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Tuesday: Jobs vs. Sculley

I find the lack of information on Sculley wierd. Does anybody know what he's doing now? Is this earth shattering announcement going to be from a start up or something that he's been working with for a while?

Anyone with some info here would be great.
 
Nothing BIG

This is not an "Apple Event" such as the intro of the iPod or XServer. No press conference or get together at Cupertino is scheduled. (There were alot of grumbling from the press when they were called to witness the intro of the XServer - many fell asleep!). I suspect SJ is going to talk about things in general, perhaps even indicate what is coming in the next several months up to and including MWNY. Perhaps he's going to announce that Quicktime 6 is finally coming our way. Generally, he has really been press-shy about talking unless it's to Time. We'll have to see. Actually the Sculley announcement seems more intriguing. Stay tuned.
 
John Sculley Info

Here's somethimg on Sculley - dont' know how new it is:



John Sculley

Partner, Sculley Brothers

John Sculley was formerly President of Pepsi Cola Company for six years and CEO of Apple Computer for ten years, taking that company to number one in worldwide PC market share and the leader in multimedia computing. He is best known as a marketing executive who brought big brand marketing to Silicon Valley in the early 1980s and led major brand-building campaigns such as Pepsi Generation, Pepsi Challenge, Macintosh 1984, Apple desktop publishing, and the launches of PowerBook, QuickTime and Apple CD-ROM home computers. Advertising Age and AdWeek Magazine both have named John "Advertising Man of the Year." Financial News Network chose him as "Marketing CEO of the Decade."

John is currently an active investor in several California start-ups, and is co-founder of Sirius Thinking, Ltd., a New York City Children's educational entertainment company. 
 
Update on John Scully

I have done some digging around and here is what I have fouund out about John Sculley.

-He is currently a parter in a New York based investment group called Sculley Brothers LLC. The other parterns are his two brothers.

-Sculley Brothers LLC seems to be a major share holder in a company called LivePerson Inc.

-LivePerson describes themselves as a provider of technology that facilitates real-time sales and customer service for companies doing business on the Internet.

-Basically they provide a product that lets companies deliver online support in the form of chat.

-Sculley Brothers LLC is also a major investor in a private company called BigMachines.com John's brother David is on the board of directors.

-I know very little about this company, but they claim to provide software and service to "streamline" sales.

From this information I would conculde that John's anncounment will probably have nothing to do with Apple, and will most likely only be relevant to the "Sales Support" industry

-Stu K
 
Nothing to do with Apple

Correct. The Think Secret article makes it clear that the two announcements are coincidental, although speculates that SJ may put his info out first, perhaps on Monday, instead, to beat Sculley to his. Or is it Mulder making the announcement? I'm confused!!
 
arn,
am I missing something? I have quickly read the article twice and it appears to say the announcement is NOT earth-shattering, though you have twice stated that it IS.

"From what we are being told, it doesn't appear to be an "earth-shattering" development. We'll keep you informed of new information."

Anyway, interesting thread about Jobs and Sculley.
 
Segway comment...

I was following the development of IT/Segway for a long time, and when it was finally released, I was definitely impressed - the technology used for it is really interesting, but it is NOT earth-shattering, -changing, etc.

Now, Dean Kamen has also been working on Stirling engines that use very little, or even no, power to operate. If the Segway used THAT, THEN it would be earth-shattering: a form of transportation that either 1) runs on super-cheap alcohol or 2) runs on no power whatsoever.

I mean, I live in NYC, and unless they can get a full 12-15 hours out of a charge, the Segway is pretty useless in a big city. Maybe for things like Postal Workers since they'd never be THAT far from a charge at a post office...

Eh. I'm anxiously awaiting both John and Steve's announcements. Maybe it'll be something neato. =)
 
No love for Sculley

Like mactheknife, I too have no love for John Sculley, but I have to give the man a little credit here. While it was a flop at release, the Newton, and the PDA in general were a vision of Sculley. I am not blind enought o think that Sculley was the only person in the world to think of a PDA, he was the first to articulate it and to describe the practical applications for such a product, which he dubbed the "Knowledge Navigator". Sculley was not a computer guy or a "Think Different" kinda guy, but he was a business man as mactheknife pointed out, and that is why Steve really wanted him anyway. Like I said, I have no real love for the guy, but I have to give him credit for the Newton, which was the greatest PDA ever created--eventually :) .

Gus
 
Forgot

I forgot to mention that if you really want to blame Apple's decline in the 90's, blame Michael "The Diesel" Spindler. The guy proved to be a worthless CEO.

And if Gassée was so right, why did Be Inc. just go bankrupt?


Gus
 
Originally posted by sjs
arn,
am I missing something? I have quickly read the article twice and it appears to say the announcement is NOT earth-shattering, though you have twice stated that it IS.

"From what we are being told, it doesn't appear to be an "earth-shattering" development. We'll keep you informed of new information."
Click to expand...

Sculley's announcement IS supposed to be earth-shattering, Jobs' announcement is not. Read the article one more time, arn has been very clear.
 
Originally posted by sjs
arn,
am I missing something? I have quickly read the article twice and it appears to say the announcement is NOT earth-shattering, though you have twice stated that it IS.

"From what we are being told, it doesn't appear to be an "earth-shattering" development. We'll keep you informed of new information."

Anyway, interesting thread about Jobs and Sculley.
Click to expand...

