Bill Gates and Steve Jobs are giants. They'll be remembered forever and it's difficult when speaking about one not to think of the other. Bill Gates was interviewed recently for '60 Minutes' and he spoke a bit about Steve. AppAdvice has links to the interview and a brief recap. Definitely worth checking out.
Steve Jobs last public appearance was before the Cupertino City Council in the summer of 2011. It was there that he presented plans for Apple’s new headquarters building. A building the likes of which had never been seen. It would represent everything that makes Apple, Apple. It would be expensive.
Fast forward nearly two years, and there are questions about many aspects of the project if this Bloomberg story are to be believed.
Nobody ever said perfection was easy, or cheap.
Apple has been under attack recently by Chinese state controlled media. Given how important China is to Apple’s business, and the potential damage these attacks could be, an Apple response was required. Now we have it. MacRumors has the story today about Tim Cook’s letter to Chinese customers.
It’s a very humble apology and a promise to do better. One wonders what the response of a Steve Jobs led Apple would have been. This is one time I’m very glad it’s Tim at the helm and not Steve. Tim has spent a great deal of time in China and understands the culture very well. With this story laid to rest, hopefully everyone can just move on.
Steve Jobs was described publicly by many adjectives. Kind or generous were rarely used. That’s what makes this blog post by David Gelphman so great. It’s a simply told story of a touching moment when the head of super secret Apple allowed an employee to share a company secret.
Tim Holmes has a great photo gallery of Steve Jobs return to Apple in a flickr gallery. The photo quality is representative of the age, but it’s a cool look none the less.
Hat tip to Daring Fireball
Benedict Evans has a great, short post today about a paradox facing Apple's investors.
Finally, Apple has got to the point where all news is bad news.
It's important to keep in mind, this is only true for investors. The current state of Apple's products has never been better. Apple needs to continue focusing on making the best products for their customers. As Steve Jobs said many times, if they do that, the financials will take care of themselves.
The absolute best news to come out of Apple's Monday press release was the elevation of Steve Job's "spiritual partner" Jony Ive to head of human interface design across all product lines. Apple's hardware under Ive is unmatched. Not just in the tech industry, but anywhere. It will be exciting to see where software design is headed under his guidance.
There can no longer be any worries about Jony's place at Apple moving forward. Tim Cook assured everyone that he has full confidence in Ive's abilities with this change.
I particularly like the takes of Ken Segall, Daring Fireball's John Gruber and All Things D's John Paczkowski on this matter.
A bombshell in the form of a press release with the above title was released late this afternoon. The explosion echoed throughout the technology and business world.
In the little more than a year since Steve Jobs passed away, there have been countless stupid statements invoking his name in regards to a decision Apple has made. I've resisted because it's impossible to know what would have happened. I'm not even going to do it in light of today's Apple press release.
In what may be the biggest restructuring of Apples’s leadership team in over a decade, the headline news is that Scott Forstall is out and Jony Ive “will provide leadership and direction for Human Interface (HI) across the company in addition to his role as the leader of Industrial Design.”
I will say this. Apple is now fully Tim Cook’s company. Tim has made many decisions since his elevation to CEO, but they all pale in comparison to this one. Scott Forstall has been with Apple since Steve Jobs returned. He’s the man most responsible for the success that is iOS. We're all going to find out if there is a capable successor to take the reigns.
Jony Ive has long been universally respected for his design skills. That he’ll have a role overseeing the UI across the product line seems like a great move on the surface. My big fear is that his talents will be spread too thin. Again, we’ll see.
I'll have more to say in a follow up post. I leave you with links to many other comments on today's events. The times, they are a changing.
External links:
Rafael Conde posts a video with an amazing inside look at a 31 year old Steve Jobs starting to build NeXT. It's amazing to get a little glimpse at his genius and the frustrations every entrepreneur feels when getting started, even if they're been there and done that.
Hat tip to The Loop.
Mat Honan, writing for Wired, takes a look at why Steve Jobs will still be talked about many years from now. It's a great read.