Cupertino Two-Step
I was about to board an airplane Wednesday when Apple announced the resignation of Steve Jobs as CEO and his replacement by Tim Cook. With a couple hours to think on my flight to Charleston it became clear to me that this story is far from over and the long-term leadership of Apple has not yet been determined.
There were rumblings a month ago about Apple board members interviewing possible successors to Steve Jobs. There’s nothing surprising in that, given Jobs’ poor health and the fact that the primary function of any board is hiring and firing CEOs. But it evidently didn’t go down well with Steve, perhaps because he had his own succession plan or simply because it showed a crack in Apple’s armor against news leaks. The story was quickly shot down.
Then a week ago the publication date of Walter Isaacson’s authorized biography of Steve Jobs was changed from March 6, 2012 to November 21, 2011. This shocked me, because the last I read Isaacson was still writing his book, which was due with the publisher, Simon & Schuster, in September. Huge biographies aren’t finished early or rushed to completion. Figuring the book will still be finished in September, that it will take a month to print and ship the books, this means that the publisher’s part of this process — the copy editing, designing, formatting, building indexes and so forth — is being reduced from a normal minimum of at least six months to less than six weeks. It makes business sense to do this, sure, but I don’t think that’s enough: some external force is pushing the deadline.
I suspect that force accelerating the publication may be Steve Jobs.
And now we have Jobs’ resignation. But he’s not going away, not signing-up for Apple COBRA benefits, just giving up to Cook his duties as CEO. Jobs will remain an Apple employee and chairman of the board. That makes him what’s called an executive chairman — one who is on the job every day. And that job he’ll be doing every day is overseeing Tim Cook’s execution of the corporate strategy designed by Steve Jobs.
This looks to me like Cook continuing to function in his Chief Operating Officer role. Oh he’ll get a big raise and an even bigger bonus, but my sense is that next week the guy really in charge will still be Steve Jobs. And the Apple board, satisfied that the succession question has been answered and their own fiduciary asses are covered (I suspect this is a big part of it) can go back to sleep.
But it isn’t a long-term solution. Steve Jobs won’t be around forever and a true successor will have to be chosen eventually. For all his administrative skills, Cook can’t fill Jobs’ visionary shoes, so I’d look for another leadership change, maybe tied to the release of Isaacson’s book.
I say this based not only on my understanding of Steve and the way things work in Cupertino, but also based on my reading of Isaacson’s last book, a very good biography of Albert Einstein. That book is what attracted Jobs to Isaacson as his biographer. This was no chance encounter. Steve doesn’t believe in them.
In his Einstein book Isaacson tried (and I think succeeded) to take us into the mind and ideas of the German physicist who changed the world. He’ll do the same with Jobs. And in the case of Jobs, the understanding that’s missing is less his maturing as a technology visionary and more the vision, itself. Where is Apple going? What’s the grand plan?
We know there is such a plan — there has to be, Apple’s moves have been too deliberate, if inscrutable, to be some executive random walk. But nobody near the top has ever tried to explain where the company is going, preferring to be mysterious instead. Bill Gates had Nathan Myhrvold write his book for him, but Steve is classier than Bill. I believe Walter Isaacson’s book will also function as Steve’s technology manifesto, part of his legacy.
Once we have the grand plan, then it may make more sense just who should lead that plan’s execution during what will clearly be Apple’s best quarter in its 34 year history. Steve Jobs is setting-up this (and us) for another grand reveal… just one more thing.
[...] X. Cringely, the journalist and author, had his own interesting twist on the story: “Walter Isaacson’s authorized biography of Steve Jobs was changed from March 6, 2012 [...]
So Bob, are you saying that Jobs pushed the book up because he’ll be dead in six or seven months, and wanted to see it in print before the end?
Nobody disproves F. Scott Fitzgerald’s quote that “there are no second acts in American lives” quite like Steve Jobs. This book sounds like it will be what, maybe his fifth act?
