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Remembering Apple CEO Steve Jobs on His Birthday
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Regarding Apple and the iPad, their strange expansion of the line doesn’t make sense, but that’s not an innovation issue, imho. The same thing is true with the M1 and now M2 in the iPad Pro, of which I’m writing this post on my 12.9” M1 iPad Pro - and have been a huge proponent of since the 2018 model which replaced my 15” MBP as a daily driver.
If I had to guess, I would bet that the iPad hardware expansion has in large part been driven by business and gov’t purchases (in larger volumes) of certain models that then make it easier to also sell similar versions to retail consumers. I don’t have insight on this idea, but it’s what I would do as a product manufacturer (which I am).
That smile when he was revealing products. That is true excitement. The excitement of being proud what he has done and the anxiousness of seeing everyone else’s reaction.
Happy birthday, Steve
Happy birthday, Steve
Happy Birthday Steve. Thanks for the Apple II, Mac, iMac, iPod, iPhone, $1T stock valuation. Your legacy is secure indeed.
Jony didn’t want to run Apple and by the time Steve knew he only had months left, he was well aware that Jony already had one leg out the door. Tim was the only option more or less as far as Steve was concerned. Apple did really well financially under Tim and as for the rest…time will tell.
We miss Steve and Scott. Apple now is buggy and not magical 😞
He was a visionary and a perfectionist. The latter gave him a bad name, even though that perfection was essential to pushing the industry on what was acceptable, and he made up for it as someone who could look at underdeveloped technologies and envision how taking them to the finish line could create something unique that he anticipated would be where technology was going, long before it got there.
I think he would've been proud of the Apple Watch, AirPods and Apple Music. He would've lost it on Apple executives over blowing the head start Siri had as the first mainstream personal voice assistant and I think we would've been onto the next big thing (AR) far earlier than we might have been by now.
Total hogwash! There was a man who, more than anyone else at Apple, had Jobs's "taste, thinking, dedication to hard work, and lust for innovation" and Tim Cook fired him. That man was Scott Forstall.
Cook is a mediocre MBA suit who cares far more about excessive profits than Jobs's "taste, thinking, dedication to hard work, and lust for innovation". If Cook truly wanted such traits to be "the foundation of Apple", then he wouldn't have fired Forstall.
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Hey, if it makes you feel any better, I read a MacWeek article in July 1997 which discussed Apple’s financial woes at the time, but pointed out that the stock price had dropped so much (around $14, if I recall) that they said the cash Apple had on hand was enough to purchase all outstanding stock. I cannot say if the article was correct, but I mentioned it to my boss who was always saying he needed somewhere to invest his cash, and told him it seemed like a good investment since it seemed undervalued if there was more cash in the vault than the total of the stock. A few days later he came in my office saying Microsoft had invested and the stock had shot up to $40, and asking if it was still a good investment. I said I had no idea, I just knew the article made it sound like it had been undervalued.
Turns out it was still a good investment, since each one of those shares would be 112 shares now, after the series of splits in the last 25 years of 2x, 2x, 7x, and 4x. At the time I was young and didn’t have much cash available, but if I’d taken my own advice, each share I could have bought for $14 (or even $40) would be worth $16,431.52 today (the current price of 112 shares, assuming I did the math correctly.) Not that I think about it enough to make a forum post a quarter century later!
In his absence Apple has now become a company run by accountants rather than visionaries. They make great products but nothing groundbreaking like Steve used to. You can see there is definitely innovation in the current Apple (look at how Apple came up with FaceID and dynamic island) but its very restrained as if the company is not willing to take risks to redefine the industry.
The Samsung Galaxy Fold and Flip are groundbreaking innovations but Apple still is being very restrained about foldablez
The Samsung Galaxy Fold and Flip are groundbreaking innovations but Apple still is being very restrained about foldablez
Because he genuinely wanted to innovate, risks be damned. Tim Cook would never have released an iphone without a stylus back in 2007
You can't deny he had an incredible sense of what made a great product. Apple much poorer for his absence. RIP
Now, 3/4 of Apple "events" are checkbox lists and quota filler: making sure they've signalled every virtue and included every possible combination of skinny teenage hipster model available in their adverts.
Then, for about five minutes someone walks on and vaguely discusses the main product in vapid, self congratulatory fashion before finishing with,
"we think you'll love it."
/rant
I'm detecting a touch of jade in my recent commentary....
I’m 60yo now and 56 looks young in the rear view mirror. To think of someone passing at age 56 - seems like a terrible tragedy especially when they had so much effect upon history.
It makes sense for Samsung to be pushing that technology since they manufacture the actual foldable screens. I don’t recall Apple ever really pushing the bleeding edge for any technology when they didn’t control the asset, be it software or hardware, or at least a unique combination of the two. If they can come up with a unique (patentable) use of a foldable screen, I could see them pushing it, otherwise I expect they will wait until either Samsung proves there is a demand, or the raw screen price difference decreases enough to make the additional cost acceptable to the average buyer.
I get that you are saying Tim isn’t the visionary that Steve was, but he was one of the most senior executives at Apple in 2007, so technically he did release the iPhone without a stylus back in 2007. I feel bad for the guy, since he is stuck following one of the most influential people in history. Considering the number of companies over time that have had fairly rapid declines after founders have left, I think he has actually done a pretty good jobs filling those extremely large shoes. I can’t think of anyone else that I would expect to do a better job and I have to think Steve would be disappointed that his own fans constantly criticize the guy that he hand picked as his successor. I guess that is another risk Steve took, but I think he did okay with his choice.
Whoa...so much Tim Cook hate here.
While Meta, Salesforce, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Dell, IBM, PayPal, SAP, Zoom, etc. have been engaging in massive layoffs due to the economy slump, thanks to TC's foresight and business/management acumen, Apple has not had to engage in that.
I remember past MR stories about Apple taking a more cautious approach to hiring over the last two years. And all of the resulting inane juvenile comments of the form, "Gee, I guess that means Apple was previously hiring carelessly before."
Cook's doing an outstanding job developing, manufacturing, and selling tech products millions of people, many repeat, want to purchase, year after year after year, while being responsible for Apple's 165,000 employees.
Cook deserves a ton of credit for Apple's success under trying economic times managing the company while giving its customers outstanding products.
While Meta, Salesforce, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Dell, IBM, PayPal, SAP, Zoom, etc. have been engaging in massive layoffs due to the economy slump, thanks to TC's foresight and business/management acumen, Apple has not had to engage in that.
I remember past MR stories about Apple taking a more cautious approach to hiring over the last two years. And all of the resulting inane juvenile comments of the form, "Gee, I guess that means Apple was previously hiring carelessly before."
Cook's doing an outstanding job developing, manufacturing, and selling tech products millions of people, many repeat, want to purchase, year after year after year, while being responsible for Apple's 165,000 employees.
Cook deserves a ton of credit for Apple's success under trying economic times managing the company while giving its customers outstanding products.
So he had a talent for finding experts. Sounds pretty genius to me.
Perhaps he should have listened to the Doctors instead of ignoring them.
You think Steve didn't just hijack the latest mac in development and relabel it in his desired image..?