Unanswered Steve Jobs questions
A lot has been said about Steve Jobs in the 24 hours since his death and some of that has come from me. It has been 24 hours of round-the-world media interviews, most of them live but you can see an edited version of me this Friday on ABC’s 20/20, which is doing a Jobs tribute of some sort. Remember ABC’s parent is Disney and Jobs was Disney’s largest shareholder. With all that has been said and written, however, I’m hard put to know what there is I can add here. I can tell you though the two Jobs questions I still want answers for, and where I hope to find those answers.
Question #1 — Was there a grand plan for Apple? Did Steve and his little circle set out in 1997 to do an iMac followed by an iPod with iTunes followed by an iPhone followed by an iPad? And if they did have such a plan, what was next on their list after the iPad?
Some technical and product transitions are no-brainers. Computers get smaller, faster, and cheaper over time. After a certain point smaller, faster, and cheaper begets mobility. After mobility gets smaller, faster, and cheaper we want all our stuff to be available anywhere anytime. After we have all our stuff with us anywhere anytime the platform itself begins to disappear. All of these steps except the last happened in Steve Jobs’s lifetime, and it is easy to see that last step coming, too. But while these steps were no-brainers in retrospect, were they obvious beyond Apple, were they part of a plan?
I like to think that there was a plan, which might explain why Apple never made televisions in Steve’s life, though I know they came very close. If there was a plan I’d love to know the value set and algorithms at its heart.
But my sense is actually that there was no plan or maybe that the plan changed, perhaps many times, explaining the exodus of top Apple talent over the years. I’d like to hear what Avie Tevanian has to say, for example.
Question #2 — What happens to Steve’s money? This may seem crass to some, but no more crass than a billionaire with no outward signs of philanthropy. It was Steve’s money of course and he could do with it whatever he liked, but what was his reason for outwardly appearing to have little interest in others? Maybe he was a closet philanthropist. Certainly in recent years the considerable amounts he spent on cancer research aimed at his own cure will benefit thousands of others. I’d still like to know, though, Steve’s plan for his fortune.
I hope to learn the answers to both questions from Walter Isaacson when his authorized biography of Steve Jobs is released on October 24th. I haven’t read the book yet and know nobody who has, but I hope Walter got around to my silly questions and that Steve answered them.
He was a busy guy, Steve Jobs — so busy living for the moment that maybe he didn’t have to live so far (or indeed at all) into the future. Maybe none of this matters, but I’d still like to know.
What unanswered questions would you have for Steve Jobs?
Tomorrow I’ll respond to the 200+ comments on my Final Frontier column, hopefully setting off another burst of discussion and discovery — just the sort of discourse Steve Jobs would have liked, especially if it riled people up.
I’d like to know why the Windows version of iTunes sucks so bad! Most confusing piece of crap I have ever used. Many people I know have the same opinion. Last time I upgraded, it made my iPad invisible to my windows PC. I tried to do I System Restore to the day before the upgrade. No go. The iTunes dialogs for upgrades, syncs, and backups ALWAYS leave me with the impression that something will be lost. Easy to use, my A**. Just A HUGE PIECE OF CRAP!
I agree 100%. iTunes has for years been the worst piece of software on my PC – yet I’m essentially forced to use it if I want to use my iPods/iPhone/iPad. I have constantly been amazed that Apple has allowed such a bloated, buggy, crash-prone application to be the only example of Apple software most PC users ever see. If that is emblematic of the Apple experience, it certainly doesn’t make one want to buy a Mac. They should have fixed iTunes years ago, and should rewrite it from the ground up now.
Not quite the only example. Quick time has always taken a long time to load. I’ll consider getting my first Apple device when I can add and remove all content with the software that comes with Windows.
I agree, but I would go further and say I’ll buy an Apple product only when I can manage it with ANY generic OS, not just Windows (I use Linux). That said, my wife does have an iPod, version 4.3 of iTunes that came with it years ago still works well in my XP virtual machine (but it probably wouldn’t work with a newer device like the iPad), and I’ve switch to using gtkpod to manage it under Linux. Still, it’s an unnecessary pain to manage.
