What Makes Steve Jobs Great

The New York Times:

“I think I have five more great products in me,” Steve Jobs said a very long time ago.

He was 31 at the time and barreling up Route 101 in Silicon Valley, en route to a meeting in San Francisco. Having been kicked out of Apple, which he’d co-founded a decade before, Jobs was wholly engaged in the act of starting up a new company, which he had named — of course! — NeXT.

Read the whole story: The New York Times

Comments

[ruleoflaw66]

11:54 PM on 08/29/2011

Jobs is better than any of you anonymous gits here who rip on him.

[ruleoflaw66]

11:53 PM on 08/29/2011

What Makes Steve Jobs Great

His sense of sartorial style...?

[Mister Grumpy]

09:28 AM on 08/29/2011

Jobs isn't Catholic is he?...........

I'm surprised that H-P hasn't annointed him as Saint Steve..............

What?......... only a half dozen articles about Apple.......... H-P you must be slipping.........

[Richard Licker]

12:29 AM on 08/29/2011

I was working in the computer industry in the early 80's. I thought it was common knowledge that Wozniak was the technical mind behind the Apple II. Jobs at the time was the marketing guy.

Has that really changed? How about this analogy: I know some pro golfers and I've heard their conversations while walking the fairways. One might say, "I built a new house in Jupiter." Now think about that for a minute. He didn't mean he sawed wood or pounded nails. He didn't even design it, though he may have input how many practice greens to be on the property.

Steve Jobs, I would guess, never designed anything. Not that I'm putting him down. He may well have given the designers some fairly detailed ideas, and he was surely the one who decided which designs they were going to market.

[I-am-correct]

11:17 PM on 08/28/2011

To all apple bashers: If you enjoy your windows or android devices... whether it's a PC or a phone..or even a android or webOS tablet.. you would not have these without apple. Cool with me if you chose not to use apple devices, but don't forget who put them out there first. And yeah, we all watched Pirates of Silicon Valley and know apple got it's GUI from Xerox, but it was primitive, and it was willingly shared with apple. And to those who think apple devices are too expensive.. add up the price of the software and the cost of your time dealing with issues and updates, and I guarantee you any apple device ends up being FAR less expensive than any other device.

I am not a fan boy, but just like my technology to work. I used to be an IT guy, and since I switched to apple, I have not had a single tech issue that has taken more than 10 minutes to solve. THAT is priceless.

[Valerio della Porta]

08:40 PM on 08/28/2011

From the article: "There’s more, of course. Steve Jobs persuaded the recording industry to use his iTunes to give consumers an easy alternative to stealing music online."

That's precisely what made the iPod successful. Without an ecosystem of apps and content these devices are not terribly useful,. That's what makes Apple products different from the others.

[Nrsimhananda]

06:39 PM on 08/28/2011

When Jobs returned to Apple, he immediately halted nearly all donations, and the company has given only a tiny percentage compared to other companies its size. Jobs credits the Hare Krishna's for feeding him during a time when he had no money, but he has never reciprocated even to help their international "Food for Life" charity which provides free lunches for millions of school children and other needy recipients. Then, what can you expect from a person who yells at people if he doesn't get his way? As a parent, I would be ashamed of a son who acted so disrespectfully to his fellow man. Yes, he's great...a great disappointment of a human being.

[Dh Barr]

02:36 PM on 08/28/2011

I've never been a big fan of Apple. When we first started out in the computer business, the rule of thumb was that all the Apple stuff was about twice as expensive for the same amount of computing power vs a standard Windows / Intel PC. They had a nice OS that languished for years because they just had to keep the monopoly on the hardware.
Their new stuff is nice - but is still more expensive relative to other options. Your basic MP3 player will always be less expensive then an IPod, and the new Android tablets are cheaper than an IPad and just as nice. Apple is still a hardware monopoly, and their pricing shows it.
If Steve Jobs was such a perfectionist and micromanager that had to know everything, I wonder why he was dealing with Foxconn, who had a plant with such horrible conditions that people were committing suicide. I can understand paying a bit more for higher quality hardware, especially if it is made in the USA, but when they want top dollar for machines made in a Chinese sweatshop - I think I can give it a miss.

[darkmark]

01:39 PM on 08/28/2011

one he's not dead. two no mention of PARC, XEROX. everyone in computing knows apple got its big start when xerox said sure you want that. you can have it. that being the prototype for the apple computer of the 80s.

[SoulOfWit]

04:42 PM on 08/28/2011

Ignoring the Apple II, are we?

