Steve Jobs Biography: What Might Have Been

[cajun67]

I don't think you'll find many who will defend Amelio.

arn

I'll defend Amelio.

He was the hatchet man at Apple who started cutting the waste. He killed Copland, Apple's next-gen OS strategy that became a financial sinkhole that dragged on for many years. He shrunk down the product offerings. He recognized that Apple needed a next-gen OS, and wasn't afraid to go outside of Apple to get one (Apple was famous for their "not invented here" attitude).

Best of all, Amelio bought NeXT and brought back Steve Jobs, and insisted that Jobs remain in a senior advisory role to Apple. That last decision ended up costing Amelio his job (when Steve engineered a coup), but it was absolutely the right thing for Apple.

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Didn't Apple License the Apple][ back in the 80's? I remember my parents having a Qcal apple clone.

No, Apple never licensed the Apple ][ series. There were several clones on the market, and Apple pursued them aggressively in court, and won every fight, IIRC.

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That's a part I never would have guessed.

Making iTunes and therefore iPod available for Windows users was a brilliant idea! It had two spinoffs: A large iTunes Music Store and the "Halo effect".
Man, I know so many people who never experienced an Apple product back then. The iPod with iTunes for Windows opened so many doors....

To think Steve didn't see this one....

That does make me realise that Tim and his team really, really know what they are doing.

Steve was a genius at times, and completely wrong at other times. Sad to say, but hopefully the post-Jobs Apple won't be so anal about such decisions.

 

[koruki]

Two reasons people go with android over iOS.

Cost and "Open"

The group that is cost conscience is likely to just pirate music (yes its a assumption but you see the logic behind it)

The group that is "open" conscience will not like to be tied to iTunes.

 

[samcraig]

Two reasons people go with android over iOS.

Cost and "Open"

The group that is cost conscience is likely to just pirate music (yes its a assumption but you see the logic behind it)

The group that is "open" conscience will not like to be tied to iTunes.

Pirated music abounds on all platforms. Saying Android users are likely is ridiculous as if that segment of the population is "more" likely.

There is no logic behind it. So no - I don't see any logic behind it. But to tell - what logic are you using to base this opinion on?

 

[Digital Skunk]

Two reasons people go with android over iOS.

Cost and "Open"

The group that is cost conscience is likely to just pirate music (yes its a assumption but you see the logic behind it)

The group that is "open" conscience will not like to be tied to iTunes.

Both your reasons are full of ****.

Because I am neither cost conscience in terms of technology (since I buy Apple computers ONLY) and I love being tied to iTunes.

See how I just flushed your theory down the toilet.

 

[ledlauzis]

Didn't know that Steve can be so negative about the things, especially about the Windows.

I think that iTunes integration would dramatically increase their music and movie sales but who cares about few billions and many new customers that can be convinced with service so they can look to buy some real products as well?

 

[McGiord]

Sounds like the iPhone ****wads couldn't cut it in the "Steve Jobs will destroy Android" forum so they decided to spread their bigotry over here.



They do, but no one buying Android . . . myself included . . . is looking to Android for the sole purpose of plugging it up into iTunes. Now, don't get me wrong, I am (as are most other Android users) indifferent to tech, I use what I like and need. I use iTunes exclusively and wouldn't want anything else.

That being said, I'd only want iTunes to put the content on my phone and that's it.



I agree!



Agree 100% It was much easier for Apple to push iTunes and the iPod into more hands by opening it up to Windows users as well, and it helped bring them into the Apple ecosystem. Same thing for the iPhone.

Now, with Android, Apple doesn't have to be as open. Many bigoted fanboys on these forums will be surprised to learn that there are a lot of Android users out there using DoubleTwist on an iMac to get their music loaded on to their Galaxy S or EVO which they bought because iApps aren't their thing and without those there's nothing truly solid enough to keep them from other devices.

Interesting what exactly were your motives to get Android instead of an iPhone?
What models were out there when you bought your first?

I found that jailbreaking was a nice way to get into customizing, and recently I no longer need to jailbreak, an the current state of the iPhone 4S with iOS 5 overcomes many shortfalls, iTunes will be no longer needed as they sync over the air and iCloud helps with many other things. DropBox and other services might also serve for additional freedom from iTunes.
I am reading the biography in my iPhone 4 in the kindle App (I think it is better than the apple version).
Great read by the way.
Blindly mimicking Steve will be stupid unless you want to die "young". Surely there are many interesting and useful learnings and things to like about him.
The book is great, and shows a lot of interesting facts, all the way around Apple and the key people that made it happen, it is not only about Steve, it includes many people around Steve's life, it's very interesting how things are determined by whom are surround you.

 

[AppleHater]

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As someone who has been following Apple rumors both casually and professionally over the past couple of decades, Steve Jobs' biography reveals a number of intriguing forks in the road that may have led the entire company down a different path.