I believe the article has been edited... either that or I misread it... as I recall it stated that Sculley's announcement would be earth shattering.... now it just says "major announcement"

Can anyone else confirm that I'm not crazy? :)

thanks
arn
 
Well since Sculley used to work for Pepsi maybe Steve and him will be at the same announcement when Apple introduces the iMac with the base painted like the Pepsi Ball with a complete set of Brittany Spears MP3's loaded on the machine complete with Brittany Spears Quicktime music videos. Hey I am just trying to be funny. A Pepsi/Apple venture is almost as funny as the Disney/Apple venture!
 
Yes, arn, I can confirm that you're not crazy...ok, not really confirm... but I'm pretty sure...

BTW, actual earth-shattering news could really ruin your day, or week.
 
hmm since it'dd be earth shattering or something along the lines, maybe they developed a mac that has a G4 processor 10x faster than a P4 2 ghz processor...nah
maybe they just developed a revolutionary mac product or somethin or other :S lol, n if it was "the introduction of mac OS to x86 machines" it wouldnt exactly be earth shattering...more like riot starting
 
Re: Re: Apple's Lineage

Originally posted by peterjhill
Steve sure the hell is unconventional, I will give you that.
Click to expand...

Let's see that one more time:

Steve sure the hell is unconventional, I will give you that.
Click to expand...

Steve is about as easy to predict as the weather. Objectively, he is the prime example of chaos theory. (Or just chaos!) :)
 
Re: What Jobs' announcement is about....

Originally posted by deejemon
My guess is a connection kit to make iPod compatible with Windows.
Click to expand...

That is a very good hypothesis.

Think about it: if they sold 125,000 or so just to 3% of the market, what about the other 97%?

Watch out Rio! Your jukebox should be called the Rio Grande! :D
 
Re: What Jobs' announcement is about....

Originally posted by deejemon

I don't actually give a rats whether Windows people can use iPod, but that's my prediction.
My guess also includes that Windows functionality will not be on par with Mac (why should it?), eg: Contacts may not be supported.
Click to expand...

If Windows compatibility will mean a significant increase in sales, I say go for it! Good for Apple! And, I hope only after thousands of people purchase it do they realize is isn't as good without a Mac. I buy little games and stuff all the time and after installing it realize half the crap shown on the box is only available with windows. Let them see how it feels to get something you want and realize it's not all there! Plus, people see the few limitations I have as a Mac user and that makes them think that they are better off with Windows. Maybe when the shoe's on the other foot it will just be another excuse to say "You should've got a Mac".
 
Don't forget we're due for a video conferencing solution from Apple as per Steve's comments earlier this year.
 
Remember, the market for iPod is users with a Firewire connection, and that Firewire is far more common on Mac than on Windows PCs, as such, Mac represents far more than 3% of the Firewire enabled desktop market.

Nonetheless, I'm sure there's a large niche of PC users that Apple could sell iPod to. The real challenge would be one for Apple's marketing department - how to reach those PC users, who think that Apple is not for them.

I think that an iPod announcement is as good a bet as any, but right now it's a tough one to call.
 
Apple CEOs of past, present announce products

Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer, Inc. today announced a revolutionary update to Apple's flagship operating system. Mac OS X 10.1.4.2 precedes the much anticipated 10.1.5, which will allow updated Carbon applications to take advantage of Mac OS X's Quartz rendering engine.

The current update, 10.1.4.2, offers important new features such as increased version numbering, updated "read me" files, and minor incompatibilities.

"The new update is huge," said Steve Jobs at a press conference held today at Apple's Cupertino, Calif. headquarters. "This is a milestone that puts us five, but maybe eight years ahead of our competition."

Analysts agree that PC and software vendors are unlikely to release a version 10.1.4.2 of any competing operating system in the next five years.

"Version 10.1.4.2 was built from the ground up to address the needs of education, home users, graphic artists, and Hollywood movie studios," said Phil Schiller, Apple's Senior Vice President of Worldwide Product Marketing. "We've seen the ultimate Digital Hub," he added, "and it's got Mac OS X 10.1.4.2 written all over it."

Meanwhile, former Apple CEO John Sculley is also seeking attention. At a New York press conference coinciding with Apple's announcement, he spoke to press about his latest venture, a yet unnamed company specializing in pollution-free energy derived from empty space and Live-O-Med, a medication with the proven effect of indefinitely elongating human life, stopping the ageing process, and providing immunity to all diseases and injuries.

According to analysts, Sculley's announcements might have an adverse effect on Apple's stock price.
 
A thread at AppleInsider (click here) states that the eMac is going to be sold at the Apple Retail stores. That would be a pretty big announcement, don't you think?
 
iPod is great PARTLY because it uses firewire. Firewire is great but not many people outside of macs have it. They do have USB though.

Rather than putting a seperate/alternative USB port in the iPod for firewire-less machines, how out-of-the-question would it be to make a firewire-to-USB adaptor? Aside from the difference in speed, their capabilities are similar (namely hot-pluggable).

Coupled with the necessary windows software, this would allow apple to sell iPods to the larger computing community, and help drive adoption of firewire ports for people who get tired of USB speeds on their iPods. It could be USB 2.0 even, though that would be a more complex matter and would make the adoption of firewire less appealing.
 
Apple's 25th birthday party!

[wild guessing ahead] Jobs is going to invite everyone to the party next month in NYC...... ipod sized pieces of cake for all! yay! the TAM came out in March 1997, so will they follow up with some sort of 25th birthday magical device only sold in limited numbers to the public.... ... new to Macs? what's a TAM? go there and find out......
 
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