The product tying is a huge negative for me, so I choose not to buy their products. I’m not sure how they’ve avoided the DOJ on the issue. Bill Gates could only dream of being the monopolist Steve Jobs got away with.
Monopolist is a bit extreme. I’m also Apple-free so far, but they only have 5% of the PC market, are loosing to Android in the phone market, and next year will be loosing to both Android and Windows 8 in the tablet market. They deserve their success if only for raising the bar making the non-Apple products that most us use much better.
5% of the market yeah the top 5%. As for Jobs being a bigger monopolist that Gates, do you know your history?
As I understand it, Microsoft became the biggest bunny because of the contractual deal it made with IBM for the original DOS and subsequent upgrages so that it was paid a royalty for every PC or PC Clone that was sold regardless of whether it had the Microsoft OS installed or not. It effectively locked out every other platform, why would PC makers install other OS’s, even better ones, if they still had to pay MS’s licence fees.
“…I’d like to know why the Windows version of iTunes sucks so bad!…”
All one has to do to answer THAT questions is to merely look at Windows. The answer is obvious. Much Windows software sucks air. It’s inherent in the foundation product.
I reckon they could have made iTunes for Windows better if they wanted to but why improve a Windows product? Better to have people be frustrated enough to shell out for a Mac. Cynical yes but good business nonetheless.
By the way, I’m not an Apple hater. My nom de internet is a Spanish translation of “Steve Jobs” and has been for years. I love the man. May he rest in peace.
“Much Windows software sucks air”.
Spoken like a true Apple fanboy. There are probably examples of software sucking on any platform. I have developed software on both Mac and Windows and it is possible to do a good job on both platforms. Apple apparently just did not want to take the time to do it right on Windows. Someone else commented that maybe they did this on purpose to drive Mac sales. I would think that that is a double edged blade. Who the heck would want to buy a Mac if iTunes on Windows is the best they can do?
Your lucky Bill Gates won’t let me open my iTunes because he says its a threat to my system!
iTunes on windows sucks because iTunes sucks, period.
I’m a big apple fan, mac user since 1985, yada yada. I am continually amazed how bad itunes is.
Well I’m tempted to say that you Bob, of most of us, would know what questions to ask! I know when to defer!
However I guess the
Based on Steve’s unique perspective. I’d be curious to know his vision of education in the 21st century. And I don’t mean have schools purchase iPads for every student, so they can access iTunesU.
In the spirit of your #1 question, I’d like to know what comes after the iPad. There has to be something in the works that he was thinking of using the iPad as besides as a mobile computer. Was it going to evolve into a controller for other devices, kind of like the iPod can do, or was it going to become something more.
A question I’d like to ask is about the changing attitudes towards creative pro users (filmmakers, designers, animators, etc.) and how much of that change is from Jobs himself. Recent news such as the MIA mac pro update, FCP X, a general disdain of Adobe (probably deserved) suggest that apple is less enthusiastic about this class of user. I know the business reasons why this is case (you’ve written about that) but I’d like to know more about how that direction was taken up internally.
It’s about clarity of vision. If you can dream about how things could work more effectively, be more efficient and can describe to others what these things need to do, not what they necessarily look like or how they work, then you can find talented engineers, materials, mathematicians, designers and technologists who will start building bridges to that vision. The bridge is not the destination, it iterates and evolves but its goal remains the same – to get to the destination. What is also essential is the confidence to see this through, the determination to persist, the willingness to rebuild. You can sell the bridge to fund the next bridge which is better and reaches further. This requires no plan, but it does require ambition, respect (or money to pay people to respect you) and the ability to communicate what you want. Listen to Steve Wozniak talk about Jobs. He kept asking him “can you do this, can you do that?”. He (Jobs) didn’t know how, he didn’t care how. But he knew why.