As far back as 1982, Macintosh Marketing Director Mike Murray proposed a Mac OS licensing program to Steve Jobs. Remember, the Mac didn't officially debut until 1984, so the idea was floated very early in development. Murray specifically suggested that Apple could license to Tandy since Radio Shack stores targeted a different market than Apple. Apple has been criticized over the years for not licensing their Mac operating system. Apple did briefly allow certain manufacturers to create Mac clones and license Mac OS, but Steve Jobs put an end to that shortly after his return to Apple in the late 90s.

While it seems a given that the iPod was to be made compatible with Windows, Jobs was very resistant to the idea. At one point he said that Windows users would get to use the iPod "over my dead body". After continued convincing, Jobs gave up:Apple even considered writing an iTunes music client for Android, but Jobs didn't see the point.For those who were following Apple rumors in the late 90s, there was a lot of talk about "network computers". In particular, Oracle's Larry Ellison was a big proponent of the idea, and spoke publicly about it. Persistent rumors suggested that Apple was going to try to build such a machine. It turns out that the iMac was originally planned to be such a network computer, which was basically an inexpensive terminal that would be used to connect to the internet.

Finally, when Apple was at a crossroads in the late 90s and deciding between moving Mac OS to a new architecture, then Apple CEO Gil Amelio actually favored using Microsoft's Windows NT as the basis for the next generation Mac OS. Of course, instead, Apple purchased NeXT, bringing Steve Jobs back to Apple.

Article Link: Steve Jobs Biography: What Might Have Been

iPod for windows shows he's no marketing genius by letting his hatress toward windows cloud his judgment. At least he allowed it, but he shouldn't resisted it to begin with.

 

[vailr]

BeOS and Apple

To me, Apple's biggest strategic error was (1996) picking the Steve Job's NEXT operating system instead of Jean-Louis Gassée's BeOS.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BeOS

 

[DeepIn2U]

Biography Just Downloaded ....

Some thoughts.

I'll bet Steve Jobs has a profile on Apple's servers full of documents of brainstorming, then even more on hand written (previously not imported digitally), or on his personal Mac's at home (iOS devices too) with amazing ideas not yet explored.

OF these devices with said content whom LEGALLY has the rights to them?

 

[ZipZap]

I'll defend Amelio.

Steve was a genius at times, and completely wrong at other times. Sad to say, but hopefully the post-Jobs Apple won't be so anal about such decisions.

I would not call Steve a genius. He was right sometimes and wrong others.

 

[iBug2]

Read 140 pages so far, one thing that surprised me was that Xerox did not invent the whole dragging a selection around icons thing. Neither could they drag and drop icons into folders. All those were done under the Mac team.

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I would not call Steve a genius. He was right sometimes and wrong others.

And you think geniuses are always correct?

He was a genius by any sense of the word.

 

[vitzr]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A334 Safari/7534.48.3)

Some of this stuff is just fascinating...

Yes it is. There's enough material here that people can go on for ages speculating. The more I read, the more I see the common traits that Elvis & Steve shared. The TUAW article about it got me to thinking...

I believe it's one of the reasons Steve was so secretive. According to many articles I've read recently, like Elvis, Steve had a really dark side that explains why he lashed out at those he had complete control over. Unleashing his pent up rage. Then feeling so powerful and ready to take on anything. fascinating indeed. It made you feel sorry for the man. He couldnt help himself.

 

[Tussen69]

The both of you point out exactly the kind of Android users that I have personally encountered; 1) Zealots and 2) Cheap people.

The zealots are the über-geeks who are typically Apple haters to begin with and/or think they have a superior product in their device running Android. The cheapos are self-explanatory. There won't be a conversion of the zealots but the cheapos however, will flock to what ever is free.

I would like to add a third option

3) People who dont see the big picture . adn that is mostly the people I meet

Let me explain:

Its the kind of people who says that the Mac is expensive and instead of buying a Mac that last 5 years .. they buy 3 pc during that same period and in the end they pay more than the mac user did ..

They often see mobile phones as something you dont realy upgrade in software but something you have for 1 eyar and then get a new one with a new feature .. and new software ..

I´ve reasently encoutered a Galaxy S II something user that told me..

- the battery on iPhone was %€"%"
- Galaxy was waaaay bether ...

I asked
- realy ?

He said
- yes ..

- ok i said .. how much battery time do you get when using your galaxy ..

he said ...
- I get 5 hours ...

I said .
- I get 10 ..


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For me Android can be explained with one simple word - Tasteless

 

[dndlnx]

While it seems a given that the iPod was to be made compatible with Windows, Jobs was very resistant to the idea. At one point he said that Windows users would get to use the iPod "over my dead body".

LOL Steve was such an ******. An awesome one!

 

[ZipZap]

Read 140 pages so far, one thing that surprised me was that Xerox did not invent the whole dragging a selection around icons thing. Neither could they drag and drop icons into folders. All those were done under the Mac team.

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And you think geniuses are always correct?

He was a genius by any sense of the word.

