Steve Jobs: Apple tablet "the most importing thing I've ever done"

Posted:
in iPad edited January 2014
Adding fuel to the already blazing bonfire of excited anticipation surrounding the tablet-sized product Apple is expected to announce on Wednesday, CEO Steve Jobs has being quoted as saying, ?This will be the most important thing I?ve ever done.?



That phrase was attributed to Jobs by Michael Arrington of TechCrunch, a figure who has been a frequent critic of Apple and its iPhone while cheerleading both Google's competing Android platform and his own dream of launching a tablet-sized product he called the "CrunchPad."



"We haven?t heard this first hand, but we?ve heard it multiple times second and third hand from completely independent sources," Arrington wrote. "Senior Apple execs and friends of Jobs are telling people that he?s about as excited about the upcoming Apple Tablet as he?s ever been. Coming from the man who has created so much, that?s saying something."



Arrington added, "If Steve Jobs thinks the iPhone was just a warm up act to this device, I can?t wait to see what it can do. As if our expectations weren?t already set high enough. We?ll all know a lot more this Wednesday."



Arrington's CrunchPad crushed by reality



Arrington's comments are interesting in particular because of his own role in envisioning a $200 tablet product in the middle of 2008, which he hoped to "open source" to a variety of manufacturers. A year later, Arrington wrote "one thing I?ve learned about hardware in the last year is that you need partners to actually make things happen." At the time, he credited Fusion Garage "entirely" for the design of the hardware prototype.



The CrunchPad product concept began to balloon in price to somewhere around $300 to $400 even with advertising subsidies anticipated from force-bundled software. Last October, Popular Mechanics awarded Arrington's vaporware CrunchPad as being one of "the top 10 most brilliant gadgets, tools and toys that you can buy in 2009," despite it not even being completed yet.



The next month, Arrington announced that his hardware partner had indicated that it planned to produce the device on its own, hoping that Arrington's TechCrunch would just promote it and not financially benefit as a partner. By the end of November, Arrington wrote that the CrunchPad project was dead and insisted that he would sue Fusion Garage to stop it from developing the product on its own.



In December, Fusion Garage announced it would be selling a $500 tablet device under the name JooJoo, and Arrington responded by suing the company in Federal court. Reviews described the product as "interesting" with impressive hardware, but also said it felt slow to respond and was a little buggy, with no option to do much apart from browsing the web.



With his newfound inkling of the efforts required to actually develop a real product, reach a realistic price target, and successfully bring a new device to market with third party application support while also capturing the attention of developers, Arrington is now ready to credit Jobs's efforts before even having seen Apple's latest product.



Jobs' finger on the pulse of technology



Apple's chief executive has demonstrated a spectacular accuracy in judging what people will buy, and perhaps what they should buy, over several decades. In the 1970s, a very young Jobs worked with Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak to craft a personal computer marketable to mainstream consumers. He insisted on making it both attractive and accessible to less technical users, resulting in Apple quickly rising to become a major computer maker.



In the 1980s, Jobs was so inspired by new technologies he saw under development at Xerox PARC that he worked to hire PARC researchers and shift millions of dollars of Apple's resources into developing a marketable personal computer with a graphical interface. Jobs encouraged early Macintosh engineers to create a truly intuitive computing environment that anyone could use, resulting in a personal computer revolution.



In 1985, Jobs tried to get Apple's executives to buy into his concept of a Macintosh Office, targeting the company's new product as a networked system for business users. When Apple's leadership rejected his idea and pushed him out of control of the company he had founded, Jobs left to develop the next wave of computing at NeXT, bringing lots of Apple's engineering talent with him.



At NeXT, Jobs presided over a massive engineering project to take a Unix operating system foundation and enhance it with a futuristic user operating environment that exposed desktop computing developers to advanced concepts like object-oriented development. Sued by Apple and shunned by Microsoft, NeXT languished for years until Apple acquired the company in the final days of 1996 for its innovative operating system technology.



By that time, Apple's conservative leadership had nearly run itself out of business both by failing to successfully develop its own new desktop operating system technology while also chasing the ultimately failed concept of stylus-based tablet computing with the Newton platform.



Jobs' return to Apple



After retaining control of Apple, Jobs canceled Newton along with a variety of other hopeless efforts and a litany of confusing product models to concentrate the company on building a strong but simple lineup of Macs and PowerBooks.



After Michael Dell's dismissive assertion that he would "shut [Apple] down and down and give the money back to the shareholders," Jobs responded by launching a new online web ordering system and announcing that "with our new products and our new store and our new build-to-order, we're coming after you, buddy," referencing a slide of Dell targeted in crosshairs.



