Comments on: Thanks, Steve

By: lauradeen

lauradeen — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 21:38:03 +0000

At the risk of offending friends and colleagues who labour in the anonymity of the South Bay, I’m moved to laughter when I read of someone contrasting the suburbs of Cupertino and Santa Clara, and hoping to draw out a real distinction.

The vast swath of that portion of Santa Clara Valley has long been filled out by cookie-cutter suburbs. Cupertino is no different in any meaningful regard than Campbell, Los Gatos, Sunnyvale, Mountain View, Palo Alto, or even the less-dense areas of the city of San Jose.

That Apple chose Cupertino back in the eighties is an accident of time and circumstance. That they choose to remain there is (I believe) more of happenstance–they want to move into the former Hewlett-Packard campus that existed long before Apple was even formed.

I don’t fault those who live and work in the South Bay for being proud of the firms that are part and parcel of the physical geography of the place. Just as I wouldn’t do so in any of the other places where I’ve worked where a significant concentration of an industry’s wealth is forced into narrow geographic confines (cf. Wall Street, Hollywood).

To Kaleberg’s point about the corrosive effects of “crowning glory” architecture: I share the feeling that Apple’s efforts in this regard will prove to be a distraction–not a major one, but just enough so that the carefully balanced spinning wheel that is the Cook-led company can suddenly find itself in dangerous precession.

By: Doctor_Memory

Doctor_Memory — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 05:58:50 +0000

Kaleberg: I don’t disagree about the Edifice Complex, but the 1 Infinite Loop campus was built when Apple was a much smaller and vastly different company back in the 80s, and if you visit it now, it’s clearly straining at the seams.

If the timing had been a little different, Apple might have been able to buy out Sun or SGI’s old HQs and get a new space on the (relative) cheap, but none of those places are on the market right now. (SGI’s old digs are now a little company called Google.) And, admirably, they seem to want to stay in Cupertino rather than just move to some anonymous office park in Santa Clara (*cough* Yahoo *cough*) So where are they gonna put their next 30,000 employees? Build, buy or lease, and if you can’t buy or lease then you’re gonna build. And Apple being Apple, they’re not going to build an ugly home…

By: Kaleberg

Kaleberg — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 22:53:46 +0000

I’m more worried about that proposed doughnut shaped complex they’re proposing for their Cupertino HQ. A company can survive a change in CEO, but “edifice complex” is a sure sign of imminent corporate death. Designing the new HQ both sucks up the time and effort at the center of the corporate focus, but is also a sign of a certain kind of complacency. It’s a good investing rule to short companies with new headquarters buildings. It doesn’t always make money, but it wins more often than not.

By: Developer

Developer — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 20:50:51 +0000

That video sounded like a mix between a Justin Bieber fan and a religous fanatic. :)

By: hypermark

hypermark — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 19:38:05 +0000

Under Steve Jobs, Apple has always had an unrelenting zeal to bring the consumer — and humanity — back to the center of the ring.

It’s this pursuit of merging technology with humanity that may be Jobs’ greatest innovation and his most enduring legacy, something I blogged about here:

LEGACY: Ruminations on the Brilliance and Spirit of Steve Jobs (O’Reilly Radar) http://oreil.ly/qLT7bi

Check it out, if interested.

Mark

By: timsmit

timsmit — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 17:45:40 +0000

When it comes to useful biographies to tell your kids about, Steve Jobs is as good as anyone’s. Persistence. Perfectionism. Integrity. Pride. Humility. Perspective. Comeback. Crazy One.

By: Spendlove

Spendlove — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 15:07:50 +0000

Steve who?

By: mynamehear2

mynamehear2 — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 14:56:41 +0000

@MarkC123- yes, but then there was always the loan. Pretty much a loan to keep MS out of anti trust court by buoying at least a little competition. “Apple Vs. Microsoft, 1997- Apple, looking like it was on its last legs, put Steve Jobs in charge in a last-ditch effort to keep the company alive. The situation was so dire that they had to get a $150 million loan from arch-nemesis Microsoft, who by that point had become the 800-pound gorilla thanks to Windows 95. Meanwhile, Apple was playing catch-up with Mac OS.”

Ah well, the next 5 years should be very different for both.

By: FifthDecade

FifthDecade — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 14:49:04 +0000

Interesting to note that Steve Jobs name appears on 313 Apple patents, 33 of which as lead inventor. In contrast, Bill Gates appears on just 9 Microsoft patents, and Google’s Larry Page and Sergey Brin have just over a dozen between them.

The New York Times has made up an interesting interactive listing of all his patents here:
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/ 08/24/technology/steve-jobs-patents.html

By: MarkC123

MarkC123 — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 12:48:28 +0000

“What I can’t figure out is why [Jobs] is even trying? He knows he can’t win.”

– Bill Gates, 1998

By: tk2

tk2 — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 11:46:31 +0000

No, it is clear that they won’t be able to withstand the leadership change. Some of it would happen anyway since they have already grown too much reaching the size when institutional rigidities kick in. Until now, those were balanced by Steve Jobs’ personality (and his health condition boosting his missionary way of thinking). I am afraid, Apple is doomed to bleed in internal turf wars etc.

By: N_Sp

N_Sp — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 10:40:47 +0000

ErnieD: “I think the vast majority of Fortune 500 CEOs and Chairmen have been grossly overpaid during the last two decades. Steve Jobs is one of the very few who actually were worth their compensation packages, and possibly more.”

Yep, they could possibly rise it to 2$ :)

By: Uncle_Billy

Uncle_Billy — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 05:01:34 +0000

They bought 16 iPads at retail price? Why?

http://www.jordan.pausd.org/technology/t ech_expenses_2010-2011.html

By: AJB111

AJB111 — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 04:56:23 +0000

Also, you’ve written extensively and very intelligently about the financial crisis. I think one of the route problems is the fetishization of corporations. As you recite mind boggling statistics you don’t impress me, you frighten me. Corporations are such behemoths as this point, that even ones that give you devices for your personal and intimate use are massive, globe-spanning, economy warping squids.

I am not impressed that AAPL has annualized revenues approaching $80billion, I am frightened. It’s a sad way for capital to flow needlessly to one company simply because they are experts at price-gouging and patent-warfare.

By: AJB111

AJB111 — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 04:52:50 +0000

Felix you’re going a bit over-board. Shedding tears, thanking Steve like you’re in a cancer ward holding his hand. I own many Apple products. Some of them have been monumental rip-offs bought only to be replaced 6 months late by a better device. No changeable batteries. Lousy customer service. But they are ultimately nice devices.

The thing is, I enjoy them but I could, without any doubt at all, live without them. If they all disappeared the next day I’d shrug my shoulders and read a newspaper. We’re not talking about the light bulb, clean water, sanitation or food security here. It’s a touchscreen device loaded with apps that largely all do the same thing. Dial back the cheesiness a little.