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Former Apple CEO John Sculley Reflects on Steve Jobs
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The early days of the personal computing revolution are such interesting times to read about. The companies working to get these machines into people's homes built a world they could scarcely imagine at the time. When you consider the Altair was a punch-card box with blinkenlights and then compare it to a commodity iMac these days it's just astounding how far we've come.
While technically I'm correct, I'd like to retract my statement as my basic premise was entirely wrong.
I've got to love people on here arguing against "FACTS".
FACTS:
1. Apple started development of the Lisa and then paid Xerox in Apple shares to gain access to a visit to the Xerox Parc research labs.
2. Apple hired away a number of engineers from Parc when Xerox could not see the value of the GUI.
3. MSFT was given early access to the Lisa and subsequently original Macintosh when they received prototypes so that they could develop software for the platform at a time when Windows was still not graphical (pixel based).
These are all "FACTS" because they happened.
http://toastytech.com/guis/guitimeline.html
Apple Lisa "SHIPPED" in 1983 and Windows did not ship until 1985.
So here is the timeline:
1. Xerox started working on GUIs 1970's
2. Apple "PAID" for access to the research at Xerox Parc and probably would have paid licensing fees but Xerox considered GUIs a dead end area of research. 1981
3. Apple hired away Xerox researchers to finish the GUI for Lisa. 1982
4. MSFT received a prototype of the Lisa. 1982
5. MSFT received a prototype of Macintosh 1983
6. MSFT ships MS Excel for Mac OS. 1984
7. MSFT releases first version of windows. 1985
In a nutshell, Apple paid Xerox, MSFT copied from the Lisa and Macintosh directly and not from Xerox.
FACTS:
1. Apple started development of the Lisa and then paid Xerox in Apple shares to gain access to a visit to the Xerox Parc research labs.
2. Apple hired away a number of engineers from Parc when Xerox could not see the value of the GUI.
3. MSFT was given early access to the Lisa and subsequently original Macintosh when they received prototypes so that they could develop software for the platform at a time when Windows was still not graphical (pixel based).
These are all "FACTS" because they happened.
http://toastytech.com/guis/guitimeline.html
Apple Lisa "SHIPPED" in 1983 and Windows did not ship until 1985.
So here is the timeline:
1. Xerox started working on GUIs 1970's
2. Apple "PAID" for access to the research at Xerox Parc and probably would have paid licensing fees but Xerox considered GUIs a dead end area of research. 1981
3. Apple hired away Xerox researchers to finish the GUI for Lisa. 1982
4. MSFT received a prototype of the Lisa. 1982
5. MSFT received a prototype of Macintosh 1983
6. MSFT ships MS Excel for Mac OS. 1984
7. MSFT releases first version of windows. 1985
In a nutshell, Apple paid Xerox, MSFT copied from the Lisa and Macintosh directly and not from Xerox.
John Scully is not as bad as some of you think.
Remember, under him, Apple's market share in US got as high as 20% (way higher than right now), and modern PDA started with Newton...to some extend, John was ahead of his time.
Apple's collapse was due to strong competition from Windows 95. Without a modern OS, Apple's UI advantage wasn't enough to justify the high prices. If Apple had better legal sense to patent the UI (some of you would cry patent troll if Apple did that) instead of copyright, the story would have been completely different.
Also, it shows that in the high tech industry, a single OS release can be significant enough to change the direction of the whole industry. For the Smart Phone category, it happened with iPhone OS, Android, and now Windows Phone 7.
Remember, under him, Apple's market share in US got as high as 20% (way higher than right now), and modern PDA started with Newton...to some extend, John was ahead of his time.
Apple's collapse was due to strong competition from Windows 95. Without a modern OS, Apple's UI advantage wasn't enough to justify the high prices. If Apple had better legal sense to patent the UI (some of you would cry patent troll if Apple did that) instead of copyright, the story would have been completely different.
Also, it shows that in the high tech industry, a single OS release can be significant enough to change the direction of the whole industry. For the Smart Phone category, it happened with iPhone OS, Android, and now Windows Phone 7.
G4 cube!
Huh? I would rather give that credit to Steve Wozniak, Sir Clive Sinclair, Ed Roberts and a few others who were engineers who actually CREATED computers - and who were already doing it before Steve Jobs even entered the field.
And it was a good thing for all mankind that Microsoft copied the concept and made it available to everybody who wanted to build and buy a computer. If it wasn't for Microsoft, we all would have been forced to buy an overpriced and extremely restricted Apple Macintosh if we wanted to use a computer with a graphical user interface. This would have held back any further innovation in that field for decades (just like IBM killed off any innovation in the IT industry before the advent of Personal Computers).
So it simply was a good thing for everybody that Microsoft created Windows. And it even was a better thing that a couple of years later the Open Source community created their own operating systems and desktops.
Indeed, people give waaay to much credit to jobs and treat scully as the devil.
Jobs didnt personaly start the PC market and wasnt responsible for ever mayor invention in it up until now (as some here might believe), he was one of its shapers but one among many.
Scully gave apple record revenue's and record profits up until 93 . It was after he left the decline started with a low in 98 up until 03 .
As for patents: apple didnt invent the GUI or the UI on its own. Priot art would make that patent worthless. From the 60's people were experimenting with GUi's. Patenting it in 80's was pointless.