Let’s face it – Apple is a marketing company and Jobs is that rare beast, a marketing guy who understands technology – but he’s no technical wizard, you only have to look at his history to see that. He doesn’t need to be a tech wizard – they are easy enough to hire. What you can not hire is a visionary – well, you can hire them but nobody does because usually the first thing a visionary tells you is that you’re wrong… but that’s another story Bob.
What Apple have done supremely well under Jobs leadership is to market goods that people want – in large part by simply looking at what was being made (computers, phones, music players) and then Jobs asking himself “How would I *like* this thing to work?”
* iPhone – a mediocre phone but beautifully packaged with a slick, but limited GUI – but it’s not about being a phone, it’s about selling apps and making the user feel superior.
* iPod – really just another music player but Jobs realized that the money is made when the user buys a song or an app… something that they do many times whereas they only buy a player once in a while.
* Apple computers – boring really but pretty to use – it’s all about the GUI so just build them on a generic OS. Who cares “what” it is so long as it make you feel superior …
* iTunes – that’s where the money is …
The autobiography is just Jobs making sure that is gets done His way and is “Approved by Steve” – he’s rich and he’s arrogant … and he’s going to do it His way.
I think he’s earned that…
A good point, if a bit severe? It is about the design! It has to be, it is obvious. IMHO the most important thing about Apple under Steve Jobs is the emphasis on how computing devices look and how we interact with them. I know this is going to sound corny but computing is the future today. When you pick a mac book air, do you not wonder at how thin it is? Of course we know how it is so thin, it is merely a technical exercise, but if Apple hadn’t produced one, would one of the other laptop manufacturers done so? And would they have gone to the trouble of using aluminium for the case. It is this commitment to innovate which creates excitement about their products. iPads for example, nothing really new in the technology (apart from the interface), but they look and feel futuristic, and at the end of day, computers should look and feel futuristic. BTW I am PC and I feel retro.
“Let’s face it – Apple is a marketing company”
I’m sorry, but what exactly does this statement mean? I say this not to be snide, but in the interests of trying to save us from the meaningless bullshit we all hear every day.
Is a marketing company one that uses advertising? You mean like every company in America?
Is it one that makes its money primarily from advertising? You mean like Google — but completely unlike Apple.
Is it one that uses *substantial amounts* of advertising? The numbers may have changed, but last time I looked into this Microsoft spent more on advertising per dollar of revenue than Apple; heck they spent more on CONSUMER advertising per dollar of revenue than Apple. It does not make Apple a marketing company if its competitors are as incompetent with their advertising dollars as they are with everything else in their business.
Is it one whose products sell ONLY because of advertising? Perhaps you’d like to back up that claim, because your simply asserting it doesn’t make it true.
The primary extent to which Apple is a marketing company is that they do marketing as well as they do design, or operations, or finance. They have a plan, and they stick with it. Apple gets a vast amount of bang for its buck because it has a consistent graphic language (icons, fonts, spacing, hardware design, etc) which it uses across everything it does. Apple ad campaigns run for years, and maintain the same look even as the details change; just like Apple hardware. All of which means that their ads have stickiness.
Contrast that with any of their competitors who can’t stick with a visual theme, whether in ads, hardware, or software, for more than three months.
“Let’s face it – Apple is a marketing company”
Specifically, they market music. In general, entertainment.
For someone with the moniker “Thinking”, perhaps you should acquaint yourself with an Apple income statement. It would show that your claims about the company and its products are not accurate.
Apple employs people that are good at many disciplines, and that is why they currently sit at the top of the heap. I remember an interview some years ago where one of the bubble-head finacial reporters asked Jobs if Apple could continue with its “lucky” streak of profitability. Jobs (to his credit) remained calm and replied that the Press should consider that maybe, just maybe, the management team at Apple actually knows what they are doing.
You are correct. To me, Apple is just a side show, a distraction not really worth any real effort to analyze or understand. My statements reflect this attitude.
I don’t use Apple products. Its funny, but none of my friends or business associates do either. I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen an Apple PC.
And despite the repeated (ad nauseam) assertions that creative professionals use Macs, I don’t. I’m an artist and content creator. Have been since 1984 using PCs configured as workstations.