Jobs brought in Tim Cook from Compaq to handle Apple's operations and the executive team rapidly turned the failing company around. In 1999, Jobs brought in Micky Drexler to help craft a retail strategy at a time when many pundits were willing to bet Apple's retail efforts would ultimately fail.



At the same time, Jobs also began assembling a software business, acquiring Final Cut from Macromedia followed by a series of other acquisitions and original software products that became a the Final Cut Studio and Logic Studio suites, Aperture, and the iLife and iWork consumer suites. Apple also rapidly advanced the technology it has acquired from Jobs' NeXT through several reference releases of Mac OS X.



A series of popular hardware products



Jobs unveiled the iMac in 1998 as a consumer-friendly, easy to set up and use personal computer, showing off an innovative translucent design that competitors were quick to mimic while introducing the first popular PC with USB and without a floppy drive.



Jobs delivered a reinvented flat panel iMac in 2002, which initiated a shift from bulky and environmentally unfriendly CRT displays. His company worked to continue that socially responsible and progressive trend with increasingly recyclable and non-toxic materials, culminating in the 2009 iMac, which uses LED backlit displays, aluminum enclosures and arsenic free glass.



In 1999, Jobs kicked off a decade of heavy investment in notebook technology with the consumer iBook featuring AirPort wireless networking, and then the sexy Titanium PowerBook aimed at professionals in 2001. Later that same year, he announced the iPod, which went on to both revolutionize and dominate the personal media player product category.



Jobs' least successful product introduction of the last decade was the G4 Cube, an upscale, dazzling acrylic block of small form factor personal computing that happened to hit the market just as the Dot Com bubble burst. While it wasn't ultimately successful in terms of unit sales, it solidified Apple's reputation for design savvy and entered the collections of modern art museums from New York to San Francisco. Many of its technical and design innovations were later applied to other products after it was canceled. Apple relaunched the product category in 2005 with the Mac mini.



In 2006, Jobs shifted Apple's Power PC Mac platform to Intel's x86 processor, a huge undertaking that the company transitioned with seemingly effortless grace. That same year, Jobs introduced Apple TV as a "hobby," and it has since become one of the most popular media set top boxes available to consumers in a very competitive and difficult market where no competitors are performing very well.



The next year, Jobs premiered the wildly successful iPhone in 2007, which has since defined what a smartphone should look like and how it should operate. His company then brought the iPhone's technology to the iPod touch later that same year, maintaining Apple's dominant leadership position in portable media devices. A year later, Jobs presented iPhone 2.0 in 2008 with a third party ecosystem which quickly became the most popular way to download mobile apps.



Just prior to that release, Jobs debuted the MacBook Air, a new product which straddled the existing ultralight notebook category while still providing a full sized keyboard and display and delivering a fast processor and a long life integrated battery. By the end of 2008, the entire MacBook notebook lineup was transitioned to the Air's innovative aluminum unibody design.



Jobs' stellar record for judging the needs and desires of the consumer market have allowed Apple to upstage formerly successful competitors from Microsoft to Sony to Nokia, Motorola and Palm. With Jobs now aiming at delivering a new tablet device, analysts are expressing optimism that Apple is likely to be able to market a successful product in a category where many previous attempts from a variety of makers have failed.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 152
    stuffestuffe Posts: 394member
    "Most important", not "importing", surely?
  • Reply 2 of 152
    asciiascii Posts: 5,936member
    In the Think Different commercial, Apple said you can't ignore certain people because "they change things."



    After the Mac came out, all computers suddenly had to be like it. No more black screen with text cursor in the corner. After the iPhone came out all smartphones strive to be like it. No more cut down web browser and nightmare interface. Apple has the ability to *change* entire industries and so Steve Jobs belongs in that commercial with the rest of them.
  • Reply 3 of 152
    adamwadamw Posts: 114guest
    We are waiting for your announcement tomorrow Steve, and I wish you health, so you can develop many future innovative products.



    I hope this product (Tablet) is easy to use and is affordable.
  • Reply 4 of 152
    ...the Segway was going to be the most important thing Dean Karmen (sp?) ever created. But it was a relative flop. Sometimes the "geniuses" misread the zeitgeist.



    Still, it'll be interesting to see what this thing is capable of.
  • Reply 5 of 152
    ivan.rnn01ivan.rnn01 Posts: 1,822member
    He did not say "tablet"
  • Reply 6 of 152
    iqatedoiqatedo Posts: 1,822member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by AppleInsider View Post


    Adding fuel to the already blazing bonfire of excited anticipation surrounding the tablet-sized product Apple is expected to announce on Wednesday, CEO Steve Jobs has being quoted as saying, “This will be the most important thing I’ve ever done.”



