I'm wondering all the things about Steve Jobs was he ever wrong about some things.
Would Steve Jobs disagree about Tim Cook doing things today?
Would Steve Jobs disagree about Tim Cook doing things today?
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Was Steve Jobs ever wrong?
- Thread starter Bubble99
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MacInTO
macrumors 68000
Yes he would disagree with Tim Cook. Tim Cook is profit driven whereas Steve Jobs was product driven.
Basic75
macrumors 68030
The PowerMac G5 reaching 3GHz next year was famously wrong.
Nada Ting
macrumors regular
How dare you! Saint Steve was never wrong.
maflynn
macrumors Broadwell
Yes, numerous time - just google "you're holding it wrong" Or the G4 cube. Just two examples
Yes, When Cook took over the first time temporarily, it was reported that he and Jobs disagreed on decisions and directions. When Jobs stepped down, he let go of the reins completely and let cook run it as he saw fit
throAU
macrumors G4
Steve made plenty of mistakes just like anyone else.
I mean for all the massive technology leap NEXT had, he could not sell the platform.
The Lisa was a mistake under his watch
The iphone originally didn’t have apps, and we supposed to be web apps only - he did fix that one pretty quick
The original imac mouse - in fact, all apple mice have been trash
He was chairman of the board for the Apple III
He was wrong about pancreatic cancer being cured with alternative medicine
He was wrong to try and kill the Apple II - it nearly sent apple broke.
Steve Jobs was an incredibly flawed human being like many other human beings.
However, some of his flaws led to incredible focus and extracting performance from his team.
In short he was an ******. However, he had a vision, knew what he wanted and would not take no for an answer. He did get a lot of things very right.
Early days - tech was advancing very rapidly and he may have been lucky to get away with his earlier ambitions due to the pace of hardware development and there being a lot of low hanging fruit.
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He sold it to Apple! Rather successfully.
Debatable, since Lisa launched in 1983 but Jobs was thrown off the project in 1980 - and proceeded to turn the Mac into what the Lisa should have been. Even so, the Lisa was pretty influential and probably helped sell the Mac.
NB: Jobs was never CEO of Apple during his "first term" (hence why he could be "thrown off" a project).
chrfr
macrumors G5
Jobs was, at first, adamant that the iPod was to be Mac-only. Adding Windows compatibility is what really drove the iPod to be a massive success.
Was it Steve Jobs more about upgrading and repairing than Time Cook that all about lock down and soldered now.
Black_Mage
macrumors 6502a
It's easy to forget that Steve Jobs was against the invention of the iPhone because of the way he introduced it with such enthusiasm in 2007. Fortunately, Apple employees convinced him to support it. By the time that special keynote in 2007 was over, I was convinced the iPhone was his idea.
www.cnbc.com
www.indiatoday.in
Steve Jobs almost prevented the Apple iPhone from being invented
Apple's most successful product might not have been created without a nudge from Steve Jobs' team.
Steve Jobs did not want Apple to develop iPhone, he hated cell phones
Despite Apple's ongoing success with iPhones, co-founder Steve Jobs originally thought the concept of the company making a phone was a bad idea.
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OneCable
macrumors newbie
As a prolific Newton MessagePad user - had multiple units - the only time I was truly pissed off with Steve Jobs was when he stopped the Newton spin-off and killed the tablet. Set back the tablet industry many many years. I’ve had an iPad since they were released and now use 2 of them besides my MBA M1. For me, the ipad experience is not as good as the Newton.
I’m aware the Newton was the butt of jokes but it was some serious bit of hardware and it had so much potential and had a pretty good user base at the time. If only…
I’m aware the Newton was the butt of jokes but it was some serious bit of hardware and it had so much potential and had a pretty good user base at the time. If only…
Sure. Quite a bit actually. Sometimes he was wrong at the right time, sometimes right at the wrong times.
he was a human being, he would likely agree with some things and disagree with other things, just like he did at the time.