My question is this:
Why, when doing an massive OsX server patch, if the down 900Mb download times out at 700Mb, do you have to re-download the whole blasted thing?
I think windows users have been pausing and restarting hung downloads for years.
That right there killed my enthusiasm for Mac stuff.
Some thoughts on the passing of Steve Jobs and his legacy with Bill Gates.
http://bit.ly/qy9F7y
I like to ask Steve Jobs what he thought of Jesus Christ and why intellectually he choose to be a Buddhist.
Lastly I like to know if he has any regret spending more time at work than at home with his wife & kids.
I would ask Steve what his thoughts on the next frontier should be?
I don’t think there was a roadmap, but rather just a vision. From the beginning, Steve Jobs was always obsessed with cleanliness of form. He hated cables and wanted them tucked out of sight or preferably not there at all. Technology eventually got better and enabled more and more of that vision to be realized. But he was not dogged in pursuit of a roadmap, and the iPod was in many ways an opportunity that presented itself from the PortalPlayer people. It fit in with his vision and he was quick to see where it could go.
While the vision was quite clear, that is not to say it was perfect. I think Bob was correct in Accidental Empires, when he described the Jobs vision of a computer user as the loner in the desert, not beholden to corporate interests and groupthink and unfettered by a network. Although that may have been more about the cables than about communicating with others.
Again, it is not about having a roadmap and sticking to it dogmatically. It’s more about being driven by a vision, and following it not because you have been told to do so or read about it in a business book, but because you believe in it and are in some ways prisoner to it. This is how I interpret Picasso or Einstein or Feynman or Lennon. In Steve’s case, it was also about being smart and opportunistic enough to realize that vision successfully. It didn’t hurt that there were chances to learn from failures: Apple III, NeXT, the Cube Mac, Apple TV I. A strong vision makes it easier to risk mistakes, because when you’re driven realize something meaningful, you know you’re right even if you’re wrong. Final Cut Pro is just such an example. What kind of crazy business person would kill a successful product and leave no alternative path except an incompatible one? Obviously Steve felt strong enough about how video editing *should* be that he was willing to force us to the new generation, painful as it may be. Apple never flinched from tough decisions, like when they killed Quicktime Pro, the floppy drive (twice), the hard drive, serial ports, USB, etc. etc. You piss off a lot of people with those decisions, but that’s the price of following the vision.
One more thing about vision. It is a fuzzy thing and not necessarily easy to delineate like a roadmap. It can be a visceral reaction, like ugh, I don’t like these cables, I don’t like this font, this interface sucks. You know what you don’t like, and have a vague sense of what you want. You may only know what the realization is when you have it. The best engineers and designers can work with that, hard as it may be, because it is a shared search for greatness. You don’t have to be nice or even sane, because egos are not easily bruised in a quest for something greater than money or power or fame.
Wow, that came out a lot longer than I had meant it to. I was surprised by my own feelings upon his passing. I didn’t want to admit to myself that a businessman whom I had never met had somehow meant something profound to me. The outpouring of comments here, of visitors to the Apple Stores, of celebrity tweets means that he meant something to many of us. Now I admit it: he had a vision and it was a beautiful thing.
I think there was a plan. I re-read an article on him written after NEXT was bought by Apple before he became the iCEO. He spoke about a real opportunity for Apple to leapfrog Microsoft “and all the other tech companies” technologically. Just brash talk? But remember this man left nothing to chance. And he was gunning for Amelio then too, apparently referring to him as a “bozo”. I don’t necessarily hold it against Steve (or Amelio). Steve knew he needed the reigns of Apple in his hands to realize his vision, and that only he could do it. I applaud not only his vision, but his determination and execution as well.