    'Important' rather than, say, simply 'exciting'... If the attributed quotes are true, is this Steve Jobs' shot at defining personal computing until the day that we are ourselves re-wired with the capability, or will the release Wednesday be of a bigger iPod Touch?
  • Reply 7 of 152
    "important" scares me.. because it sounds like it's education related. So I am thinking that Jobs thinks because it's a "noble pursuit" it's important.



    But noble aims doesn't make it a revolutionary product. More like wishful thinking -- also like the Segway.



    Kamen's goal was to make transportation much more efficient and less wasteful.. noble goal.. but the Segway wasn't the solution. Hopefully Jobs has a lot more to offer than the pursuit of an idealistic goal.
  • Reply 8 of 152
    asciiascii Posts: 5,936member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by ArticulatedArm View Post


    "important" scares me.. because it sounds like it's education related. So I am thinking that Jobs thinks because it's a "noble pursuit" it's important.



    Maybe he thinks it's important because it will give print media a new lease of life. Maybe the tagline at the keynote will be e.g. "Get people reading again."
  • Reply 9 of 152
    hattighattig Posts: 860member
    So some guy who dreamed up a failed tablet idea, who gave the hardware control to another company, and presumably the custom software side of things as well, says something about whatever Apple are releasing this week, and AI creates a massive long article based around it?
  • Reply 10 of 152
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by ascii View Post


    Maybe he thinks it's important because it will give print media a new lease of life. Maybe the tagline at the keynote will be e.g. "Get people reading again."



    Is he right though? Maybe the other alternatives are just better than print media and that is why they are dying? If he puts print media on the tablet and "revolutionizes it".. is it still print media? Or does it just morph into another form of television? This is the problem with idealistic goals rather than having a truly revolutionary discovery or solution.
  • Reply 11 of 152
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by xSamplex View Post


    ...the Segway was going to be the most important thing Dean Karmen (sp?) ever created. But it was a relative flop. Sometimes the "geniuses" misread the zeitgeist.



    Still, it'll be interesting to see what this thing is capable of.



    Good point, worth wondering about because that thing surely never took off like all the hype, but if this thing also has a stylus capability so you can actually airbrush on the screen and so forth, and do other wonders, I think it will be a hit with the graphics crowd...if the price isn't too out there. And if it is a bigger 'iTouch' kind of thing, I'd love one just for games.
  • Reply 12 of 152
    irnchrizirnchriz Posts: 1,616member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by ArticulatedArm View Post


    Is he right though? Maybe the other alternatives are just better than print media and that is why they are dying? If he puts print media on the tablet and "revolutionizes it".. is it still print media? Or does it just morph into another form of television? This is the problem with idealistic goals rather than having a truly revolutionary discovery or solution.



    I would hope that Apple, through their new device' are giving a new lease of life to the world of print media. Online dailies which can contain multimedia elements could revolutionise the way magazine publishers deliver content. At the moment many publishers utilise flash based delivery systems for magazines but these are limited by the hardware on which they run (basically PC's and laptops) along with their user interfaces.



    This could be the true start of a switch to digital publishing.
  • Reply 13 of 152
    asciiascii Posts: 5,936member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by ArticulatedArm View Post


    Is he right though? Maybe the other alternatives are just better than print media and that is why they are dying? If he puts print media on the tablet and "revolutionizes it".. is it still print media? Or does it just morph into another form of television?



    I think print media still has a place. TV and the Internet have proven better for instant news, instant updates, so print media don't focus so much on that any more. They do critical analysis, opinion pieces, investigative journalism - things that take time, so the faster new media has no advantage. And the written word also fits this kind of work.



    All they need to do now is move off the printing presses and in to digital distribution (e.g. 3G to the Kindle/iPad) to lower their costs and hopefully become profitable again. I guess you could say they are already doing that through their websites, but the HTML newspapers look poor next to the real ones: if iPad uses PDF that will be a big step up. Also people want something so light they can hold in one hand and read, which even the Macbook Air is a bit too bulky for. Oh well, I guess we will see in 30 hours or so.
  • Reply 14 of 152
    aizmovaizmov Posts: 989member
    I'm about to faint! Can't hold it any longer!





    If Apple ends up unveiling nothing new (no tablet), or brings a dud (another Apple TV) I'll be so disappointed, I could lose all meaning in life.



    I recently gave away my MacBook, and have been holding out waiting for this. It better be worth the wait! I'll probably get a MacBook Air if this doesn't turn out to be beyond divine.

