Steve Jobs in Opening Interview Session at D8 Conference

[thebez]

I like how throughout the event Steve Jobs completely side stepped a couple questions, and nobody called him on it.

Q: I hear that Apple is seeking the death penalty for the Gizmodo guy. Care to comment?

A: Everyone at Apple is really proud of the local high school football team, but it was really uncool when they T.P.'d the cars in the employee lot last week. Next question!

 

[firewood]

"The biggest lesson Apple has learned is price it aggressively and go for volume."

LOL right. Thats why my laptop was grossly overpriced at around $2000 with a student discount.

People pay a lot for their new big screen TV, especially if it's better than their neighbor's/in-law's/etc.. It's the content for their TV that they want free, or at least cheap and convenient.

Same with iPhone hardware versus content (apps, web sites, media, etc.)

 

[Berio]

I'm pretty sure they're still part of their country even while working for a corporation

yes and no. they're working for a corporation which a has lower suicide rates than the country the corporation is situated in

You're really not seeing this as an apples (no pun intended) and oranges comparison? Really?

no.
suicide figures for a-people who work for a corporation, b-people who live in china, c-people who live in usa are suicide figures and can be compared. if the figures were way higher inside the factory than outside there could be cause for alarm, but the figures are similar/lower

He's talking about the number of suicides at a corporation in Taiwan (with allegations of abusive employment) vs. the number of suicides in the U.S. (where the reasons for suicide could be much more diverse).

how do you know the suicides at the apple factory are related to alleged abuse? the reasons for the suicides could (and probably are) "much more diverse".
suicides and alleged abuse are two elements. possibly totally unrelated.

A corporation is a much more specific group than an entire (different) nation. To compare those on equal footing like Steve's comment implies is idiotic. That's all I'm saying.

if you are referring to the difference in total figures - population of US vs number of workers at factory - i might see your point. however it seems you are not referring to this, rather to some mumbling about "specific groups". this makes no sense and has no reasoning.

 

[legalnut]

So was floppy disk, it was the de facto method of transferring data and yet Apple took the first step to dropping it and picking something better.

De facto standards does not make all company obligated to support. Companies can choose to support the de facto or not.

What don't you understand? Apple doesn't care, period. They think HTML5 is better and they're going to stick with it. Just because you THINK it's bad, it doesn't matter to them. They have the right to do whatever they want.

And I have the right not to buy it .... I'll wait for HP WebOs tablet with Flash thank you very much.....

 

[jaw04005]

I don't know what he's on, but no game on their mobile platforms look even close to good console games. Uncharted 2? Alan Wake? MGS4? Crysis (PC game I know, but still)?

Errr. The DS and PSP are consoles also. In fact, I think the ds is the best selling game console of all time in terms of units sold.

 

[reanimate]

Whoever owns Flash is irrelevant right now... it's a de facto standard (ask Time and NBC). What should be paramount in this case, since the iPad is ALL ABOUT consuming content, is gaining access to that content ... any decision contrary to that, or impeding that, is BAD ... end of story... in 3 to 5 years it may be a different story ... Regrettably today it isn't ... if you think so, I believe you live with blinders on....

This is what Adobe's CEO said just a year ago about Flash on the iPhone: "It's a hard technical challenge...The onus is on us to deliver."

If it was easy, don't you think Adobe would have made it happen before the iPad came to market? Obviously the whole thing has been pretty disastrous for them, PR-wise. Granted, Apple took a hit too but I'd much rather be in their shoes than Adobe's. I'm curious to see the sales of Flash CS5.

 

[MikhailT]

I like how throughout the event Steve Jobs completely side stepped a couple questions, and nobody called him on it.

Q: I hear that Apple is seeking the death penalty for the Gizmodo guy. Care to comment?

A: Everyone at Apple is really proud of the local high school football team, but it was really uncool when they T.P.'d the cars in the employee lot last week. Next question!

