Two memorable quotes from yesterday’s New York Times article about the iCon flap:
Jeffrey S. Young: “I think [Steve Jobs has] lost it. He faced mortality, and he knows without some massive change Bill Gates will be remembered as the important person in the computer business, and I think he’s lost it over that.”
Mitchell Kertzman: “It is not possible, aside from things unimagined, to damage [Steve Jobs’] reputation. Steve is on such a roll in both of his companies, he’s earned the right to do whatever he wants.”
Steve Jobs has been a hero of mine since 1981, when Dad brought home the shiny new Apple computer he had just bought at work to replace his typewriter, thinking it might interest me. Boy, was he right. At age 8, the games were what caught my attention at first, though it quickly became far more interesting that I could make the thing do my bidding with a little knowledge of Applesoft BASIC. That event literally changed my life, setting it on the course on which it still remains today. So, in a very real way, I owe it all to Steve Jobs (oh, and you too Dad :-).
More recently, I admire Jobs immensely as a businessman. Whether you agree with Apple’s strategy or not (and I don’t–their view that “All the world’s an Apple” makes them a niche player and is blowing a huge opportunity that otherwise remains open to Linux, though it’s a mistake I’m thankful they’re making, and it’s something others with far more business experience than I don’t characterize as a mistake), the fact that he’s saved Apple from certain oblivion is incontrovertible.
Personally, I agree with Scoble. Jobs is a very, very smart guy. He had to know what the result of this action would be–it’s so stunningly obvious to the rest of us. He has to want for this book to do well.
Then again, he’s also famously temperamental..
Wow. In the middle of writing something about how Jobs couldn’t possibly have wanted any other outcome, I started to wonder.
So, I guess, as with everything Steve Jobs does, this is either sheer genius or complete lunacy, and it’s impossible to tell which.
What huge opportunity is that you see Apple as blowing? The opportunity to be the maker of some of the best hardware in the biz? Nope, they got that covered… Maybe it’s to be the maker of a fine, easy-to-use OS? Check… How about letting other companies walk all over them? Yes, they are missing that opportunity. When Adobe started to let their Mac support slide, Apple slapped them. I suppose you could argue that it was the other way around, but that’s not the way I see it. Apple is being a little aggressive towards Adobe, more than I am comfortable with, but in my mind, they didn’t start it. Illustrator and PhotoShop would have died long ago without the Mac platform and Adobe doesn’t seem to have any loyalty to the platform that helped them conquer that market.
And what does “All the world’s an Apple” mean anyway? Apple is fully aware that their market share is tiny, which is why they seem to be concentrating on the iPod. That’s the part of their strategy I don’t get. (evangelist hat on) The Mac is the best computing platform currently on the market – the best hardware, the best OS, a killer sense of style, and a small price difference. (hat off) I hope that Bill Gates is remembered. And I hope people learn from his lessons, mediocrity sells well.