Jobs was similarly skeptical of smartphones. There may not have been an iPhone if others hadn't convinced Jobs of its potential.
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I miss Steve Jobs.
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Jobs was similarly skeptical of smartphones. There may not have been an iPhone if others hadn't convinced Jobs of its potential.
Everybody in this thread is kind of hating, but I miss Steve Jobs too, OP.
I miss the days of revolutionary upgrades instead of incremental upgrades, and indestructible Macs.
Have a good day everyone.
I miss the days of revolutionary upgrades instead of incremental upgrades, and indestructible Macs.
Have a good day everyone.
There is no way to know how successful Steve would have been if he had been alive over the past decade. However, I tend to believe that Apple's product lineup would have been better and simpler, and hardware and software quality would have been better.
That said, judging from recent years, Tim Cook's time has also been gone for a while now. Apple has been running on inertia that will eventually run out. The company needs new leadership or risk decline in some areas and getting further behind in others.
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with steve jobs, nothing was impossible, now it seems like anything might be impossible...
He was a good salesman, and I think he really pushed design in a way that maybe wasn't always practical, but it was very interesting.
Apple has still made some really great products since he has been gone, but the product line feels like they are approaching 90s territory again. We've got 4 different iPad lines with multiple models within 2 of them! Why?
Apple has still made some really great products since he has been gone, but the product line feels like they are approaching 90s territory again. We've got 4 different iPad lines with multiple models within 2 of them! Why?
I'd argue many poeple don't miss Steve, they just miss the era when Apple was a niche computer manufacturer supporting the creative industries. It made buyers feel like they were in a special 'club'.
Now the iPhone has become the yardstick, and Windows laptops all try to ape the Macbook Air Apple are really just another (albeit massive) tech company.
Personally I'd settle for a relaunched AppleWorks
Now the iPhone has become the yardstick, and Windows laptops all try to ape the Macbook Air Apple are really just another (albeit massive) tech company.
Personally I'd settle for a relaunched AppleWorks
This might sound a bit too woowoo for some, but I read in an article that it reportedly was Steve Jobs' soul contract to bring the iPhone to the world.
That was his main reason for incarnating on Earth.
Arguably, the smartphone as we know it today, was likely the most important human invention in the past decades since the Internet.
Without the original iPhone the world would look very different today.
We might still all be using WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) mostly text based mobile browsers based on WML (Wireless Markup Language)...
If true, Steve certainly fulfilled his soul mission.
Good job. May he rest in peace.
Having said that, without someone like Steve, who focussed the company onto a few clear visions, Apple ended up dancing on too many parties. Basically throwing everything against the wall, to see what sticks.
And thanks to the iPhone Apple had the money for it.
But it did not do the company any good, I think. They again need someone with a vision and focus. And Cook himself said that he is not that person. He can oil the engine and make sure there is enough fuel for the trip ahead, but he is not the visionary to steer the course.
That was his main reason for incarnating on Earth.
Arguably, the smartphone as we know it today, was likely the most important human invention in the past decades since the Internet.
Without the original iPhone the world would look very different today.
We might still all be using WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) mostly text based mobile browsers based on WML (Wireless Markup Language)...
If true, Steve certainly fulfilled his soul mission.
Good job. May he rest in peace.
Having said that, without someone like Steve, who focussed the company onto a few clear visions, Apple ended up dancing on too many parties. Basically throwing everything against the wall, to see what sticks.
And thanks to the iPhone Apple had the money for it.
But it did not do the company any good, I think. They again need someone with a vision and focus. And Cook himself said that he is not that person. He can oil the engine and make sure there is enough fuel for the trip ahead, but he is not the visionary to steer the course.
Steve Jobs was actually very resistant to the iPhone idea. It was others at Apple (perhaps it was their "main reasons for incarnation on earth", not Jobs) that had to convince him of its potential.
The surprising story of how the iPhone was invented illustrates how to change your boss's mind
In 2004, Steve Jobs almost stopped the creation of the iPhone. Here’s how the Apple team changed his mind.
