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Steve Jobs' Plan for a Willy Wonka-Style Celebration of the Millionth iMac

Yes, it's yet another anecdote about the departed Jobs (and god knows there's at least 1 every day)...

But put alongside the months and months of mind-numbing tedious "stories" about the latest legal paperclip adjustment in the ongoing global patent war or retail borefests such as how much % increase iPhone contracts Verizon have obtained the last nth quarter or how staff quotas at BestBuy have spiked maybe because of a rumoured new Apple product launch...

....and THIS story stands out as genuinely interesting, amusing even. I'm sick of reading how much of an asshole Jobs was (yeah, we know), or worse the snide implication of it given how hypocritical and 'sensitive' some people are about speaking ill of the departed.

Jobs in full-on nutty CEO mode as Gene Wilder/Willy Wonka is just comedy gold. I'd have loved to have been a fly on the wall of that conference room. Hilarity. I'd have pointed out that such sweepstake laws do not apply everywhere outside of California, globally even (how can you forget the multinational winners of Dahl's classic, that fat German kid especially) and that there needed to be 5 golden tickets not just 1, and that a tour of Infinite Loop would be concluded with an offer of internship, not just a refund. Baah, a curse on whatever faceless soulless in-house lawyer aborted this genius PR idea.

Oh and bravo MacRumors for posting a story that for once actually makes you smile rather than yawn.
 
He got his wish, in a way.

He Willywonked the iTunes/App store, whenever there was a milestone.

And it became a tradition.
 
ansalmo said:
Apple clearly aren't averse to running this type of promotion, e.g. the recent "25 billion app countdown" one, so methinks the cancellation had more to do with Steve's outfit than California's law.
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The difference is 25 billion vs. 1 million. You can enter the competition without buying, but there are so many buyers that it is very likely that a buyer will win the contest, to the point that probably very few people bothered entering without buying. I have bought a few Macs in my life, but I've bought probably thousand times more songs than Macs. With one million iMacs, maybe around 100,000 sold a month, 3,000 a day, one every 30 seconds, it is quite likely that the winner would not be a buyer.
 
Little did he know at the time, CA was on its way to bankrupcy and Apple to glory. He could have just held out and bought them. F that law, would only be minor slap on wrist anyway, and not nefarious.

;)
 
I'll probably get banned for doing this, but did anyone else giggle a little....

6oupj.jpg
 
This sounded like a great idea until he got to the dressing as Willie Wonka thing. Then it just started to get weird.
 
Wonder if Steve turned another Mac gold?

Story has long held that Jobs was disgusted by the oppulant golden 20th Anniversary Mac. And the available black tie setup all for $10K..

If Jobs consulted with Ive on the color choice which wasn't decided until 1997 this would make an interesting first collaboration upon his return.

:cool:
 
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sounded like a cool idea, *until* the trip to Silicon Valley and Apple.

Cube farms and a cafeterias and huddle rooms, even nice ones, just don't have the same kind of charm as chocolate rivers, everlasting gobstoppers, and oompa loompas.
 
wikus said:
dressing up as willy wonka sounds more like something Steve Ballmer would do, not Steve Jobs.
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I was thinking about Ballmer doing the same, imagine, getting that ticket and burning it out!!!! I do not wanna meet him no, NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!
 
As someone posted, comparing Ooompa Loompas to Foxconn employees.

Take it another step:

Grandpa Joe - Insert your grandpa here.

Charlie Bucket - Good hearted kid who can't afford to go to college, and supports his family delivering papers and mowing lawns and working a minimum wage job.

Augustus Gloop - fat German Kid - Fat American kid who gorges on MMORPG

Veruca Salt - Peanut heiress - Veruca Heinz Ketchup Heiress bratty OMG LOL ROFLMAO teen who gets everything she wants.

Violet Beauregarde - grape gum girl - iPad iPhone Macbook Air swinging gal who holds the current txt messaging / month record currently working on the most tweets/month record.

Mike Teevee - Cowboy kid who knows all about TV - Mike Gamr kid who knows how to beat every video game worth playing in hard mode.

Slugworth - Willy's competitor - Bill Gates (enough said)
 
japanime said:
If there are more stories like this, then you can be assured that Macrumors will post them all on the front page, thereby spoiling the book for those of us who really do want to read it.
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And since everyone on MR is force to be here, you don't have anyway to avoid these stories!

/s
 
Quite apart from Steve Jobs’ idea (which I think is an absolute gas!!!), what kind of cockamamie laws - or legislatures, or courts, or voters, in the end - are these which would prohibit this? California has certainly been the forerunner in some beneficial legislation, originally seen as extreme but then more widely adopted, but, whatever good (or good intention, at least) is in California gambling law, in this case, at least, it's worse than ridiculous, and nothing more than Big Brother.

Jobs’ idea wasn’t, by any definition, a “sweepstakes”. To call it a “lottery”, or deem it “gambling” is to bend those terms so out of shape that they’re almost universally applicable, thus meaningless in practice. “The lottery of life” requires no purchase, so I guess that’s legal in California. But what about horse races? Can you simply sign up for a chance at a winning stake without paying entrance to the track, or buying a parimutuel ticket? And what about “2-for-1” sales, or the package of detergent containing “10% more”, or the little top hat in Cracker Jacks? Can you simply sign up for the bonus without buying something? These would all face serious legal challenge in California. The list is endless. It’s beyond belief that such laws could be enacted and interpreted and enforced this way in the U.S. in this century. I’m appalled.
 
Ok, 2 things. First, it should have been a golden iMac and not just a ticket. What was Steve Thinking? And second, I always thought this was going to be how he would transfer power to a new CEO.
 
As soon as someone wins that creepy guy from Google will start stalking you, wanting you to get him info on the next ios device.

lol i crack myself up
 
WestonHarvey1 said:
You got downvoted, but it really is. Who is harmed by this law not existing? What reasonable person would be offended by having to purchase a product to be entered into a contest?

No one benefits from a silly law like this. I'm sure there's some theoretical antitrust mumbo jumbo someone can come up with to justify it, but come on. All it did was ruin a really fun idea.
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Ya laws like this in the land of freedom piss me off. Government is constantly on our backs about everything.

If this can be exploited or something then make the law so it allows for limited or once per year events like this so we can have a little fun in our lives.

Whats the crime here? Making additional incentive for people to buy your product?

Gambling?

Unfair that you have to buy a $1000 computer to play?

:rolleyes:
 
Yep. I also agree the law really sucked the air out from under Apple's wings on this one. I wonder how long it will be before one of those non-purchase entry forms becomes the winner of the (10^3n)th app/song download?
 
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