Oct
05

Difficult And Impossible

The next time someone says “You are being difficult” remind them that Apple thought Steve Jobs was being difficult and they fired him. 

He then went off and created this little animation company called Pixar. 

Apple asked Steve Jobs to come back in 1997 when they were about 90 days out from bankruptcy. Steve nixed the Newton, created a partnership with Microsoft and refocused the entire product line. 

Almost exactly 14 years later, in August 2011, Apple’s value exceeded that of ExxonMobil. 

The next time someone says “it’s impossible” think of how Steve Jobs changed our world.

In 2001, as we recovered from 9/11 and later saw our country go to war, who could possibly have ever even considered the implications of a soon to be launched MP3 player called the iPod. Or the iPhone. Or the iPad.   It is not just about the devices. It is everything that feeds in and out of the devices and how we communicate and share. 

So if you want to call me “difficult” and tell me that my beliefs are “impossible” then the only thing I have to say to you is “Thank-you, I am in very good company.”

Thank you, Mr. Jobs for your unfaltering belief in your vision and making “difficult” and “impossible” something to be incredibly proud of. 

Sep
14

“The television industry … pretty much undermines innovation in the sector. The only way this is going to change is if you start from scratch, tear up the box, redesign, and get it to the consumer in a way that they want to buy it.”

Steve Jobs as he prepares to take over the cable industry at the All Things Digital Conference in July 2010.  Rumor has it that Apple is planning to blow up the cable industry the same way they turned the music industry upside down. Do you hear that TV Industry? Tick tock tick tock…

Source businessweek.com

Jun
04

“You can’t connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something, your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. Because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart, even when it leads you off the well-worn path and that will make all the difference.”

Steve Jobs, Stanford University 2005 (via TED)

Apr
20

Lost: iPhone 4.0

Last Friday night, some poor hapless engineer “lost” a prototype of the new iPhone. 

Actually, we can assume said engineer imbibed in one too many beers at Gourmet Haus Staudt, and, wanting to impress some pretty girl (or boy), took the revered device out and started to brag. Obviously, the engineer was successful in his endeavors and went home happy that night, until he realized that he left the prototype at the Gourmet Haus. 

Now, since Apple employees have a clause in their employment terms that indicates “death” as a an acceptable repercussion for leaking any company secrets before they are officially scheduled to come to market, one can assume that our bumbling friend quickly hauled ass back to the bar to retrieve the left-behind device. 

But not before another patron found it, and, recognizing the iPhone as something NEVER SEEN BEFORE OH MY GOD!!!, promptly called….Gizmodo? To whom he/she sold the phone for $5000 (so says the NYTimes) in what must be a matter of a few hours, if I am following the timeline correctly.

Really?

1. Apple has NEVER had a leak to this level. A prototype leaving a specific room at Cupertino is unheard of. Leaving the building? Highly unlikely.

2. Apple has been riding a wave of heavy media buzz almost non-stop July of 2009 (when buzz around the iPad started to heat up).  Apple wants to continue to ride that wave. And let’s think about the value of this buzz from a marketing perspective…let’s just say this type of ongoing saturation would require the combined marketing budgets of Coke, Apple, and IBM. 

3. Someone at the bar was familiar enough with the current iPhones to recognize this device as the new iPhone? Maybe. Given the the number of iPhones floating around in that area, it’s highly likely that said person was smart enough to recognize that this just wasn’t ANY iPhone - it was THE iPhone. Could it possibly be…GASP!…another Apple employee?

4. So they called Gizmodo? And sold it for $5000? How convenient for Gizmodo to get a scoop that has only been rivaled by TMZ breaking the news of Michael Jackson’s early demise and Watergate. But seriously, if you knew you had the iPhone 4.0 in YOUR hands, would you call Gizmodo? Why not Microsoft? Or Nokia? Why not sell it on eBay where you would be damn sure to get more than a lousy $5000?

5. Apple can disable a lost iPhone within minutes. Given the purported length of time before this happened, perhaps our little Apple engineer was too busy getting a little somethin’ somethin’ to notice the missing device, providing Gizmodo just enough time to get the call, negotiate for the device, secure the device, and take it apart to get a little glimpse of how it works. Just a little. Before the device shut down. Convenient.


Realistically, this sequence of events is just a little to neat - a perfect alignment of timing combined with the bumbling idiocy of an Apple employee? Not buying it.

Nice try though Mr. Jobs. You certainly have us all talking.  Which was ultimately the plan, right?