Sorry, he does not meet that definition. I'd go with bright or smart...but many others did the hard work.

 

[Wordsmithmac]

I'm an android user been one since the G1 and now I have a Droid 3.
I wouldn't use iTunes on android simply because it's a resource hog I had it on windows and it sucked up resources, I use it on my Mac now and it does the same thing but to fair that might be lion as well...

Also, I don't buy music, I think good music stopped being produced in the 90's when artists put out full albums of bangers from start to finish nowadays its 1 or 2 good ones then crap...even on my Mac I don't use iTunes all the much other than to sync my iPad ...

And I like drag and drop to me that is more seamless than iTunes and it's not dependent on anyone but me, when I wanted to transfer my iTunes files from my pc to my Mac I was told by many I'd lose my content and have to wipe my iPad then I was told to just copy pc folders and import into Mac folders and it worked but apple doesn't tell you that, they tell u to download migration software and get another cable to connect my Mac to my pc and transfer that way...way to busy just to transfer files and way too much control over my files by apple.

I do think jobs made a mistake not putting iTunes on android tho, I wouldn't use it but there are many who would but it's all over now anyway.

 

[koruki]

Pirated music abounds on all platforms. Saying Android users are likely is ridiculous as if that segment of the population is "more" likely.

There is no logic behind it. So no - I don't see any logic behind it. But to tell - what logic are you using to base this opinion on?

I said it's likely people who are on android purely on a cost of device, if a person were short on money, just spent a bunch on a phone and had to choose free pirate music or paying, please don't blame me for assuming a person might pirate it or at least pirate it til money wasn't so tight before they buy it.

Both your reasons are full of ****.

Because I am neither cost conscience in terms of technology (since I buy Apple computers ONLY) and I love being tied to iTunes.

See how I just flushed your theory down the toilet.

holy crap! exception to a rule??

 

[chagla]

Exactly the reason why. They are not used to seamless things.

way to be smug!

why can't you fathom the fact that MAYBE people like freedom? Maybe some people don't like to be tied to a single computer in order to manage their phone? i'm curious. do you know how file management works on Android? If you really knew, you wouldn't have said that. so I'll tell you.

drag-N-drop! any computer, any time, any file, and without any special software. so what exactly is not "seamless" about it?

your statement can simply be reversed and said that IOS users are not used to freedom and flexibility. yes?

 

[Savor]

To be fair I don't think a single android user would be happy using iTunes on their handset lol

Yup.

I have this love and hate thing with iTunes.

The love is it can be the best at organizing my media. It has the most options at filtering compared to say Zune. MediaGo, and doubleTwist, and cleaner to look at than MediaMonkey. I am very familiar with it for over half a decade. Yes, it looks boring and like a spreadsheet compared to the Zune software, but iTunes filters my searching and criterias the best.

The hate is iDevices depending on it so much (at least pre-iOS5 days) and how it crashes my computer sometimes. Sometimes my iPhone would just hang on the sync and not finish the last step. iTunes and Windows is like oil and vinegar. And there are days when I just want to drag and drop all my stuff on my phone and not go through the process of waiting for it to sync or waiting for iTunes to open up.

 

[ortuno2k]

"Screw it," he said at one meeting where they showed him the analysis. "I'm sick of listening to you *******s. Go do whatever the hell you want."

I like it!

 

[Digital Skunk]

Interesting what exactly were your motives to get Android instead of an iPhone?
What models were out there when you bought your first?

For me it was the EVO merely because of my contract. I wanted the Dream, but was neither on T-Mobile nor out of contract.

The reasons for me not jumping to AT&T in 2006 were just what you mentioned.

Simply put, I was probably one of the few that used many of the features my Treo had, and dumping them for the hottest UI anyone had ever seen in a phone was a tough call.

Now, have been spoiled by Android, and even though iOS5 puts the iPhone's features and usability right where it needs to be . . . . AND it's on Sprint's network, I can't seem to rip myself away from having a phone with a huge bright screen with a huge bright clock on the home page . . . amongst many other things.

 

[wolfie37]

I could have sworn that Apple sold music, movies and more through itunes, damn...

Once more someone confuses iTunes with the iTunes Music/App Store....iTunes is the software media organiser/player....

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I think the point was that Google could have decided not to sell their services to Apple. And then would Apple really have great mapping, search, youtube abilities. And if they didn't - how successful would the iPhone be or not be.

And Apple could license their iOS to other manufacturers for a FEE. So the fact that Apple pays for the Maps app is moot. No one is saying Google or Apple should give their IP away for free. They are saying that Jobs was not willing to share - period. And that Google was.

Google share?? Nonsense, Google made a business deal to have a presence on the original iPhone, that's hardly sharing. The question is would they have done that if they had been intending to release their own mobile OS???

 

[Digital Skunk]

holy crap! exception to a rule??

NO it's not.

That is unless you like living in a fantasy world where the love of one Apple product means you have to love ALL Apple products.

Just try not to use loosely formed absolutes.