He was invited to be a guest on the show, showing respect is key if the show wants him back. If he doesn't answer the question or sidestep on it, it means he doesn't want to answer it, period. People shouldn't be calling him out on it. I would rather people or Steve in this case, just say "no comment or I won't answer that question, next" but certain people have a habit of side stepping because it doesn't make them seem bad in directly saying no. Note his joke about the sex life, that was another hint.

 

[MacinDoc]

Wow Steve's analogy regarding trucks is spot on. Incredible.

Just what we need on MR, another car analogy!

 

[marksman]

Steve is very disingenuous. Saying "we don' have the resources others have" (when commenting on why Apple doesn't support Flash)....are you kidding me? The 2nd highest market cap in the world and over $40 billion in cash .... this guy gets too much of a free ride when he's interviewed this is total BS!!!!

He should have more correctly said, We don't "waste" the resources like others do, but he is talking over time when they have made these decisions and been a much smaller company with many fewer resources than their competitors.

Yes it is a bit different now with flash, but they got there because of the same mindset they had when they were smaller and had significantly fewer resources.

 

[MikhailT]

And I have the right not to buy it .... I'll wait for HP WebOs tablet with Flash thank you very much.....

Good for you, that's the whole point.

PS: I actually went back to edit it before you posted to say that.

 

[HLdan]

I like how throughout the event Steve Jobs completely side stepped a couple questions, and nobody called him on it.

Q: I hear that Apple is seeking the death penalty for the Gizmodo guy. Care to comment?

TBH, he answered a lot of questions with a cool head and I didn't expect him to be so open, especially about the guy that supposedly left the iPhone prototype in the bar.

But if you were in his shoes what would you have said in response to that question?

 

[gwangung]

This is what Adobe's CEO said just a year ago about Flash on the iPhone: "It's a hard technical challenge...The onus is on us to deliver."

If it was easy, don't you think Adobe would have made it happen before the iPad came to market? Obviously the whole thing has been pretty disastrous for them, PR-wise. Granted, Apple took a hit too but I'd much rather be in their shoes than Adobe's. I'm curious to see the sales of Flash CS5.

Personally, I think it was a bad strategic choice made four or five years back, when they emphasized Flash Lite on much less capable cellphones and didn't put resources into a standard Flash that could run on mobile devices. If they made the hard choice a few years back and made the moves to a Flash that had way fewer technical problems on a mobile device, I'm not sure Apple would have dared to challenge Adobe on this.

 

[legalnut]

This is what Adobe's CEO said just a year ago about Flash on the iPhone: "It's a hard technical challenge...The onus is on us to deliver."

If it was easy, don't you think Adobe would have made it happen before the iPad came to market? Obviously the whole thing has been pretty disastrous for them, PR-wise. Granted, Apple took a hit too but I'd much rather be in their shoes than Adobe's. I'm curious to see the sales of Flash CS5.

Apple is not very easy to work with... if they would have been even moderately helpful you think Flash on the Mac would suck so badly? I hear they are now cooperating on fixing those issues (give Adobe access to hidden APIs) which is a GOOD THING

 

[marksman]

apple search is coming..

"Steve: They're not a search company. They're an AI company. We have no plans to go into the search business. We don't care about it -- other people do it well."

Same thing he said about phone business, then the famous what is a tablet is useful for comment from him. Apple may not get into AI business, but search is coming i guess.

Well the future of search is AI so I agree with you. For someone to make a foothold in search, they have to take it to another step beyond Google now or they will not succeed. The good news is the advertisers will jump ship in a second if someone can draw the traffic. Google has few fans in the advertising community.

I definitely need more than a tablet to get work done.

You are Big Dave, though, so that goes without saying.

Comparing suicide rates of a nation to that of a corporation is completely idiotic. Big fail on that one Stevo.

Why is it idiotic. Given the size of their workforce would make it a decent size US city, I think it is fairly relevant. Given the likely demographic of their workers, compared to a similar demographic of US citizens, I suspect the suicide rate is even higher for the US group.

You know what is idiotic? Thinking every time someone commits suicide it is because of the company they work for... How many Wal-Mart employees kill themselves each year?

