A Fascinating, Realistic Glimpse: What Would Steve Jobs Have Done?

Betteridge’s Law says that “Any headline that ends in a question mark can be answered by the word no.” I don’t know if there’s a similar named law that covers the assertion “This isn’t what Steve Jobs would have done,” but I know that’s something most of us try to avoid. Because. Times have changed. CEO Tim Cook is in charge. Apple is much larger and wealthier. Because.

And yet…

Those who knew Steve Jobs well or worked with him closely are entitled to make observations about the current ledership of Apple. In this case, it’s the esteemed Ken Segall. The article is: “Apple: earning the wrath of Steve.”

Steve Jobs

There, Mr. Segall notes that, for Mr. Jobs, wasting time was an “unforgivable sin.” He writes:

I saw this more than once in our regular marketing meetings. Someone would confidently present their ideas, Steve would ponder for a moment, and then let it out: “That’s it? You could have done this one day after our last meeting. What have you been doing for the past two weeks?”

The conclusion is this regarding Apple’s Oct 27, 2016 “hello again” event. We waited. Apple built up expectations, as they do, depending on our patience and loyalty to rescue them from the inevitable dashed hopes. Apple let us down. Apple wasted our time..

Irritation

Accordingly, we are irritable. Disappointed. Less likely to forgive Apple’s lapses, silences and delays.

At the end of Mr. Segall’s note, we get the punch line.

I think it’s up to Apple to explain ‘what they’ve been doing all these years.’

In days of old, when Steve expressed that bit of displeasure, people would work around the clock to fix things, as if their jobs depend on it. Which was a pretty good assessment of reality.

Apple’s rise from the ashes has been powered by its ability to fire on all cylinders at once. Today at least a few cylinders seem to be sputtering.

I know Apple cares deeply about its customers, but it has to say that out loud. And in the world of Apple, it’s the products that do the talking.

Rehearsal

My reaction to Mr. Segall’s excellent article is to wonder what would have happened if Mr. Cook and Mr. Schiller had been able to magically present, in another timeline, their “hello again” event agenda to Mr. Jobs a week before the event. What might the reaction have been?

It might have been something like this. “That’s it? That’s all you have to present? You kept your customers waiting for years, and now you’ve built up their hopes, leveraging from my iMac announcement, and that’s all you have to deliver? You’ve wasted my time. Rewrite the script and show me again tomorrow.”

It’s something to ponder.

It shook the world. Image credit: Low End Mac

This discussion closes the books for me on that event. It’s time for a new year and new beginnings for Apple.

Next page: The news debris for the week of December 2nd. Phooey on growth. Build out the Apple ecosystem.

Page 2 – News Debris for the Week of December 2nd

Building Apple’s Ecosystem

One of the things Apple has had to deal with, amidst global economics headwinds and the saturation of the smartphone market, is to figure out how to keep on growing. Or at least growing the revenue. Neil Cybart has posted one of his typically insightful analyses called “Milking the iPhone.”

iPhone 7. Image credit: Apple

This part of the article caught my eye.

Milking the iPhone in order to build a formidable ecosystem has been one of Cook’s defining moments as CEO. Unfortunately, consensus has not been grading Cook’s performance as CEO along these terms.

Instead, many have graded Cook as a product visionary. The problem with that is Cook is not Apple’s product visionary. (That title unofficially belongs to Jony Ive). Cook’s appointment as CEO was not predicated on his ability to one day become a product visionary. Accordingly, Cook should not be judged as such. In addition, some have compared Cook to former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. This is incorrect. Cook is not Apple’s top salesperson. He does not possess Ballmer’s keen sense of how to push product into every enterprise crevice. Instead, Cook has delegated that task to others, primarily through partnerships. Accordingly, Cook should not be judged as a salesperson.

Instead, Cook should be judged on his success in building out the Apple ecosystem…..

This is a good read. Along those lines…

“Mobile is eating the world.” That’s the title of a fascinating, informative slide show you’ll be studying for days. It’s by Benedict Evans, and it’s great. Check it out.

One of the issues related to all this is the customer perception of how Apple is attending to all its irons in the fire. The Mac is a major business, yet about 10 percent Apple’s total business. How can Apple’s resources, wealth and talent be used to intelligently preserve major parts of the business that have loyal customers, attend to its monstrous iPhone business, balance all important other businesses and still smartly move into the future—all at the same time?  It’s a delicate balancing act.

The two articles linked above provide some food for thought.

More Debris…

Bambi Brannan at Mac360 has some thoughts on “The Future Of Apple TV.” It’s an update (state of…) on Apple and television. One key point is made. It’s been made before, but it bears repeating. When the Apple TV is the only input you need for your TV set, the Apple TV will have achieved its destiny. Right now, it’s an alternate input behind the #1 input, which is the cable company’s DVR. The viewer must consciously switch back and forth, a friction point. Products like DirecTV Now will help take us there, but total success is still many years away. The author notes, “Apple always plays a long game.”

Apple originally estimated that the AirPods would ship in October. But they’ve been delayed. Now, it doesn’t look like they’ll ship by Christmas now. MacRumors tells us why. “AirPods Delay Attributed to Apple Ensuring Both Earpieces Receive Audio at Same Time.”

Are you weary of every little gadget that companies try to sell? The good news is that the iPhone can serve as your iPod/music player, camera, telephone, voice recorder, calendar, address book, navigator/map, compass, barometer, digital wallet, health and fitness monitor, video conference tool and notebook.

The bad news is that, despite some stellar successes with Kickstarter, hardware is hard. Unless a company is very large and can build a sustaining infrastructure (see Cybart’s analysis above) around a gadget, it’s going to fall on hard times. Farhad Manjoo at the New York Times explains. “The Gadget Apocalypse Is Upon Us.”

Have you surmised that game consoles are dead? You might want to check the numbers—numbers that look awfully good for Sony. Business Insider has the sales chart that tells the story.

Image credit: I, Robot (20th Century Fox)

Finally, it’s time to supplement the laws of robotics. In this article,”Good robot design needs to be responsible, not just responsive,” the author cites the Good Robot Design Council’s “5 Laws of Robotics.” They’re worth repeating here.

• Robots should not be designed as weapons.


• Robots should comply with existing law, including privacy.


• Robots are products; they should be safe, reliable and not misrepresent their capabilities.


• Robots are manufactured artifacts; the illusion of emotions and agency should not be used to exploit vulnerable users.


• It should be possible to find out who is responsible for any robot.

Every one of these laws could interfere with corporate profits. It’s not enough to publish proposals like this. They need to become the basis for federal law and safety regulations. That will be hard work for all concerned.

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Particle Debris is a generally a mix of John Martellaro’s observations and opinions about a standout event or article of the week (preamble on page one) followed on page two by a discussion of articles that didn’t make the TMO headlines, the technical news debris. The column is published most every Friday except for holidays.

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