    Good thing it wont come until April, I'll be relocating before then, and wont be able to buy it.
  • Reply 15 of 152
    The puff piece on Jobs career gloss over many of Jobs' failures.



    The Apple Lisa

    The Hiring of Scully

    NeXT failure to find a niche (it was not started as an OS company, but as a hardware vendor to compete with MS and Apple)

    The eMate

    The Mac Cube

    Apple TV



    They also left out some important points.

    NeXTs Acquisition of Renderman

    The Formation of Pixar



    I believe this tablet, if announced, can be a game changer. I have wanted a functional tablet for years, I even own a Fujitsu tablet -- which sucks.



    If he delivers a blinding brilliant product, but misses the price point, it will still be a failure.
  • Reply 16 of 152
    Long time reader, first time commenter...



    Been following this whole tablet thing for some time and it looks as though it's really going to happen tomorrow. Over the past few months I've been squirreling away money so that as long as it the price is under $800 I'll be able to buy it as soon as orders are start being accepted.



    Still, I am slightly disappointed in the way the tablet ultimately went. I remember all the talk of the Tablet Mac a few years back, and the reality that Apple actually built and passed around various prototypes of the Tablet Mac for quite some time. This, the real tablet or iSlate or whatever they wind up calling it is a glorified iPhone. That's both good and bad.



    Like the poster above I am relocating to a different state next month. The area I am moving too, the actual home I am moving into offers both Business Class Internet from Comcast (which I have now) and more importantly, the entire area is saturated with ATT 3G, a friend of mine that lives there now says he's never without a full set of bars. For 2 years I've lived with ZERO bars at home and full bars at work, soon it will be full bars everywhere, that is huge for me.



    Anyway, I am sure that whatever the new tablet will do it will blow me away and I will love it, own it, use it, promote it, and on and on.... but I doubt it will do anything that my MacBook Pros will do, and rather than work as a computer it will work as a communication and information device, which is good, but I'm concerned about how people will get around town with the tablet in tow. Too large for a pocket, too small for a laptop bag, so where is Apple expecting people to use it?



    I'm addicted to technology, I'll admit that, and it began and it will end with an Apple product. The tablet will inspire lust on looks alone, I'm hoping that there is enough "new" features above and beyond the iPhone that I will be able to convince my wife that it is more than a large iPhone.
  • Reply 17 of 152
    brucepbrucep Posts: 2,823member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by reliason View Post


    The puff piece on Jobs career gloss over many of Jobs' failures.



    The Apple Lisa

    The Hiring of Scully

    NeXT failure to find a niche (it was not started as an OS company, but as a hardware vendor to compete with MS and Apple)

    The eMate

    The Mac Cube

    Apple TV



    They also left out some important points.

    NeXTs Acquisition of Renderman

    The Formation of Pixar



    I believe this tablet, if announced, can be a game changer. I have wanted a functional tablet for years, I even own a Fujitsu tablet -- which sucks.



    If he delivers a blinding brilliant product, but misses the price point, it will still be a failure.



    it will still be a failure??

    steve has never failed

    we failed steve

    the up coming newt should rock
  • Reply 18 of 152
    motleemotlee Posts: 122member
    Although I probably wont be buying the new "creation" any time soon, I am still excited for Wednesdays presentation.



    Its like Christmas Pt. 2.(I didnt get any  products for Pt.1 either).
  • Reply 19 of 152
    nvidia2008nvidia2008 Posts: 9,262member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Aizmov View Post


    I'm about to faint! Can't hold it any longer!



    If Apple ends up unveiling nothing new (no tablet), or brings a dud (another Apple TV) I'll be so disappointed, I could lose all meaning in life.



    I recently gave away my MacBook, and have been holding out waiting for this. It better be worth the wait! I'll probably get a MacBook Air if this doesn't turn out to be beyond divine.

    Good thing it wont come until April, I'll be relocating before then, and wont be able to buy it.



    Chill dude, I believe quite fervently the Tablet *will* be released and it *will* be the start of something quite new. Could it be bigger than the iPhone? Maybe not, but it will shake things up.



    Education, print, home, business verticals that will adapt to it... I think Apple will make a bold step, it will be significant, and Apple will tweak it along the way as the world reacts.
  • Reply 20 of 152
    I can see this thing being huge, but not in size, considering the space uptake of parts inside a macbook. The iPhone was the beta tester. To introduce the world to multi-touch and touch UI's in general. If they could make it 2/3 the power of a Core Duo 2.0 using power efficient ARM chips instead, this thing could be huge. Sometimes in the process of evolution you have to take a step back to take a step forward. That step may be speed. With more efficient programming and H/W acceleration we shouldn't need as fast of processing. In theory.
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