 

[reanimate]

Another thing that is worth mentioning re: Flash and HTML5. I don't think anyone would try to claim HTML5 can "do everything" Flash can now - or more accurately the tools, code libraries and the browser support aren't there yet.

But...browsing around the web on my iPad, I don't notice that Flash isn't there, and I've noticed most reviewers have said the same thing. And I think the reason for that is that while Flash is the only solution for certain rich media like say, the promotional site for a movie, that kind of site is really like 0.1% of the web. Whereas the vast majority of the time Flash is used for is video, and half of all video is on YouTube - which has HTML5 support that works great.

 

[MikhailT]

He should have more correctly said, We don't "waste" the resources like others do, but he is talking over time when they have made these decisions and been a much smaller company with many fewer resources than their competitors.

Yes it is a bit different now with flash, but they got there because of the same mindset they had when they were smaller and had significantly fewer resources.

No, that first part of the statement wouldn't be the correct one either, because every company have some waste. Apple isn't some magical company that produces a runaway every single time. Trust me, they have spent millions with their RD budget that never went anywhere, just as every other company. They are still the same company as they were before (their core as Steve already mentioned several time), producing the best products they can for the consumers. The only difference is that they now can take huge risks with the war chest of $40B in cash. Steve Jobs actually said this in his conference call with his shareholders.

Other companies like MS wants and try to expand their RD budget to include enterprise, military, consumers and so on. Apple doesn't cater to those other market segments and as such does not allocate their budget to that. They are much more focused than that.

But yes, you're mostly right. Apple still works the same way as they have in the past. That's a good thing generally since they are doing well now.

 

[Berio]

... any decision contrary to that, or impeding that, is BAD ... end of story...

quite the dictator aren't you

please remind us: who forced you to buy a flash-less device ?

btw. do you get angry about all products on the market that you feel are lacking something? chocolate without nuts, magazines without caricatures, bookshops without books by prizewinners?

it's not really any of your business what apple decides to sell, is it? take it or leave it.

i believe apple should have a CHOICE (great concept, isn't it?) about what to sell. i am sure this concept appeals to you.

 

[legalnut]

quite the dictator aren't you

please remind us: who forced you to buy a flash-less device ?

btw. do you get angry about all products on the market that you feel are lacking something? chocolate without nuts, magazines without caricatures, bookshops without books by prizewinners?

it's not really any of your business what apple decides to sell, is it? take it or leave it.

i believe apple should have a CHOICE (great concept, isn't it?) about what to sell. i am sure this concept appeals to you.

uhhhh .... excuse me .... please see above.... I already mentioned I'm waiting for HP's WebOs tablet .... what don't you understand about that?

 

[marksman]

The laptop has a strong presence in academics and in business. As of now, a laptop can be as powerful as a desktop. I think all else being equal, the laptop will always be more powerful than a tablet. For work type use I think it is irreplaceable.

Of course people once said the same thing of laptops. You yourself, though, now say they are comparable to desktops, so would it not be premature to believe that same transition will not happen with Tablets over time?

"Steve: We had a rule that said you can't defame other people."


great .... he became an arbiter of free speech and censor extraordinaire

I don't understand? Do you think Apple should be required to allow people to publish-hate apps on their devices? Believe it or not, this is why a lot of people like the apple-controlled system.

Just because someone has the legal right to say what they want does not mean they have the legal right to say what they want anywhere they want.

Would you be upset at the Fast Food Restaurant who removed someone who was standing in the restaurant throwing racial and ethnic slurs at everyone who came in? Or would you bash them for preventing the guy from saying what he wants where he wants.

Having a rule where you will not allow your private business to be used to defame people is a good one. One I support.

I wish you could explain why you think it is a bad thing.

Judging from Steve's response about core values, the douchebags at Gizmodo are going to be in a world of hurt. Go, Steve!

Yeah that part was interesting. Does seem like there will be more to come on this issue.