What makes you think Steve Jobs would do anything any different??
You might think he would. But no-one will ever know.
You might think he would. But no-one will ever know.
I miss when people didn't post stupid stuff.
We would get another mini phone if he was still alive
Forgive me, but how is that any different than the Cashcow iPod from back in the day, which also went through plenty of absolutely bizarre and weird phases and designs? Even more than the iPhone I would say.
Just look at the iPod nano…
First, there was the super scratchableplastic one, then the colored aluminum one, then the short fat one, then the tall skinny one, then the one with the camera Apple wanted to replace the flip, then the proto-Watch one, then the one that looked like a teeny tiny iPhone.
Or even the shuffle, there was a stick of gum, there was the one without buttons that absolutely everyone hated, then there was the one that brought back the buttons.
Even the regular iPod had its line of weird strange decisions, remember the third generation that cut all of the buttons off of the scroll wheel and turn them into glowing orange touch capacitive ones? And then they reverted that decision just a year later?
Or… Does literally anyone remember the HP iPod? That was a thing. iPods sold by Hewlett Packard, with HP logos on them, that Apple completely refused to service.
These were all very real, very weird and completely inconsistent.
Compared to that, the iPhone is *very* consistent and knows exactly what it is.
People don’t realize that the man would literally change his mind all the time, and very quickly.
jobs in 04: no video on iPod, it would be a terrible viewing experience
Jobs in 05: … so anyway the new video iPod is great, we’ll take your $500 please.
Even in 2008 Steve Jobs was calling EReaders and the Amazon Kindle store a waste of time because no one reads books…
iBooks would be announced two years later.
I resemble this remark 😂
"I miss Steve Jobs..."
"They don't make things like they used to..."
"Back in my day..."
"Get off my lawn..."
Even as someone who does have nostalgia for the past I understand time moves on. I love my modern technology! What would I do if I had to actually drive myself to work? 😭
also, people always praise him for the four computers quad lineup, but that really only existed for about a year (May 1999 through July 2000) before Apple started diversifying.
By the time of his actual resignation in 2011 there were just about as many iPods and Macintosh computers in the lineup as there are iPhones and iPads today.
There was the white plastic MacBook, the MacBook Air in two screen sizes, the MacBook Pro in three screen sizes, the Mac mini, the iMac in two different sizes with two different processors and the Mac Pro, which had barely been touched in two years.
Then, on the iPod line, there was the classic, the shuffle, the nano and the touch, all at by that time, completely weird and overlapping price points. An iPod touch was like $20 more than an iPod nano, the nano was a prototype version of the watch, and the classic was basically going on five years without ever being updated.
And just in case people were convinced that Steve would have never eventually diversified the iPad and iPhone lines, it should be noted that the bigger iPhone 5, the plastic iPhone 5C, the iPad Mini, and early prototypes of phones with 5 inch screens and tablets with 6 inch screens go as far back as 2010.
By the time of his actual resignation in 2011 there were just about as many iPods and Macintosh computers in the lineup as there are iPhones and iPads today.
There was the white plastic MacBook, the MacBook Air in two screen sizes, the MacBook Pro in three screen sizes, the Mac mini, the iMac in two different sizes with two different processors and the Mac Pro, which had barely been touched in two years.
Then, on the iPod line, there was the classic, the shuffle, the nano and the touch, all at by that time, completely weird and overlapping price points. An iPod touch was like $20 more than an iPod nano, the nano was a prototype version of the watch, and the classic was basically going on five years without ever being updated.
And just in case people were convinced that Steve would have never eventually diversified the iPad and iPhone lines, it should be noted that the bigger iPhone 5, the plastic iPhone 5C, the iPad Mini, and early prototypes of phones with 5 inch screens and tablets with 6 inch screens go as far back as 2010.
It doesn’t help that Tim Cook is the one who replaced him.
Apple desperately needs another product person, if not in charge, then at least close to the top.
I miss not seeing beginner-level typography faux-pas in UIs. I never thought I’d see straight quotes in anything Apple makes.