Important to remember that by 2005 Tim and Steve were pretty much running the company together, even more so starting in late 2008 when Steve took his second medical leave and put Tim in charge. It’s very likely Steve had a very deep working relationship with Tim and both probably made decisions the other disagreed with.
I’m not sure what the point is though, would it matter what Steve would or wouldn’t agree with in 2026?
lostPod
macrumors 6502
He didn't want to take responsibility for his daughter, LOL yeah he was wrong.
Analog Kid
macrumors G3
What are you talking about? Look at measurable reality rather than whatever stereotypes you have in your head, and remember that Jobs was always applying spin in everything he said so nothing he said to represent himself is reliable. Jobs was pushing profit margins ever higher until Cook took over. Cook kept profit margins level, at least until the infinite margins on services started padding Cooks numbers:
Jobs chose Cook as his successor for a reason. Disagree on details? Maybe. But in broad strokes, I think Cook did exactly what Jobs wanted-- shepherded Steve's baby to a sustainable future and got Apple products into as many hands as possible.
There's a reason Steve was so focused on profitability and why he chose Tim to follow-- he learned from his younger mistakes. When he founded Apple, he was a hippy that thought tech was cool and wanted to bring beautiful things to the world and while he was pragmatic in some ways ("banks don't like beards"), he put too much faith in magical thinking to overcome business realities. That mentality got him kicked out of Apple, that mentality probably held NeXT back, and then he got back to Apple and saw it on its deathbed. I've looked for the quote before and couldn't find it, but I'm pretty sure he's said that the reason Apple kept so much cash was to avoid ever having to fear bankruptcy again. He got serious about business because business is what makes his things possible.
If Apple were still a scrappy little outsider, we wouldn't have what we have now-- iMessage wouldn't have critical mass, devs wouldn't feel the need to meet Apple's privacy requirements, the AirTag network wouldn't hold together, etc, etc. Scale matters. Steve got that in his second act.
Yeah, Steve Jobs famously hated profits 🙄
HouseLannister
macrumors 68040
Only constantly. His own employees often had to do things in secret to have a backup for when Steve was wrong.
Starfia
macrumors 68000
Jobs certainly volunteered that he was prone to mistakes, tempted by arrogance, and started one presentation with a slide that just said "Apple isn't perfect" – and he was allegedly known for changing his mind in sometimes-polar fashion after putting ideas against his colleagues'. So, sure.
jakey rolling
macrumors 65816
Well, I don't think that mistake was purely Steve's. He was just following IBM's roadmap. It was IBM who severely underestimated the effort that it would require to improve the PowerPC G5's efficiency.
Capeto
macrumors 6502a
He was wrong about cancer treatment, for one.
One thing Steve Jobs got right is post PC. Most young people don’t own computer and just internet surfing and social media on their phone.
Just look at all those computer stores that where around in the 90s and 2000s are now closed.
Computers are dying bread among young people.
Just look at all those computer stores that where around in the 90s and 2000s are now closed.
Computers are dying bread among young people.
Steve Jobs wanted computers to be appliances. He didn’t want people opening them up and fiddling with the insides. It’s extremely likely he would be fully supportive of locked down systems and soldered RAM.
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Analog Kid
macrumors G3
I forgot this one... In the spirit of this thread, which is clearly in response to the Tim Cook mistake thread, I think Steve should be held just as accountable for preannouncing and then never producing a product based on vendor roadmaps as Tim is for preannouncing and then never producing AirPower based on an an acquisition roadmap.
Analog Kid
macrumors G3
Again, are we going to hold Steve to the same standards people are holding Tim to? Just like Lisa, AVP is a remarkable and pretty influential piece of tech that will sell in limited volume due to its cost but may very well help sell the future cuter implementation, but people want to crucify Cook over it. I think the AVP is brilliant, mind you, but if the torch and pitchfork crowd is going to keep burning Tim Cook in effigy over it, then Jobs deserves the same over Lisa.
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