Fitting that around Easter time we talk about a return from the dead, this one dancing in some hippie-inspired Love Bug meets Prius tofu-chugging moment in Cupertino, Cally, home to Apple Computers. Not lost is the irony of Apple’s street address, either, 1 Infinite Loop.
Apple was decried in the 1990s as the equivalent of a banjo-toting savant of the PC war lost to Microsoft. Yes, the PCs and GUI were pleasing but Gates and Allen’s Microsoft ability to focus on the business of the PC put Microsoft on top. Sure both ripped off Xerox PARC’s GUI but the victors always rewrite history.
We all know by now Apple kicked Jobs out of the job for being vocal (which is basically being Jobs). Apple had mixed success and was largely relegated to a footnote for what not to do in technology business. Its formula was:
Cool products + great marketing = high prices = lots of profits. That formula worked for a few years in the early Apple days when Jimmy Carter was still President and brother Billy Carter touted his own brand of cerveza.
By the time Ronald Reagan found the soft leather at the Oval Office IBM and Microsoft were seriously dating. The heavy petting led to a Windows being born on PCs and in 1995 the Big Brotherish hammer throw was all Gates. Gates and Allen won the PC software war. Ask Wall Street or Warren Buffett.
Brewing in the background was some sort of primordial universe bending karma thing, fabricated from Silicon Valley but tempered in Botox raging Hollywood. Steve Jobs picked up a castaway animation unit called Pixar from George Lucas (Star Wars), and patiently turned it into the new “Disney.”
PCs fueling entertainment, not productivity. Steve Jobs’ was more aligned with the PC as vehicle for entertainment than the PC to compute a formula or write a letter.
That’s step one.
Step two, Apple Computers realized that it had a ship and no captain. Oh captain my captain the faithful cried. Returning hero: Steve Jobs. He ditched the Performa debacle (31 flavors of mediocrity) and focused on “cool.”
And yes it took another six or seven years and voila, Napster triggered the online music revolution. Trouble was, Naptser was all revo and no business model. It could trade 1 billion songs but not generate a penny in revenue. Should have licensed the tech to the music companies.
While the RIAA and Napster went to blows, Jobs saw an opportunity. If music downloads were unstoppable why not join the parade? By the way, in 1995 I did one of the first industry forecasts that showed music downloads replacing CDs during the time when 9600 baud was the norm and few people were online yet.
What Steve did was find common ground between the public’s desire to download music and musicville’s desire to continue to make money from music. Peace, love and rock and roll makes for a great song but not business model.
Now in 2005 Apple’s iPod and iTunes lead the music download arena. More than 300 million songs downloaded. Ipods popping up like Paris Hilton at a paparazzi open bar.
Meanwhile, Sony’s CEO resigned and Howard Stringer took the helm of that Japanese consumer electronics giant.
Hats off to Apple.
Apple is the new Sony, setting the pace for cool media devices and entertainment.
Pixar is the new Disney.
And Steve Jobs is in the mad orchestra leader after 30 years of hacking the universe.