Whatever the future brings for Apple it won’t affect me one way or the other.
Apple. Meh.
Don’t go away mad, just go.
@Thinkinging
Your comment is silly. Just because your “friends and business associates” don’t use Apple products, it doesn’t mean that they are not a significant company. I’ve had a completely different experience from you. Most of my friends happen to use Macs.
Walk into any lecture hall at any major university in America and you’ll see nothing but glowing Apple logos (science and engineering schools might be an exception to that). The iPod is still the most popular music player in the world.
Half of professional film editors in the US use Final Cut Pro.
I work in the tech industry in NYC and every tech startup office in Manhattan is exclusively Mac. Even Google has phased out the use of Windows internally.
“Walk into any lecture hall at any major university in America and you’ll see nothing but glowing Apple logos (science and engineering schools might be an exception to that).”
HP and Dell rule at the 35K+ student major university 1 mile from my home. Not that MacBooks aren’t present in great numbers at the coffee shops in the area.
“The iPod is still the most popular music player in the world.”
Well you see, this is why I said Apple is a marketing company. The first thing people think about when Apple is mentioned is their iPod. Its merely a device to deliver music hence by the very nature of its design and purpose it HAS to be part of the marketing of entertainment media.
Oh and as mentioned by another poster:
“Driven by Jobs (but by no means a one man show) they’ve created a series of markets that others failed before (PC, digital music players, reinvention of the smart phone and the “tablet” if it can be called that).”
The Apple and Apple II was the result of Wozniack’s genius. Arthur Rock and Mike Markkula were there to make sure the computer would be a success weather or not Steve had od’d on acid.
The (pre digital and digital) music player should be credited to Michio Kushi. Network Walkman, NW-MS7 were there before the iPod.
The smartphone saga isn’t over yet and Apple could easily have it’s hat handed to them although I think it’s market share will suffer a lingering erosion as the market gets saturated with cheap decent Android phones.
The tablet thing obviously isn’t bad but the only comment I have about that is after regular use they become greasy and grimy so I’m not sure about the format’s ability to saturate the market and “kill the PC”.
“I work in the tech industry in NYC and every tech startup office in Manhattan is exclusively Mac. ”
Well, now we know what kind of computers Bernie Madoff and the crooks at Canary Capital use.
And since you mention NY City , the Big Apple and Apple computer, could Apple Inc’s success be merely due to the 18 million NY residents wanting to buy a device with their favorite logo branded on it? I wonder what the computer ownership stats are in the NY area as compared to other metropolitan areas.
Re Apple logo. How can you possibly be a fan of a company that sued the BEATLES and stole their logo? Don’t you feel …. dirty?
Well “Thinking” you may need to change your moniker to “Sort of thinking, but biased.”
I have no problem being snide to someone who obviously has a set point of view. Just because your experience with Apple is through ads and not actually using its products, doesn’t mean that it is merely a marketing company, it means you only experience its marketing.
As someone who lives in many tech “worlds” the best way to summarize Apple is to use Steve Jobs’ own words, summarized: Apple is about existing at the cross roads of the liberal arts and technology; Apple wants to be the most CREATIVE tech company, just as Pixar wants to be the most technologically advanced creative company.
Those are simple and powerful, but would not be successful without good marketing and design and business execution. That is the whole package that gets a company to be capitalized in the league of an Exxon AND in a way that shows a vision that even a Microsoft has never been able to do.
Better start “thinking” some more.
You’re missing the other key, in both marketing and technology design: Keep it simple.
Apple is better than anyone at remembering that something isn’t finished when there’s nothing left to add, but when there’s nothing left to remove.
Edmund, not really a good or original point. Do you even understand the technology business or just regurgitate stuff you read on the fake steve blog? There is much more to Apple’s success than marketing. Driven by Jobs (but by no means a one man show) they’ve created a series of markets that others failed before (PC, digital music players, reinvention of the smart phone and the “tablet” if it can be called that). In case you’ve been living under a rock, Apple makes very little from iTunes or the App Store–those are vehicles to reinforce the ecosystem not the other way around. Whether you like there ‘ecosystem’ or not it’s a brilliant business model enabled by brilliant technology (some original some not, but doesn’t matter–it’s not the ingredients that count, it’s the recipe stupid). And Cook was just one more brilliant business move, or maybe another ingredient.