I found that article from 1997:
http://www.nytimes.com/1997/01/12/magazine/creating-jobs.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm
Jobs bridles at any suggestion that Gates and Microsoft amount to his white whale. But he must wonder how differently things in the computer industry might have turned out had he not been expelled from Apple. He is already talking about his return in ambitious, competitive terms. ”I think we have an opportunity to take the next big technological step, and leapfrog Microsoft and everybody else,” he said two weeks ago. Apple, to Jobs, has suddenly become ”we” again.
Sure Bob. All of Apple product launches ideas were no-brainers and obvious to you.
So why are you a blogwriter?? Was the only difference between Steve and you just dumb luck?
I think this cuts to an observation I made about Steve a while ago:
Steve never said anything that wasn’t blindly obvious; however that was only true AFTER Steve said it.
http://everythingisobvious.com/
Yes, everything is obvious, after you know it. I suggest reading this, it will change your perspective on Genius (your own perceived Genius and that of others).
Not going to read the comments, but the money seems fairly easy to locate. The initial wealth created in the early phase of Apple was almost entirely poured into NeXT and Pixar. Some “small” portion of it when to Jobs via homes and other accoutrements. But it seems forgotten that Steve was a strong believer in proving your dedication as a CEO by remaining invested in his companies. When he was ousted from Apple, he sold all his stock (and thus funded his next two companies). When he returned, he stayed invested. This carried over to the Pixar sale to Disney. Yes, there were occasional, small sales of stock to fund his families lives or to handle tax matters, but that’s about it. After all, Jobs only became a billionaire when Toy Story ignited Pixar, and he only truly cemented himself as a multi-billionaire when he sold Pixar to Disney. He had the Spanish mansion but barely ever moved in. His true home wasn’t a shed, but it was a modest home for his position in a dense residential neighborhood. No vast estate with immense security with a mega-mansion with every absurd luxury.
The fact of the matter is: people ask why he wasn’t philanthropic? He didn’t invest in charities because he remained fully invested in his businesses.
I’d imagine there would be some difficulties, but it wouldn’t be very hard to review SEC filings and determine how much Jobs invested into NeXT and Pixar (there are lots of anecdotal stories anyways) and also to determine how little he pulled out of Apple and Pixar/Disney in the endstage of his career/life.
I’d wager 95% of the money remains AAPL and DIS equity. (That’s presuming he liquidated, spent, or otherwise invested $500 million of his $9 billion dollars — I think that’s highly conservative.)
I would like to know to what ashram he went in India and what he learned there. I guess he learned a lot and I hope it will be in his biography
I’ve got good news for you. You can visit the same ashram, and learn what he learned, without a long and painful trip to india at great expense. In fact, It will cost you less than $20.
Are you willing to learn what Steve Jobs learned for less than $20?
If so, go buy Atlas Shrugged and read it. This book sets forth the philosophy on which Steve Jobs based his life. (confirmed by Woz, btw, though it’s obvious to anyone who knew Steve well.)
Read it and think seriously about the decisions Jobs has made and you’ll see he was following this philosophy consistently.
You spent too much on your religion. You can get Atlas Shrugged for $1.24 at half dot com.
Steve Jobs a follower of Ayn Rand?
LOL He might was well follow Microsoft UX.
The point on philanthropy is quite telling, for all he’s done for the world, my career included, Bill Gates has done more
You’re an idiot. Bill Gates is spending money in africa, ensuring that Africa will spend another couple of decades stuck in a hole.
This is because Bill Gates doesn’t understand economics.
know why there are no tailors in africa? There used to be. But then the AID arrived. All the tailors were displaced by kids selling T-shirts sent from america.
Try not to confuse aid (something for nothing) with international trade (something for something). Selling foreign products isn’t bad if you paid for them first in trade. But we should not judge anyone by their propensity to give stuff away or not. I doubt that Bill really cares what we think of him. He just wants to be helpful to society in a way that he can have some oversight.
