[macgyvr64]

Read the article here

BusinessWeek just posted an excellent interview with Steve Jobs about Apple's business practices, products, and where they came from and where they're headed next.

Some choice quotes:

BW: Is this common in the industry?
SJ: Look at Microsoft (MSFT ) -- who's running Microsoft?

BW: Steve Ballmer.
SJ: Right, the sales guy. Case closed. And that's what happened at Apple, as well.

Hahah. Ballmer.

SJ: I get asked a lot why Apple's customers are so loyal. It's not because they belong to the Church of Mac! That's ridiculous. It's because when you buy our products, and three months later you get stuck on something, you quickly figure out [how to get past it]. And you think, "Wow, someone over there at Apple actually thought of this!" And then three months later you try to do something you hadn't tried before, and it works, and you think "Hey, they thought of that, too." And then six months later it happens again. There's almost no product in the world that you have that experience with, but you have it with a Mac. And you have it with an iPod.

How many times has that happened to you? I can't even count how often I attempt something in OS X and it works just like you think it would. They put a lot of time into everything they make.

BW: What's the CEOs role in all of this?
SJ: I don't know. Head janitor?

I've always wanted to own and control the primary technology in everything we do. Take audio...

They're not that unlike Microsoft. Boo, hiss. But we all know that Apple will provide a more elegant and less restrictive solution that Microsoft could ever dream up. As a side not, I don't mind the DRM in iTunes songs at all. I never run into problems unless I try to give the song to someone else, which is exactly what it's supposed to prevent (yes, I know about the tools that exist to bypass all that. But from a consumer standpoint, the DRM isn't limiting in the least).

...Innovation comes from people meeting up in the hallways or calling each other at 10:30 at night with a new idea, or because they realized something that shoots holes in how we've been thinking about a problem. It's ad hoc meetings of six people called by someone who thinks he has figured out the coolest new thing ever and who wants to know what other people think of his idea.

Brilliant. And dead on.

You can tell a lot about a person by who his or her heroes are. That ad was to remind us of who our heroes are and who we are. We forgot that for a while. Companies sometimes forget who they are. Sometimes they remember again, and sometimes they don't.

I don't socialize much or go to conferences. I love my family, and I love running Apple, and I love Pixar. And I get to do that. I'm very lucky.

Glad to have you back, Steve.

[kcmac]

This is an excellent article and one that is easy to relate to the situations in our lives. Apple is on a roll and Steve appears to have his life's priorities straight after his brush with cancer.

[Powaqqatsi]

But ultimately, there needs to be some gravitational force that pulls it all together.

The RDF™ ?

[SafariX]

Jobs BBQPWNDAOL Ballmer.

That was great.

[nredman]

great article. steve is the man

[CD Hanks]

It's two very different mentalities in two different companies that just happen to produce a similar product.

Apple goes with the (typically) more elegant approach, but this sometimes restricts them to a certain percentage of the market.

Microsoft tries to be the jack of all trades, and only master of a few. As such, combined with the heavy business muscle they possess, they have cornered most of the market. Their greatest weakness will be complacency.

Both companies will be around for a very long time, so it's extremely foolish to banter on about "DOOD MICRO$OFT IS GUNA GO OUTA BUSINZESS LOL" or other nonsense.

[Randman]

"Our primary goal here is to make the world's best PCs--not to be the biggest or the richest," said Jobs.

[spacefreak]

Originally posted by CD Hanks:
Microsoft tries to be the jack of all trades, and only master of a few. As such, combined with the heavy business muscle they possess, they have cornered most of the market. Their greatest weakness will be complacency.

I somewhat disagree. I think that Microsoft's early market grab actually sealed it's fate. I mean, MS has too big of a responsibility now. They cannot possibly satisfy everyone. Whereas Apple can make a move to OS X relatively pain-free, such a jump for MS would be met by the biggest emsemble of bitching known to man.

I've known people who worked for MS, and they all worked their tails off. Complacency is not the correct term. I'd say it's more of a hesitation due to their billions of users on thousands of different hardware configurations and capabilities.

I'm probably not articulating correctly, but I don't envy MS's position in the OS world. Once they were declared a monopoly, that pretty much put the final nail in the coffin. No more control over standards = 1 big mess of a platform.

Meanwhile, Apple can impose its standards (or adopt and heavily promote standards) hassle-free.

[Lancer409]

Great Article

[CD Hanks]

Originally posted by spacefreak:
I somewhat disagree. I think that Microsoft's early market grab actually sealed it's fate. I mean, MS has too big of a responsibility now. They cannot possibly satisfy everyone. Whereas Apple can make a move to OS X relatively pain-free, such a jump for MS would be met by the biggest emsemble of bitching known to man.

I've known people who worked for MS, and they all worked their tails off. Complacency is not the correct term. I'd say it's more of a hesitation due to their billions of users on thousands of different hardware configurations and capabilities.

I'm probably not articulating correctly, but I don't envy MS's position in the OS world. Once they were declared a monopoly, that pretty much put the final nail in the coffin. No more control over standards = 1 big mess of a platform.

Meanwhile, Apple can impose its standards (or adopt and heavily promote standards) hassle-free.

That's very true.