Uh, no.
I think you should apply! Seriously…or maybe you have already interviewed?
Well in all honesty, Apple seems to have been working on this transition plan for several years already. As others have said, Apple’s fate has historically been tied to that of Steve Jobs; and they’ve done a great job in the last few years disentangling that – showing that Apple can do not just well but very well without Steve at the helm during his several sabbaticals in the last few years. They’ve tested out the company; they’ve even tested the market (by letting everyone know that Steve wasn’t at the helm for some of those sabbaticals). Now it’s time to start following the plan.
I do like your idea of the “just one more thing” – opening with the biography of Jobs & Apple, and then introducing some interesting products to give us a taste of what is to come. It’ll be interesting to see how Apple does over the next 2 quarters, but one thing I think is cemented – Jobs has made sure that Apple will be his legacy, that it will survive without him being around.
RE: Apple North Carolina Data Center
http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/11/08/26/1349214/IBM-Building-120PB-Cluster-Out-of-200000-Hard-Disks
I wonder how long before Tim Cook begins to overrule Steve Jobs, the previous CEO, and fires him?
The question is, who controls the board?!
Well, I believe the war is over: http://www.tmz.com/2011/08/26/steve-jobs-apple-photo-resignation-ceo-sick/
Since when is TMZ a reliable, as well as accurate, source.
See this link, which appears to dispel the reliability of TMZ’s “photo” -
http://i.imgur.com/WV5Y0.jpg
Dear Robert Cringely,
“What is the plan?”
Everyone wants to know. In all of your years and experience in this corner and all you can do is offer this post. Really? Did you drink the tea leaves by accident? I guess it must be 3am wherever you are.
Without Jobs, Apple is done. Not right away, but in a couple of years. Why? Because when he goes the company will just be run by bean counters, like every other US corporation. That is what kills innovation. Counting beans and relying on focus groups… which just want a “faster horse”.
Jobs is not a great man. He just made a lot of money. In our greed obsessed world that impresses many. But it’s not greatness. In a few years he will be forgotten.
Don’t know if he is a “great” man–pretty loaded term and can mean lots of things. But he is a great businessman, and a spectacularly gifted marketer of products. He won’t be forgotten in a few years any more than Henry Ford has been forgotten.
What is your problem?
calvinkleinjeanscheap.com
http://calvinkleinjeanscheap.com
Tim Cook is the successor. Get over it. Jobs chose (anointed?) him because he proved he could run Apple. The board backed him and gave him one million restricted stock units, 500k to stay five years and another 500k to make it ten, i.e. 2021. Investors, you know, those who put their money where their mouth is, clearly back him as witnessed by the stock’s performance. He isn’t some guy coming in from Pepsi, et al. He’s Apple, through and through.
Tim Cook is every bit as meticulous, driven, and demanding as Jobs. Who knows how much of Steve’s accredited “vision” was actually that of many others in the organization? In fact, there’s no evidence Cook lacks vision. He sure had the vision to lock up needed suppliers. His job now, as it has been for some time, is to cherish, support and retain the best in class executive team, especially Ives. He’ll lead, not with “what would Steve do?” but with “what would Apple do?” something Steve spent the last decade engraining in personnel and codifying in Apple University.
Perhaps Steve’s declining health is the reason for the early publishing date. I hope not. It’s good to see him staying on the board, but he’ll be there suggesting direction rather than mandating it. It’ll be Tim’s call from now on. Perhaps Apple will be even better for this change.
I keep hearing about this remarkable “vision” of Steve Jobs but Apples technology is never more than about a year or two ahead of anyone else. What I consider remarkable is the ability of his company to continuously take advantage of that rather mediocre prognostication. One of the other contributors was correct in Job’s ability in understanding how people want to use technology as opposed to Microsoft telling you how to use technology. But that doesn’t take much forward looking. It does take more risk, deep pockets and in some cases a bigger set of balls.