I miss bugs in macOS getting fixed.
I miss Apple not participating in dumb trends (AI, AR, etc.).
I miss them having a backbone.
The sadder part is that the market either does not care about or even rewards these things, and the slide into mediocrity in areas that only Apple used to care about goes mostly rewarded.
Of course there was a lot of ******** in Steve Jobs’ era, too, and he was kind of an *******.
But as far as product leadership, yes, it was a better time.
Apple desperately needs another product person, if not in charge, then at least close to the top.
I miss not seeing beginner-level typography faux-pas in UIs. I never thought I’d see straight quotes in anything Apple makes.
I miss bugs in macOS getting fixed.
I miss Apple not participating in dumb trends (AI, AR, etc.).
I miss them having a backbone.
The sadder part is that the market either does not care about or even rewards these things, and the slide into mediocrity in areas that only Apple used to care about goes mostly rewarded.
Of course there was a lot of ******** in Steve Jobs’ era, too, and he was kind of an *******.
But as far as product leadership, yes, it was a better time.
Jobs’ vision was wildly successful: a “bicycle for the mind,” an iPhone in every pocket, the intersection of liberal arts and technology. Mission accomplished. But now what? Turns out, all the hardware innovation in the world has led to doomscrolling, ad optimization, and atomization.
LLMs are a huge deal, and Apple completely missing the wave is strange for a company that’s rarely first but usually quick to refine and monetize. It’s underwhelming. That said, Apple is still well-positioned. Its ecosystem gives it a unique advantage to make Apple Intelligence the AI for the masses.
LLMs are a huge deal, and Apple completely missing the wave is strange for a company that’s rarely first but usually quick to refine and monetize. It’s underwhelming. That said, Apple is still well-positioned. Its ecosystem gives it a unique advantage to make Apple Intelligence the AI for the masses.
Exactly this. And people constantly on their phones instead of watching their kids play baseball, or parents sedating their kids with iPads instead of taking to them. I wonder if Steve Jobs, who had a crystal clear vision of computers enabling people, would have been horrified to see his creation stunting people instead. Would he be sufficiently horrified to lead Apple to attempt to undo the harm?
So Apple isn’t fixing bugs and macOS anymore? Perhaps they have staffing cut backs because it’s not like Steve Jobs would be personally fixing bugs. It would be workers at Apple just like the ones that work under Tim Cook.
I hate to tell you, but these are dumb trends. I’m sure people said that about automobiles when they came out that they will never replace horses. The future will happen regardless of if Apple decides to embrace it or not. Just like touchscreen phones happened even though blackberry did not embrace the technology.
Why don’t you think he has a backbone? What specifically is he doing that’s making him seem weak.
The market as you call it is what people want. Yes it could be different than what you want, but that’s what people want and that’s what Apple has to sell. I might want to make a 19” CRT television, but that’s not something people want. Even Tim Cook could have passions about making something like for example the Apple car but if it’s not something that people will buy, it doesn’t matter how passionate Tim is about it. When it comes down to it, Apple has to sell products to stay in business. It seems like Tim has figured out how to do that.
Yes, he was, but that was one of his strengths. You can’t be a nice guy and a leader at the same time. You have to make hard decisions that involve firing people and hurting people’s feelings. I don’t think his style of leadership would even be allowed today. You can’t treat people like that at work without some legal repercussion. It’s a different time today. One could argue that’s not a good thing, but that’s life.
Objects could be harmful and helpful. The same rock that could be used to build a pathway could be used for violence. The same iPhone that could be used to look up a medical condition and call for an ambulance could be used to look up other less appropriate things. That’s something people have to figure out as a society. We can’t not invent fire because of arsonists. Many people have addictions to social media and the instant gratification, but there’s also a lot of good that comes with the smart phone.
Smartphones are wonderful devices.
However, the harm of smartphones, and the social media ecosystem that grew around it, is undeniable. It's unraveling society. Apple has the unique power, and duty I'd say, to attempt to mitigate the harm its devices can inflict.