Previously Untold Recollections of Steve Jobs: 'Scuffgate' 2004, 'Hide the Porsches', and More

[entatlrg]

Kudos to Steve! It's those actions, while they seem weird to many, that made the difference, and contributed to the multiple successes Steve and his Team accomplished. I miss him.

 

[bbplayer5]

The great thing about Steve - he cared about everything. From the littlest part to the biggest, it all matters.

 

[jonnysods]

People joke about Steve being a crazy micromanager, but I believe in many ways his tyranny made Apple what it was, and to a degree some of that is slipping. Supply chain part leaks increasing, small design flaws, maps controversy. I know those things happened under his leadership too, but they seemed to be fixed a lot faster!

 

[Bubba Satori]

exactly what does the author prove to accomplish by perpetuating the "*blank*gate" stupidity?

how bout we stop that nonsense.

Not as long as it reliably elicits hilariously plaintive squeals of righteous indignation from the offended faithful.
Tweaking the nose of the Profit is too much fun. 😀

 

[bushido]

its true what they say, insanity and intelligence go hand in hand. he must have been a real -censored due to american prudery- as a boss, great as a innovater tho

The great thing about Steve - he cared about everything. From the littlest part to the biggest, it all matters.

as long as it wasnt a human being, he seems like a lil Sheldon Cooper ^^

 

[cvaldes]

LOL, I've never seen the Stanford store that empty.

😀

 

[z1on0101]

Steve Jobs reminded me a lot of a Gordon Ramsay or Jiro Ono:

Jiro Dreams of Sushi (2011)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1772925/

People love to focus on how "mean" these guys are, but they only want perfection. Is that too much to ask?

They also share a minimalist, simplistic design aesthetic. Why have anything extra? Why have a kitchen + filth when you can just have a kitchen? Why have an Apple Store + scuff marks when you can just have an Apple Store?

Apple products are far from the pinnacle of minimalist perfection, but I think they're closer than just about anything else out there, and I'm afraid that without Steve, that demand for the best may wane. Who is demanding perfection at Apple today?

 

[a0me]

The first story is more proof that Steve had some serious psychological issues, a very strong case of OCD. It might have helped him in some cases but I'm sure it must have been somewhat problematic. Poor fella.

Imagine if Steve had seen Apple Maps...

 

[840quadra]

Sounds like Steve would have never approved of the new iPhone 5 casings.

R.I.P. Steve

I wouldn't be surprised if he insisted the next iPhone be made of Aluminum and Glass.

You do realize that MacBooks, Macbook Air, The iMac, The Mac Mini, the iPad, and various other recent Apple Products Released while Steve was still alive are comprised of mostly Aluminum and Glass? If people are surprised that the iPhone 5 was built using those materials, I guess I don't know what Apple they have been following 😉 .

IMO, this iPhone is very Steve Jobs.

Take a look at the history of product releases since his return. Many times Design was put before function. This also goes for Materials used to build them. The Ti Books, White Macbook (CrackBook), and Cube are some compromised designs and or building materials used to make them, come to mind.

I have to agree the phone isn't as sturdy as a 4 or 4s, however, it has been a great owner experience for me so far.

 

[Blomkvist]

I always have to hide my Porches too...

 

[bugfaceuk]

Don't quite understand this sequence of events;



Outside the store to an area partitioned with curtains?

Sounds like Connie Guglielmo was gutsy to say that, since Jobs "designed" the store. 😉

I think that's something most in the thread aren't getting... Steve designed the store and arguably never learned to think about use and wear of materials. Another poster has listed the scuffaws he presided over.

I'm a huge fan of his creations, but the man had flaws.

Of the floor... they were walking on it wrong.

 

[gotluck]

interesting tidbits!

i hope steve was cleaning the floor along with the design team, i mean he did say that he was involved with every aspect of the process!

 

[bugfaceuk]

Imagine if Steve had seen Apple Maps...

HE WOULD HAVE APPROVED IT!

Siri anyone? The man believed in iteration and had become barely rational in his attitude to Google. I think he would have shipped it, probably not written a letter like Tim's, and fired some engineers (or told them to be ashamed of themselves).