A VISIONARY FOR THE REST OF US
Bob,
Here’s something we’ve always been curious about that maybe you (or others) can answer. It’s not anything about grand plans or the like, rather about what’s been kind of an unsung hero of the Mac user experience. Namely, the Mac keyboard. Among other ergonomic features the main modifier key (aka “Apple key”) was built around the thumb, as it were. And so doing many common commands via the keyboard were easy to learn and perform (e.g., quit application; cut/paste and copy/paste; select everything; etc.).
Anyway, dear Bob, do you have any recollections of Mr. Jobs commenting on–if not “waxing insanely” in his inimical way–on the Mac keyboard design?
Btw, as has been noted, many of us feel the a loss similar to the one felt on the passing of that other wonderful, wire-rim eyeglass-wearing provocateur, John Lennon; sincere condolences to yourself and others lucky to have called Steve a friend.
Do you have any recollections of Mr. Jobs commenting
I have the correct answer to these questions.
1. Yes.
2. Fuck you. No, seriously, go fuck yourself.
You’re talking about a man who has done many orders of magnitude more good for the world than you can ever do, and all you’ve got is rank greed over wanting a portion of the money he made? Fuck you.
He made that money by being a philanthropist. I’m sure he gave a lot away ,but by being a genuinely generous person, he’s not going to run around talking about it. You, on the other hand, are a greedy bastard, and before the body was even cold you’re wondering who gets the money.
So, FUCK YOU.
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‘Good’ is a relative term.
Steve was good at getting people to buy things they didn’t know they needed –the iPod, the iPhone, the iPad– and getting them to do it not only for top dollar but on an annual basis. The tech world did change due to Apple’s products, but saying it is all for the better is hard to say. The blatant consumerism, throwaway culture, and instant gratification that the products and Apple’s marketing strategy encouraged fly in the face of our long term debt problems and inability to fund basic infrastructure projects.
You sir are a fool. Nothing against Jobs but when you say he did a lot of good are you referring to the iPhone or the iPad?
http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_losz5yyORm1qctv8ho1_500.jpg
Is this the philanthropy you are referring to?
Engineer’s verbage aside–I don’t understand the importance of Philanthropy or the obessions around SJ and his money. It’s just none of my business.
My questions are variants on Bob’s first one. Who made up Steve’s little circle ? Who came up with the ideas ? Was it Steve Jobs telling his circle “make this”, or did product ideas bubble up, with Steve deciding what to make and what not to ? Was he providing the vision: “Create technology with perfect form, that drastically changes (for the better) the way things work now”, or the plan: “first we’ll build portable music players, then we’ll build phones, then we’ll build tablets…” etc. Or both ?
We’re talking about a very big thing here.
A picture is worth a thousand words, a vision is worth a thousand pictures.
The same multi-vision that formed in the ‘60s included IT—the Hacker Ethic, which begins, “All information is free…” Can’t remember the book which described the initiations of LSD that took place in what is now sillicon valley; to be brief, the Dream that included revolution of all institutions included initiations of programmers at Xerox Parc/MIT.
Alot of beings are dreaming this, not all human; both in and out of ‘time’. Have I lost most people? Esp the techies?
That’s ok, I’d be lying if I didn’t. Just as Apple/Steve never really marryed any particular product, they were in bed w/the Dream, or should I say The Dream marryed them as long as they were in the resonance.
What’s the difference between Bob or myself and Steve? Different roles, not better ones. Steve, yeah, probably a driven mad man fighting many issues all twisted together—perfect for what needed to be done in the flux state between old and new schools of thought. What was acomplished was nothing short of miraculous. For example, ch 5 from Steve Knopper’s book, Appetite For Self-Destruction, The Spectacular Crash of the Record Industry in the Digital Age, How Steve Jobs Built the iPod, Revived His Company and Took Over the Music Business. The mechanics don’t really matter, Steve knew some things that he had to have happen. Yes, they had everything to do w/his personality and abilities as ‘World’s Greatest Salesman’, as Bob has said many times. But, the important thing is that it got done in the dimensions of time. Linear. The order doesn’t matter, not even smart Steve could have figured it out, but the Dream pulled him through.