But I have challenged a few of my contemporaries with visions of the future that I don’t see coming from Apple, Microsoft or anyone else. I don’t expect to see flying cars or personal robot attendants any time soon and certainly not in my lifetime (I’m over 50) but there should be a path to ubiquitous computing. You know what ubiquitous means, computers are everywhere and in everything. A time when carrying a device around with you will seem quaint. Children will laugh and point at you with your iPhone10.
Imagine a time when there is no identity theft, no login sessions, and you hail a computer action like you might say hello to a friend while standing on a street corner in a foreign land and a nearby intelligent sign responds to you and addresses you by your name. This will come about, I assure you, but it won’t come from the likes of Apple because they want you to carry that iPhone10.
Futuristic….bahhhh!! They are already 100 years in my past and I don’t think
the choice in Steve’s replacement willl make much of a difference.
I don’t agree. Just because Apple’s innovative ideas get copied within a couple of years doesn’t mean that they would have developed without Apple doing the work in the first place Take the iPad as an example. Seems to me that tablets were tried and failed a bunch of times before Apple — in fact, people wrote it off as a dead-end. Apple comes in and rejuvenates the entire domain within an incredibly short time (not that it was short in development, but it was short from point of view of the consumer markets). Same thing with ipod, iphone, etc, etc.
The challenge for Apple was always (and will always be) keeping current and innovative. Other folks will copy their designs; but that only matters when they’re copying last-year’s big thing. So long as they stay at the forefront of this-year’s big thing, they’ll continue to reap the rewards.
It’s that last aspect I worry about with Steve’s departure — will they be able to stay at the pointy end once they run through the current pipeline of innovations? Time will tell…
You can’t really be that myopic, can you? “only a year or two ahead of everyone else”?
That’s because everyone else is taking all their cues from what Apple does next.
Its time for him to take rest… he is been a hero!
[...] Jobs resigned as head of Apple? Bloggers are still processing the news with posts beginning “I was about to board an airplane Wednesday when…” and “I was having a fantastic day today…” As Daring Fireball put [...]
[...] be the result of a sudden worsening of Jobs’ health. Some pundits, however — such as Robert X. Cringely – have a slightly different take on the subject. Cringely believes that Jobs’ new [...]
[...] seems he truly has lost it. Share this:TwitterFacebookStumbleUponLike this:LikeBe the first to like this post. This entry was posted in Apple, Steve Jobs and tagged Apple, Steve Jobs by bobsageek. Bookmark the permalink. [...]
You must have noticed how beautifully orchestrated Jobs’ resignation was and how perfectly he manipulated the media and market analysts. It had the Jobs hallmarks of exquisite attention to detail and a twist that captured media attention. The big surprise was that there was a succession plan and that it was the obvious plan.
I expect Jobs’ death to equal his previous performances. I don’t expect the media to report on how expertly it has been manipulated. That’s your job, Bob.
[...] Macbook) que o vêem como um messias de uma religião moderna? Bem, para entender melhor, vou até o blog de um dos meus gurus: Robert X. Cringely. E vou ver o que ele diz a respeito.Diz o Cringely que a sucessão na liderança da Apple não [...]
OMG, my sources say, Steve is NOT going to make it to November, nevermind Christmas. He is putting all his affairs in order. Check your Disney sources. They are the ones freakin’ out, not Apple.
The President of North Korea is not its current head, Kim Jung Il, or his son. It is, the now dead, going on 15 years, Kim Il Sung. Kim Il Sung, the founder of North Korea, is the only dead head of state. He is President of North Korea for eternity.
Now, with all due respect to Muslims, Mohammed was the head of Muslim community when he died. The Koran, coming from his mouth, as he recited it, was intended to be guidance for humans on how to live etc… The Koran, the hadith (the habits of the profit) in a way, allow Mohammed to still be the leader for the Muslim community for eternity.
