I have probably sold 25 Macintosh computers by myself through the year simple by guilt by association. I have never understood why people fool around with PCs unless you consider the cost. In the old days 1986, 1987 the cost of the PC was half of what a Mac was. However, that advantage has long disappeared and with that any reason to buy a PC. So it is with interest that I see Apple leaving all us Mac zealots behind. Apple is no longer about the computer, but all about the iPhone.
For the Mac zealots like me who had to believe in Apple many years ago the news of the day was a bit hard to take. Apple chief executive Steve Jobs made a surprise appearance at the company’s quarterly earnings call telling investors that he couldn’t help dropping by for our first “20 Billion quarter”. He highlighted the iPhone’s 91% growth in unit sales from a year ago and he said that Apple had now passed RIM and went on to say that he didn’t see them catching up, that their software platform would constantly be a challenge for app developers. He even went after Google criticizing them for their open-source software on many different phones. For Apple enthusiasts like myself it was a bit over-the-top.
I say that because Steve Jobs has a mythical status with anybody who has enjoyed Apple technology over a period of three decades. For much of my life I was constantly fighting people with PCs to see who was better. It’s a long story now but in my opinion inferior technology won the day simply because it was cheap. Millions of dollars was wasted by many people on inferior technology trying to get something done. It was an accident of technology history that it happened that way. Steve Jobs and his company Apple always represented to me, the way technology should be. So through the years I’ve always looked forward to Apple’s announcements with great expectations. Their technology may be better and made me far more accomplished than I ever could’ve dreamt of.
What I find particularly rattling about this latest diatribe from Steve Jobs is how ” in-your-face” it is. For instance through the years Apple has always taken the stance that what everybody else was doing didn’t matter. In fact it always seemed Apple didn’t care and the rest of us didn’t either. So seeing Steve Jobs berate both RIM and Google for their technology means to me that maybe one of those companies have something worthwhile and for whatever reason for some reason now Apple cares. It was a strange diatribe by an Apple CEO who has gained tremendous status within the industry for not even going there. I’m one Apple enthusiasts who wishes Steve Jobs had not gone there.
Why couldn’t he have remained quiet? It was very clearly when Apple released the iPod, it was a winner. At the time like everything from Apple it only worked with a Mac. So when they made it able to work with PCs I thought it was a masterstroke, a reminder that Apple wasn’t going to make the same mistake with the iPod that they made with their computers. The rest is history. The iPod is everywhere. Then came the iPhone and the iPad and I really felt Apple hit another homerun, in fact I didn’t see how a Blackberry could carry the iPhone’s lunch. I still feel that way but I have no interest in pushing back into the face of all my friends who bought a Blackberry. To them they have their reasons, which are always good. Technology as with everything else should be judged on its excellence to the user. Simply crowing about how good you are and about how the other guy is not so good only means that maybe your veneer is cracking. In the case of Apple, if that’s the case, it’ll be a first-time.
It is rumored that Apple is going to release a new operating system for the Mac on October 20th. If it’s anything like Snow Leopard, it’ll be nice but not necessarily worth the update. For a Mac enthusiast to say that, it must mean I’ve been underwhelmed with the past update. It might also be a clue that Apple enthusiasts are expecting a lot more from the company that they have grown to respect than their wunderkind CEO crapping on the competition.
The point being it is now 2010 and no longer 1986 when I bought my first Apple computer. The war is over and Apple has won. Who knew it wouldn’t be the Mac to fight the last battle? Needless to say, I’m waiting for the next big thing. Will it come from Apple? I dunno. What I do know is there are a lot of very smart technology people out there who don’t deserve what Steve Jobs gave them today. Sure Apple had a $20 billion quarter. To me, that sounds like Microsoft use to sound like. It turns me off. The challenge for Apple is to turn somebody like me on again and never forget where they came from. Think different.