago, hard drives weren't bigger than today's pendrives? And finally, he also mocked the screen... too small to be useful, he said. Funny, because it looks bigger than the one on his Origami thing... and the resolution is the same that I used 10 years ago; and as far as I remember, I could read the text in my screen just fine. What Bill never addresses is the fact that all his "improvements" to the laptop would make it so expensive, that the whole purpose of it would be defeated... No poor kid could ever have one.

 

[Eraserhead]

You're being kind of narrow minded here...

.........

What Bill never addresses is the fact that all his "improvements" to the laptop would make it so expensive, that the whole purpose of it would be defeated... No poor kid could ever have one.

So true, I completely agree. A 10 year old PC would have similar specs and should be able to do email and photos and text just fine.