1. Xerox bought shares of Apple in 1979 that would be worth at least $2 billion today.
2. The first Macintosh project manager Jeff Raskin was a visiting professor at Xerox and said he was working on a graphical interface before Jobs visit. Andy Hertzfeld has said the late Raskin played little role in the final GUI in his book, "Revolution in the Valley".
3. The Lisa was a piece of junk that was never intended to display graphics. I have a working one and the GUI looks like an afterthought.
4. Everyone had to work on Lisa that was developing for Mac in 1983, mostly in Lisa Pascal. Early versions had a "Do It" button instead of "OK"!
I still believe that the best and most innovative offering around 1985 and the years after that was the Commodore Amiga. What an awesome computer that was.
What a pity that Commodore didn't have a slightly more clever marketing approach.
"Jobs and Apple shied away from focus groups, with Jobs arguing that it was impossible to gain feedback on revolutionary new devices when the potential users couldn't understand the leaps Apple was trying to make."
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Yep, focus groups are there only to shield middle management's jobs by justifying their decisions, but are otherwise the source of much of the mediocrity reaching the market.
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Yep, focus groups are there only to shield middle management's jobs by justifying their decisions, but are otherwise the source of much of the mediocrity reaching the market.
A consumer company, not a tech company.
This is the most fascinating insight to me:
I was writing about this only a few days ago - only now it is 2010 and Apple is *still* one of the only tech companies to understand that it is in the consumer business:
Consumer Vs Technology - The Consumer Always Wins In The End
Some things don't change.
This is the most fascinating insight to me:
I was writing about this only a few days ago - only now it is 2010 and Apple is *still* one of the only tech companies to understand that it is in the consumer business:
Consumer Vs Technology - The Consumer Always Wins In The End
Some things don't change.
Let's just for a moment grant you that one, singular, specific thing (even though both you and I know it's not true). What you're saying is that everything that has been born out of Apple, all ultimately traces back to that one (supposed) "lifting". Everything. Mac OS X. iPhone. iTunes. iMac. The lot. Even everything that doesn't even use any ideas or tech from that (supposed) incident. That that single (contentious, over-blown, exaggerated and boringly repeated urban legend) thing negates everything else that Apple - and Jobs in particular - has done, including everything by everyone else as well, such as Jonny Ive who was 17 at the time the "lifting" occurred.
That's patently and absurdly ridiculous. Better to be skewed than outright blind. You just keep repeating that Xerox thing. Perhaps, like a bat, the reverberations will help guide you through the pitch blackness.
Yes. Design-by-committee at its finest. With no risk, no leap forward, no paradigm-shifting, elimination of intuition. There's a personality attribute inventory known as the KAI, which swings from adaptive to innovative. The problem with a focus group is that it applies a normalization; you'll get some adaptive people, some innovative, but overall, the group as a whole will work out somewhere in between, right on the bell-curve. And that's not conducive to taking the next leap, if that's what your intention is.
Apple's market share was 50% even earlier. It just started go down to 20% then 10% then lower. Apple II was the iPod of that day.
I still believe that the best and most innovative offering around 1985 and the years after that was the Commodore Amiga. What an awesome computer that was.
What a pity that Commodore didn't have a slightly more clever marketing approach.
Looking back, HAM mode, interlaced high res, and graphics memory vs fast memory seemed like shortcuts to have good specs. I had the Amiga 1000, 2000, and 3000.
a time waster
"So basically Jobs thinks everyone is an idiot hence the iron grip on the UI, everything going through iTunes....all in the name of the end user's "experience".
this "commenter" said he gave up his iphone in april and "never looked back" but six months later still wastes everybody's time, including his own, by backbiting comments that don't really contribute to anyone's understanding of computers and creativity.
it's ok to not be able to look forward, not everyone has the gift to do so, but why waste energy in negativism. not constructive, thoughtful criticism. being a working student i value my time and respect people who think and contribute. thus, s. jobs is high on my respect list.
"So basically Jobs thinks everyone is an idiot hence the iron grip on the UI, everything going through iTunes....all in the name of the end user's "experience".
this "commenter" said he gave up his iphone in april and "never looked back" but six months later still wastes everybody's time, including his own, by backbiting comments that don't really contribute to anyone's understanding of computers and creativity.
it's ok to not be able to look forward, not everyone has the gift to do so, but why waste energy in negativism. not constructive, thoughtful criticism. being a working student i value my time and respect people who think and contribute. thus, s. jobs is high on my respect list.
Woo! Lets hear it for the Amiga. I still have two A1200s
And I agree totally. While what Apple was doing was special - Commodore were doing different special things at the same time. Even *Acorn* made a great contribution later on (ARM based desktops) but nobody seems to look past MS and Apple. (which makes sense considering it's a Mac site, but still!)I've always wanted to know what Jobs thought about the Amiga, both at the time and now.
Good God, I thought these kind of absolutely false, clueless idiocies died out by now... apparently there you are, still believing this utter ************* Apple was busy spreading in the 90s.
Newsflash for you: Jobs didn't create jacksheet, especially not personal computing and Apple so far never invented anything - they always take existing bits and pieces and make them into a very easy-to-use UI/user experience.
If anything they are usually very late to the game because of this business model.
Yeah, right - because Sony isn't there or Microsoft isn't a consumer-focused business...
...you gotta love these clueless blogposts, they go well with the morning coffee.