Anyone who dreams this Dream wll be pulled, also. It’s probably pulling a little stronger on some right about now…
Let me lose many more who are still reading this. Digital tech is the bottom rung on old school tech, you know, the Matrix, Domination Reality. But, it’s only real function as part of the Dream: unify all signal. Outrageously insane! Yet, you see…
The real technology is soon to come: psi tech some call it, then real magic— resonance imbeded with active/passive intent by the user/author.
Another chapter of Dream/Steve/Apple: I’m in audio. Back before the iPod/podcast audio was going to hell. RealPlayer w/multi layers of auther control, proprietary protocols, essentially streaming only w/no avenue for user control/New Media model. The iPod made mp3 the standard and downloading for free the norm; what we have now. This would not have happened!!! 1984, baby.
You see each ‘chapter’ of the Dream has rolled out. We’re right near the end of phase 1. This is the information part of The Great Work, so called. Many people are dreaming this, each working w/their specialty. Building a new World, literally. But, the essence at this time is resonance. Conserving energy. No need to travel outside your body, or teleport matter, for example; not elegant, wastes energy. Just click on the all-in-one implant and do all your intel business. This ‘new’ school’ will be the link to old school when real magic is becoming the norm, phase 2,3 etc.
Have I lost almost all still reading? I hope so—this revolution definitely not broadcasted. Maybe podcasted, though. Because of the kind of concepts of this change, like a night dream, it is hard to hold in a mind not changed enough.
Thus, a lot of caustic remarks about Steve Jobs/Apple. Understandable, however many it hurts. His departure can’t be a bad thing—we are choosing to keep Dreaming whether we are conscious of it or not.
The iPod did not make the MP3 the standard. The iPod ushered in it’s own lossless compression to replace the MP3 standard, and was late to the party. MP3 is still around because of its ubiquity.
Doesn’t anybody remember the original Napster, the free (and illegal) music downloads, and the RIAA/Metallica shenanigans from the late 90′s?
Hi Bob, I’ve watched you for years, actually just watched an old 3 part doco you did called Nerds 2.0 which was a great laugh! Some of those clothes were truly criminal, and at the very least “Cringe-worthy” Hard to believe that Steve Jobs is really gone… it seemed like he’d just keep getting back up off the canvass!! I guess I’d like to know if like Woz, he managed to live a happy life… I always hear Woz say that he is a very happy person, I just hope that Steve Jobs managed to live a happy life, money aside, did he die happy and content with his life. Best Regards, Todd Clarke, Sydney Australia.
You guys have to read Lisa Brennan Jobs. She’s amazing:
http://www.lisabrennanjobs.net/2009/09/confessions-of-lapsed-vegetarian.html#more
A year later, in dance class, after a string of my wilting pirouettes, the dance teacher yelled, “You’re dancing like a vegetarian! Where’s the beef?” I wondered whether the beef eaters danced differently. Did they have more energy, more spirit to keep them straight? I would try to dance as if I had all the advantages. I would turn what I had, I hoped, into strength. My father did that.
He was a more extreme vegetarian than my mother and I, and sharp focused. We experimented, commented, dabbled; he honed and perfected. He believed that great harvests came from arid sources, pleasure from restraint. He knew the equations that most people didn’t know: things led to their opposites. Most people thought that things led to more of the same, so they took what came, and missed out on larger, more significant gratifications. They ate, drank and reveled. He didn’t, but he reveled later, on a larger, more permanent scale that would not deflate or sour, and that was his alchemy.
I didn’t live with him, but he would stop by our house some days, a deity among us for a few tingling moments or hours. One day he spit out a mouthful of soup after hearing it contained butter. With him, one ate a variety of salads.