[darkmark]

05:54 PM on 08/28/2011

gates and jobs both created companies that are successful due to the efforts of the men at the top. i respect them for that. i don't blame them for doing what they had to do to make it all work. the way capitalism works is just the way they made their companies successful. for sure part of it was having a lot of creative minds on the payroll to get out some products that keep the bucks rolling in. i worked for 3Com when its ceo, benhomou, decided to quit the router switch business and go into tinker toys. he had billions of dollars, from palm going public, in the company coffers and yet that clown chickened out and wanted to make electronics that anyone in a garage could make, really. without that guy at the top willing and able to do whatever it takes a company doesn't stand a chance.

[darkmark]

05:55 PM on 08/28/2011

benhamou

[RobietheCat]

05:14 PM on 08/28/2011

from: http://www.mac-history.net/the-history-of-the-apple-macintosh/rich-neighbour-with-open-doors-apple-and-xerox-parc

"In the early ’80s Steve Jobs needed help from Bill Gates: Apple was developing its first Macintosh. Microsoft.....was invited to be the Mac’s first software developer. Early Mac developer Andy Hertzfeld says that when Jobs recruited Microsoft he feared it “might try to copy our ideas into a PC. Steve made Microsoft promise not to ship any software that used a mouse – until at least one year after the first shipment of the Macintosh”.

In 1983, Microsoft sprang a surprise with a new operating system for PCs using an interface like the Mac’s – Windows. Jobs “went ballistic”, demanding an explanation and saying: “I want him in this room by tomorrow afternoon, or else.”

Gates arrived alone to find himself surrounded by 10 Apple employees. “You’re ripping us off,” Jobs shouted.

But Gates looked him in the eye, and said in his squeaky voice, “Well, Steve, I think there’s more than one way of looking at it. I think it’s more like we both had this rich neighbour named Xerox and I broke into his house to steal the TV set and found out that you had already stolen it.”

This episode is described slightly exaggeratedly in the movie “Pirates in the Silicon Valley”:

Apple sued Microsoft in 1988. Six years later a judge threw the case out.

[loki]

01:29 PM on 08/28/2011

he actually never created anything, was fired from apple for being a conman, but rehired when Apple, which at that time was just about going bankrupt, merged with his company NeXt, and took over as CEO. His claim to fame in 96 when he took over Apple was to make the Imac in colors. That is the last innovative thing he did for apple. After that, he was the CEO, but mostly a publicity front man for the company. He invented nothing, he really did nothing but sales and PR work, of which he was really good at.

[RobietheCat]

05:17 PM on 08/28/2011

from: http://www.mac-history.net/the-history-of-the-apple-macintosh/rich-neighbour-with-open-doors-apple-and-xerox-parc

AH: Oh there was nothing like that; Steve Jobs has a good quote. It’s actually a Picasso quote that he often cites; he cited it at one of our retreats which was sort of good artists copy; great artists steal. And what that means is that when you’re passionate about what you’re doing you’ll take ideas from anywhere and with no guilt. You want to make the best possible thing and that was our mentality.

- remember that quote: great artists steal. that was his philosophy. celebrate that.

[loki]

01:26 PM on 08/28/2011

He was a college dropout who could only find work selling computers the Woz invented and built in his garage?

[Rob Huggins]

07:01 PM on 08/28/2011

Each man has his own skill. If Woz was alone, I don't think Apple would of gone anywhere. There were alot of bright people at Xerox as well that never broke off and succeeded like this on their own. I hate Apple products, but I still admire what those two did. They are both key pieces of computer history whether you love or hate them.

[loki]

01:22 PM on 08/28/2011

I think here on HP he is so great cause Arianna has some kind of crush on him,so she orders that this sight be inodated with anything Apple and Jobs, all negative post be censored about apple or jobs, and the Steve Jobs be praised as a God among men and the greatest most amazing humans to have ever lived.

Jobs is a sales man, not an engineer, a scientist, not a techy, not even a self taught computer wiz, he is a Sales man. a good one, but still a sales man.

[srooge]

03:46 AM on 08/28/2011

He is a job creator.

[loki]

01:23 PM on 08/28/2011

in china , india, and other 3 world countries. But so is Micheal Knight and walmart

[SoulOfWit]

04:45 PM on 08/28/2011

All of those Apple employees in Cupertino must be surprised to find out that they work in Asia. And how about all of the Apple Stores in the US? Staffed by robots?

[RobietheCat]

05:18 PM on 08/28/2011

creating jobs for slaves is not what you had mind is it?

[MichaelMcKLA]

12:36 AM on 08/28/2011

Great article, Joe. Thanks.

[mitzvah]

08:39 PM on 08/27/2011

An almost elegant retrospective on a period of time that proved to be the beginning of a great momentum in artistic, technological and business genius made more fully manifest from which we have collectively watched and benefited.