(I mean that metaphorically and by way of anology, I don’t want or intend to represent or mis-represent Islam, so if your are reading this, please don’t put a fatwa on my head, I’m just trying to make a point, and that point is not about theology, Islam especially speaking, a subject I don’t know much about, but about Jobs and the subject of this column – if you are Muslim and offended, please do the Christian thing and forgive me, for I know not what I speak).
Succession is always a problem. In fact, the major division in Islam has to do with the question of who is the rightful successor.
Now take North Korea and take the Islamic ideas, and in a way you can see Jobs setting himself up as CEO of Apple for eternity. The book will provide ‘rightful guidance’ for the future. I don’t know Jobs. I’m not an Apple freak. I don’t know how big his ego is, or whatever. But maybe, symbolically, at least, he’s setting himself up as CEO for eternity.
So, apparently he’ll still be around after all.
You’re right. There are much larger and more complex problems than are addressed here.
Hey Bob,
I am a devoted follower of yours for may years and I have never commented until now. I first have to say I love your column and its the only one i follow on the net. I must now say what the hell is going on with you? Do you not care about the quality of your articles? I have been catching up and reading the archives and what do i find? Time after time i see misplaced audio or no audio at all. High volume on one and low on the next. And worst of all your voice sounds like crap on half of them. Seriously Bob if u cant sound awake or well please have someone do the audio for you. I am sorry that my first response is trash but I am a cult follower of yours and I demand quality.
Thanks
Vance
I agree the audio quality could be better but I think it’s a mistake to rely on the audio alone since it doesn’t include the comments. I download and save all the audio but I usually don’t get around to listening until a year later. It’s actually fun to hear what was in the news a year or more ago and realize how little things have changed. But the true content is in the written column with the added commentary.
I think they are saying Apple is more style than substance. I think this is false but I can see the point.
I HATE this jackoff speculation. Next time I fiddle with my Mac or iPod, I’m gonna try to shut up and cut Steve a little slack. Perhaps Mr. Cringely will shut up and do the same. Probably not, but we can hope.
Tim Cook is the successor as CEO. I don’t think it is temporary. And the VP team below him remains that one which Jobs appointed. Business as usual, good continuity.
I think Jobs’s post as chairman of the board is largely ceremonial and helps with the transition by easing Jobs out of Apple instead of having him leave cold turkey. This is all about managing Apple image and maintaining confidence in Apple’s ability to deliver.
Since we don’t know what Jobs’ real health situation is, we can’t know whether death is impending or whether he could still live a year or more. Only time will tell. But for now, AAPL is implementing what appears to be a solid plan to become independent from Steve Jobs and survive him.
In fact, Apple has far greater chances to remain “Apple” with Tim Cook and the team chosen by Jobs than if the board gets an external CEO in.
Bye Jobs!
This is what I wrote on PBS’ I, Cringley in 2009:
“The fact that Apple pulled out of MacWorld is the most telling sign of things to come you will ever see from the company. On this surface this seems to mearly mean that Steve Jobs may be sick, wants to spend time with his family, whatever the reason it doesn’t really matter because the result is the same. No Steve at Apple in the near future. Maybe not today, maybe not in six months, maybe not even in a year, but soon. The scope of this is profound.
1. If you are Steve Jobs and you are the only human being in the world that REALLY knows what is about to happen then you have to assess your priorities. Do you spend the rest of your time left building the team and the tools to continue the march on MS without you? Do you say “screw it” and move Apple into another field entirely? Do you assume the company will go down in flames without you and burn everything to the ground and leave nothing left to destroy your longest standing enemies? Do you turn philanthropist and dedicate yourself and your company to the good of Earth? If history means anything, Steve Jobs can never be trusted to do anything but the grandest of egomaniacal plans. Sometimes you get the Sistine Chapel, sometimes you get the Titanic.