But once he took me with him on a business trip to Tokyo, where we went to a sushi bar in the basement of the Okura hotel with its high ceilings and low couches, like a Hitchcock set. He ordered great trays of unagi sushi, cooked eel on rice. On one tray the pieces were topped with salt as fine as powdered sugar, but wet, and on the other tray the pieces were coated with a thin, sweet sauce. Both were warm and dissolved in my mouth. He ordered too many pieces, knowing we wouldn’t be able to finish them, but that we didn’t want to feel they would run out. It was the first time I’d felt, with him, so relaxed and content, over those trays of meat; the excess, the permission and warmth after the cold salads, meant a once inaccessible space had opened. He was less rigid with himself, even human under the great ceilings with the little chairs, with the meat, and me.
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And and another great one in Italy:
http://www.lisabrennanjobs.net/2009/09/tuscan-holiday.html
Question #1 — Was there a grand plan for Apple?
None other than making more money for Steve Jobs and satisfying his narcissistic ego. So many people left because of the nature of his berating personality and his total lack of understanding for fellow colleagues.
Question #2 — What happens to Steve’s money?
I have no idea nor care. His lack of planning for what his estate could do selflessly for mankind proves beyond a shadow of doubt that he chose to have no time for others, just for himself and those things mankind had attributed to him. The Apple franchise will continue but how it is perceived by the world will get better because finally the people who should have really been recognized by Steve will finally be allowed out of shadows of the narcissist in chief. Gates may not have built as good a product as the good people you berated daily in Cupertino and the slaves yu exploited overseas in manufacturing, but he at least knew he couldn’t take it with him and started giving it back before his time to meet his maker arrived so he could see the real fruits of his good fortune and how it would help others.
What unanswered questions would you have for Steve Jobs?
How does it feel Steve, now that judgement is now upon you? I just heard that Dennis Ritchie has just been called up there to be a prime witness in the case for your soul representing the folks at Bell Labs and Xerox PARC that you raped and pillaged.
I would like to know why you quit NerdTV. I was just rewatching it for the millionth time.
Please consider getting back to it.
just finished watching Triumph of the Nerds.’
Maybe you should do a sequel?
and maybe the most interesting part is Larry Elliason at the very end: sort of predicting the last 7-10 years of Apple?
Re: Question #2 What happens to Steve’s money?
Who cares?
It would be better if he had lived longer!
Wait till probate of the will.
He lived simply, with all his wealth. Like the Kennedy’s trusts for the family.
But most of the money to you, Cringely (what does X stand for?), for firing you so often! And your plans and visions were much better than Steve’s — you deserve it!
Re: Question #1 Was there a grand plan for Apple?
Like Alexander the Great, Jobs won battles!
If the Poms and Yanks had sent armies against Alexander he would have won them in UK and USA!
They were not part of his history but his plan was winning and to win he needed enemy armies! If no one wanted to fight him he would have been a nobody! So you could say Alexander had no plan! But Kings did and they let him fulfill his ambition of winning. ONE king that lost a battle had his kingdom restored to him by Alexander. Alexander wanted to be the Best! He didn’t want the land or money — like Gates!
Guess What? So did Steve Jobs! IN EVERYTHING THE BEST!
SEE Jobs pre 1985 has the iPad, iMac1 already planed see ‘MacBashful’ and other designs, 10 years before the first iMac, 20 years before the first iPad.
Even the Indian guru knew Jobs was “special” when he was a nobody!!
The third member of the initial Apple was introduced by Jobs to the job so Jobs could do a JOB on Woz!!!! A PLAN TO GET RID OF the WOZ!!!! JOBS ONLY! A successful PLAN!!
Jobs didn’t name his new computer company JOBS COMPUTER NETWORKS or JCN a pun on HAL9000 but NeXT! WHY Next? IT MEANT SOMETHING “THE NEXT BIG THING” if that’s not a plan I don’t know what is!
That we could not see it is more fool us!
That Unix runs Android, iOS and Macs still (40 years after Jobs vision) means nothing to the stupid!
(I read of one of the designers of Unix in a Mac Magazine saying that he went for Unix because it was easy to design games for it and that today’s games are no more complex than the first except for the eye candy)
That the World wide web was invented on a NeXT computer means nothing to you Cringely!