 

[QCassidy352]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_1_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7E18 Safari/528.16)

Great analogy about the cars and trucks. We're not to the point where an ipad or any tablet can replace a PC yet, but I think it's coming. For a lot of people, content consumption and a little bit of creation will be all they need or want.

I also like the quote about not seeing it as a war between apple and MS "and maybe that's why we lost." very candid, very true. I think he really means it when he says they don't go to work every day saying "how can we beat ms/google/htc/etc." sure they're aware of the competition, but I think apple is one of the only tech companies that acts instead of reacting, and that infuriates some users, but it also makes apple the most interesting tech company out there.

 

[ghostface147]

Errr. The DS and PSP are consoles also. In fact, I think the ds is the best selling game console of all time in terms of units sold.

Technically yes you are correct. They do count as consoles, but when people mention console gaming, those don't come to mind. Dreamcast for life!

 

[green86]

My god some of you people are clueless! Regarding the price "aggressively go for volume", he is talking about content, i.e., apps, media, etc. NOT hardware.

And no, as had been reported and discussed numerous times, once the search warrant was released to the public, the guy with the prototype phone did NOT try to return it. His roommate eventually contacted Apple when she got wind of him trying to sell it to the highest bidder while trying to cover his tracks, through her computer, which is why she reported him (so she wouldn't get implicated in the whole thing.)

You are nothing but another Troll Spreading FUD...

Well, he DIDN'T specifiy. And if I'm wrong about the guy I stand corrected. I still think they took it too far. Of course, I'm a troll, I'm critizing Apple, oh no! Blasphemy!

.. Fan boy.

 

[Berio]

And I have the right not to buy it .... I'll wait for HP WebOs tablet with Flash thank you very much.....

finally! the penny seems to have dropped.

 

[legalnut]

Of course people once said the same thing of laptops. You yourself, though, now say they are comparable to desktops, so would it not be premature to believe that same transition will not happen with Tablets over time?



I don't understand? Do you think Apple should be required to allow people to publish-hate apps on their devices? Believe it or not, this is why a lot of people like the apple-controlled system.

Just because someone has the legal right to say what they want does not mean they have the legal right to say what they want anywhere they want.

Would you be upset at the Fast Food Restaurant who removed someone who was standing in the restaurant throwing racial and ethnic slurs at everyone who came in? Or would you bash them for preventing the guy from saying what he wants where he wants.

Having a rule where you will not allow your private business to be used to defame people is a good one. One I support.

I wish you could explain why you think it is a bad thing.



Yeah that part was interesting. Does seem like there will be more to come on this issue.

who said anything about hate literature or speech (which btw, contrary to US law is not protected constitutionally in Canada - just an aside). My only issue is that Apple has greatly and egregiously expanded its gatekeeper/merchant role and that annoys me enormously. Their absolute right, no quibbles there, but it still annoys me. John Lennon would cringe at the thought that Steve Jobs was a big fan

 

[reanimate]

Apple is not very easy to work with... if they would have been even moderately helpful you think Flash on the Mac would suck so badly? I hear they are now cooperating on fixing those issues (give Adobe access to hidden APIs) which is a GOOD THING

Now you're just being silly, and I think you known it. Flash 10.1 is targeted at all mobile devices, not just Apple. That was the first step - Adobe just needed to ship a Flash player that actually worked.

And even now...well, I'll let Adobe explain it:

"You often hear people talking about the idea of developing once and deploying to every device. That sounds nice but it isn’t realistic. The real story is that you can create 80% of your application once, and then spend the remaining 20% of your time creating UIs that work well on the various devices. For instance, mobile devices obviously do not have as much horsepower as your quad-core tower. So once you get Flash Player 10.1 on your phone, don’t go to the FWA and expect those sites to run like they do on your desktop. Because of that you will need to do a lot of optimizations that you wouldn’t ordinarily worry about with desktop Flash."

Gotta love that..."don’t go to the FWA and expect those sites to run like they do on your desktop." I can just imagine some Adobe/ Google cheerleader waiting another several months to get their Google tablet, browsing straight to FWA and...oh ****