I am in shock at the rose tinted memory of this thread.

 

[distemp]

Ugh, the more I hear about Steve Jobs the more I think he was an insufferable ******* with a superiority complex. SUCH a ****.

 

[Mattie Num Nums]

I guess I am the only one here who has a big problem with lying to potential investors.

 

[RichieP]

My Take on This

There's no telling what Mr. Jobs would have done with the issues facing the iPhone 5 today regarding scuffing. I thought he had a hand in its design up until the day he died - literally. He might have just told us not to hold it that way if we don't wan't scuffs. But, one thing I think is certain, the Map App would never have been released in the condition it is presently. As an early adopter I have had iMacs, Mac Books, iPods, iPhones and iPads the day each iteration was released to the public. I have been an Apple fan for a very long time; 'til now. It seems that corporate has moved away from pleasing the customer to a grey flannel business. Certainly it has always been profit driven; but customer experience and innovation was paramount. I believe the new frontier for innovation and customer experience belongs to Windows Phone 8, the Surface Table and the new Windows 8 operating system. They are all clean, refreshing and innovative. Putting aside the availablity of apps and third party accessories, the Nokia Lumia 920 is far more innovative than the current iteration of the iPhone. Ask the Woz - I bet he agrees. I have my iPhone 5 and am satisfied with it and will keep it until the next iPhone iteration comes out and will buy that too; but, this one doesn't make my heart race any longer. I will continue to look at the Nokia phones with longing eyes; but I am too ingrained in the Apple eco-system to switch. I believe the iPhone 5 is a fail; not a major fail, but a fail.

 

[All Taken]

Sounds like Steve would have never approved of the new iPhone 5 casings.

R.I.P. Steve

It's common knowledge that due to the way Apple operate, Steve would have known about this design. Likely he knew the next few designs in fact.

 

[JAT]

They moved the cars around to the back of NeXT's offices in Palo Alto, Calif. and Perot invested $20 million in the company in 1987 and took a seat on the board.

Should have just moved them into Visitors spaces.

But seriously, he must have had a low opinion of Perot. I was always of the understanding that Perot was quite detail oriented about cash. If he didn't already know the net worth of the founder of Pixar Studios and Apple before walking in the door, I'd be damn surprised.

 

[Sedrick]

“It was obvious that whoever designed the store had never cleaned a floor in their life,” I told him.

Well, that explains the glass back on the 4 and delicate aluminum back on the 5.

 

[johncrab]

Funny how people think. H. Ross Perot once had a coral reef blown up in order to make anchorage for one of his yachts, so I don't think he would be put off by a couple of Porsches.

 

[SkippyThorson]

These are the kinds of stories I love hearing about Steve. Thanks for bringing this one out, MacRumors. I likely wouldn't have found it otherwise. 🙂

 

[jent]

I'm confused; I thought all Apple Stores have used floors made from the same expensive stone coming from a single Italian supplier (as mentioned in Walter Isaacson's biography of Steve Jobs). So what was different about this floor that it scuffed so much?

 

[picciano]

Tim would have never let this happen.

 

[SmileyBlast!]

iPhone 5 prestige item?

Phil Schiller said, "It's the most beautiful iPhone we have ever made", or words to that affect. It seems like that was the main design goal.
Rather than making a utilitarian device that can resist scratches and dings, they went for Bling value and chamfered edges.

You could see that Steve thought that glass on the front and back was going to be more scratch resistant than it proved to be.

This aluminum back, seems reactionary to the drop damage reports.
I think that they expect that people will get cases and screen protectors if they really want to keep the phone pristine.

Anyway, "Quick Hide the Porsches" is a nice fun problem to have. 😉

 

[Bezetos]

Truly the mark of a man who lived life on his own terms without giving one single rat's ass about what others thought.

I think this is inaccurate.

People with OCD are usually quite self-conscious.

He didn't want to let the reporters in because of a "scuffing on the white floor". If that's not caring what others thought than I don't know what is...