2. Apple isn’t sticking with computer tech. Now most people know this on some level but don’t expand on what that means. Apple survives solely on building ecosystems that feed back into itself. Without this they would have been ground into the dirt by now. To carry this practice into the future they are going to need products. Lots of products. Unfortunatly, Apple doesn’t make a lot of products and and been very coy about introducing new lines due to the fear of failures eroding the public perception of the company’s genius in product design. How do you combat this? How do you take the best computer designers in the industry and move them into non-computer related markets? If you’re Apple, you don’t. You make the other industries move to making products your people know how to dominate. Example 1: iphone. Don’t make a phone that does computer tasks, make a computer that does phone tasks. Everyone else: please follow. Example 2: Apple TV. Don’t make a settop box that can connect to itunes, make a computer that does nothing else but itunes. Example 3: The Apple Television. Now this product doesn’t exist you say? Yes, it does. Simply combine products one and two. You will see the beginning of this next year at CES. This, will be Steve Jobs swan song.
3. Steve Jobs isn’t crazy, but he does play one on TV. Steve Jobs biggest problem between now and the grave is Steve. How does a man like this exit when the time comes that he really does want to leave? Everyone seems entirely too focused on whether or not Apple is hiding the fact that he is immensely sick to check on whether or not he is really sick at all. Obviously by his appearance he HAS been sick but what if the details about this are kept hidden and the public is simply ALLOWED TO BELEIVE that he has one foot in the grave. Technically this is not lying but would give the company and HIS STEVENESS an excellent opportunity for THE GRAND EXIT.
THE GRAND EXIT
Now this will be something to see. Steve Jobs and his ego at their best. If Steve was going to leave the company based on a singular product he would have done so after the release of the iphone. The iphone was a stunning success, a technological marvel, and will cement his place in tech history. He could have left and Apple would have shuddered but moved on to continue their dominance of the tech world’s mindshare. He didn’t. He let the bright lights around the iphone dim somewhat. He let the Apple TV seem to flounder a bit. He let blu-ray pass by. He let netbooks pass by. Tv’s. Touch screens. Gaming. Nothing but toes in the water for Apple. Why? Because Steve has something bigger in mind. The iphone? A remote control for the big idea. The Mac? A portal of entry for the big idea. The Apple TV? An experiment for the big idea. Multitouch? Nothing more than a part of whats coming. Mobile Me? Also an experiment, but of the most grand implications imaginable. Apple doesn’t want to be your place to buy gadgets. Apple doesn’t want to be your place to buy programs. Above all, Apple doesn’t want to be your place for stuff. What Apple wants, is to be your place to buy ideas.
Apple assumes you are generally an idiot but some idiots (mainly people that purchase Apple products) can be forgiven and therefore worthy of being steered to the promised land. This promised land being Apple’s soon to be dominance of data. What computer are your using? Won’t matter, your data is going through an Apple service. What kind of phone are your using? won’t matter, it’s connected to Apple’s cloud. What kind of tv do you have? Won’t matter, its got chips inside compatable with Apple’s design to connect it to Apple’s cloud online. The iphone as your remote control. The Apple TV is a set of chips inside everyone’s new HD’s. And Apple doesn’t even have to make it. The TV people are already starting to do it for them. The Mac? The Mac is nothing if not for the software. This software will remains Apple’s baby. And it will be EVERYWHERE. How? Just connect your new wi-fi HD tv you just bought to the internet and log into Apple’s new online serive. Use your multitouch iphone to control everything your see on screen. Log into itunes, which is now an online locker for all of your media no matter where you are. Connect to your favorite website using Safari, which is now a non-client located web browser. Talk to your friends with ichat using the camera you plugged into that USB port on your TV. Buy and play your favorite game since it’s running on their system and simply sending the display bits and controls back and forth now eliminating the need for a standalone computer at all. This is the future of computing and Apple knows it. Microsoft knows it. Larry Ellison has known it for 30 years. Steve Jobs knows it, and he is going to take everyone kicking and screaming right into the thick of it before he heads into the sunset. And we will all be the better for it, whether you like him or not.
Eric Lawrence | Jan 14, 2009 | 9:53PM”
Was I prescient?
[...] Macbook) que o vêem como um messias de uma religião moderna? Bem, para entender melhor, vou até o blog de um dos meus gurus: Robert X. Cringely. E vou ver o que ele diz a [...]
Is that really all there is to it because that’d be flabrbegatsing.
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Jobs A wonderful man.. !
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