Daniel Eran Dilger of RoughlyDrafted Magazine lusted after a NeXT computer he could not afford, that he had to wait more than 20 years to get a Mac that did the same thing, shows how stupid Intel, Gates, the old Apple and Cringely (what does X stand for) were! Where were their plans?
We were more than 25 years behind Jobs’ vision; that he allowed us to catch up shows that we did not know where we were taken! AND STILL DON’T!
After 1997
Adobe bought Flash. Apple got reports of OSX failures coming from Flash. Asked Adobe to fix the problem they said F&$% Off. Apple then designed a new web video system. Adobe didn’t care they had 100% control of web video. Then in parallel it made iOS using their Unix OSX and then Adobe is unnessary for web video.
The plan?
1 Keep Adobe Flash make them fix it
2 Oh you won’t then we’ll maker a better flash!
3 we win adobe loses!
4 Why did Jobs go Unix! SEE ABOVE
5 What is Microsoft doing with their DOS based OS? They have not thought out their strategy look to their incompatibilities Inter ARM designed windows. Same as Adobe and flash 100% PC use.
We’re monopolies we don’t care how bad our systems are —
Ask yourself why Bill Gates got out when he did? He could see failure in Microsoft strategy and didn’t want to be at the helm to be blamed!
Pre Apple Music the music industry was bleeding billions. They didn’t know what to do! Apple saved the musicians by paying for music not like the rest stealing from them!
IT was a FAIR result!
I could go on with all the plans that Apple had but pages are needed!
And you Cringley are too dumb to see great plans — or like Brutus think your vision is better than Julius’s. Most probably why you were sacked so often by Apple!
Gates retires from active duty and starts buying a better placing into the history books. Steve, still working, not retired, already had a great place in the history books so he didn’t have to purchase it. And Steve continued to change the world up to the end. Had he lived to complete his dreams, then would have been the time to play Santa Claus. Gates knew the end for any innovation (ha!) by anything Microsoft was dead over, so he made his exit and started the purchase of his legacy in the history books.
I would not be surprised to see Steve’s wife dispensing with their wealth which is often what wealthy spouses do when they get old.
The telling difference between the two men is how they have lived their personal lives—Gates in a secluded, gated castle away form us riff-raff and Steve in a fairly normal community where anyone could knock on his door and collect a donation for kids camp. Steve took his kids trick or treating and I’ve heard they’re are pretty normally adjusted; Gates’ kids, I shutter at the thought.
One man gave the world dreams. There other, lowest denominator technology without a spot of magic, whatsoever.
Jewellery…
[...]I, Cringely » Blog Archive » Unanswered Steve Jobs questions – Cringely on technology[...]…
These are perhaps two of the most easy to answer questions about Steve Jobs I’ve ever come across. I’m surprised at all these comments which follow, seeing the answers are so simple:
1) Steve Jobs had no set-in-stone plan in 1997. He rebuilt Apple by doing what he said in his Stanford 2005 speed — he followed his heart. As new technology became available, he made use of it. Anyone who has studied anything about Apple and Steve Jobs should know the answer to this easy question.
2) Steve Jobs was not an elected official and therefore his money is none of our business. It’s obviously in the hands of his family, where it should be. Stop comparing him to other CEOs or others who found wealth and later made the personal choice to give it away. It’s none of our business, and even speculating about is perhaps more of a sin than that which you condemn (the wealthy not being generous to our satisfaction).
how to write for money…
[...]I, Cringely » Blog Archive » Unanswered Steve Jobs questions – Cringely on technology[...]…
Cyberking…
[...]I, Cringely » Blog Archive » Unanswered Steve Jobs questions – Cringely on technology[...]…
[...] Unanswered Steve Jobs questions (cringely.com) [...]
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[...]I, Cringely » Blog Archive » Unanswered Steve Jobs questions – Cringely on technology[...]…