Apple's got the swagger....

confidence is good, cockiness and overconfidence is not....and that has hurt apple in the past.


apple is doing well, but they are also doing very poorly in many areas.

good to see, but there is still a lot to be done.

Jobs is a genius, it's taking a long time for his "vision" of Apple to play out but I think we are beginning to see what he has been shaping for several years now. and it's pretty effing cool.

He basically had to rebuild Apple. He knows how to get it done. Had he been with Apple all along, the Mac OS would be the #1 OS and not Windows. It takes a LOT of work to undue what has been done, or should I say, not been done at Apple.

Jobs was a terrible manager the first time around. There were all kinds of horror stories. The decade he spent wandering in the wilderness gave him some badly needed experience and perspective.

The analyst's meeting gave me the impression of confidence, not cockiness (example: Jobs crowed about iPod's and iTunes' market position as a reason not to make them more broadly compatible right now. That's confidence. Had he been cocky, he'd have dismissed the possibility that compatibility would ever be needed). They know they're executing well, they know they've pulled off some serious accomplishments, and they know this because they keep their eyes firmly on the factual data. So they also know where they're not strong, and they can say with some confidence that they know how to address those areas. In education, for example, they're taking the long view by addressing the fastest growing and most effective trend, even though it's not giving them results now. This is the kind of patience that confidence allows.

As long as they continue to invest conservatively, research heavily, and keep their eyes on the road, they'll be able to sustain their current momentum. Their apparent ruthlessness in logistics and manufacturing won't hurt either.

Steve may have been a bit rough around the edges back then, however at the same time I can see his frustration at trying to lead people that just don't get it. Visionaries are at odds with the rest who aren't there yet. They may even seem rude and crazy to the average person, but to such visionaries, the average person is always getting in their way - it takes great patience having to always explain what you clearly see to someone that will never see it until it's done.

One of the key problems back then was not the way he interacted with employees and colleagues, but how he tried to boss the market around. And we know how that ended.

Not sure what you mean by "boss the market around", my take on it was that he was backstabbed by a few people within Apple who wanted to take control of Apple. They where successful in doing that, but not so successful at taking Apple to greater heights. Apple was almost dead when Steve reentered the scene. This time around Apple's Board of Directors didn't much object to Steve's ideas. Many disagree with his policies, but history shows that he knows what he's doing. Apple had to nearly die so Steve could have free reign over the company he created. Hence my dislike for "group thinkingness." If you want to ruin a company, elect a bunch of "experts" to run it.

During the "dead" period of Apple is when their OS was the most useable. Kind of odd, no?

let's keep it this way

The way he treated employees and colleagues got him in a lot of trouble as well. Employees who built products he didn't like got treated like dirt; employees who built products he liked - note built, not designed; I'm talking about assembly line workers - got massages and other luxuries. And these people worked in the same plants, often on opposite sides of the same line. That's not impatience with people who don't share your vision, it's just petulance.

Apple's most egregious abuse of the market came after Steve was gone. Gassée did a tremendous amount of damage, for one, and then there's Spindler...

Anyway, thanks to some clever boffins who reverse-engineered IBM's BIOS, the PC market was sent lurching in a direction that has left most people with shriveled and defeated expectations for what a personal computer should be, how it should behave, and what it should be capable of. Sometimes - no, frequently - the market is stupid, and you just have to let it find out the hard way before it comes back around to a sensible solution. In this case, it's beginning to come around to the realization that you can't divorce operating systems from hardware without both becoming either stagnant or fragmented, and ill-fitting in any case. And Steve's showing them all how it's done.

Yes it was pretty lame. Even if Jobs is a genius, i will never been a fan of him. I can share his vision, but i can't love the man.

Well, the Classic Mac OS had been about for 16ish years before Mac OS X came along.

Basically, analysts are very stupid people, I have dealt with them, very very stupid, and they also ask stupid questions and make stupid statements, so thats kinda how you have to talk to them,be kinda tough and cocky, because they are the ones that actually are wrong 99.7% of the time, yet tell people what to do... IE, he was answering stupid questions from analysts and kinda answering them in a way like "What? are you stupid??!"

Has anyone actually listened to the audio stream for this call? Steve doesn't sound arrogant at all. He seems very level-headed, yet confident (what do you expect?)

It was a different Steve than you often hear tale of.

Most usable? To what exactly are you referring to? That OS was set in motion by Steve, Woz and a few others at Apple. The Mac. It was that seed that kept Apple going up until it ran out of steam. The lack of innovative spirit will kill even the greatest of things.

I read and hear many complaining about it all, but see few actually doing something that makes a difference. That's the problem with this planet, people support those that further enslave everyone.

All I have to say:

Everyone I know who is buying a new computer is buying a mac, and I know a lot of people. The G5, the powerbooks, and OS X have really impressed a lot of people. It's to the point where the guys at the office -- the engineers, no less -- see me working on my powerbook (with large LCD panel sonnected to it as well) and say "I really want a mac." And that's all because of OS X. . . these engineering types I'm talking about don't think about design too much.

Nope. In independent test it's been proven that the RDF(tm) can be transmitted even over compressed audio.

He's that charming.

Screed

BTW, I just saw the Virginia Tech "Big Mac" cluster get a mention on the CNN ticker. Woo, five whole seconds of free advertisement.

Haaa, I see. So your frustration is with OS 9 vs OS X. I will tell you, I was one of the loudest complainers on these boards when I first experienced OS X Beta. Man, for me the Mac had been killed. But I trusted it would be made right and toke a proactive approach by sending Apple what I wanted to see in OS X. They listened to us all and they fixed it. With 10.2 I was finally happy. I now LOVE OS X. I'm a guy who has used Macs every since version 1.

I like the metamorphisis that is currently underway in Cupertino. Prior to a few years ago I would have never considered purchasing a Mac. The image they were presenting was one of a company that built easy to use computers that were simplistic and accessible. This may have been more perception than reality but image holds much more importance in the consumer market than most like to give it credit for. It might have been me being younger and more concerned about the perception of my peers, but I didn't want to own a computer that I most perceived to make ease of use the overridding priority. During those years I took pride in my home assembled PC's, most of which were dual-boot linux/windows machines. I valued the ability to customize and personalize. Those machines to me were the epitome of individuality. I also liked what they portrayed about me to the outside world. I wouldn't be mistaken for a novice user or someone who was ignorant to the inner workings of my computer. I liked conveying that perception, mainly because it was truth. I view computers as works of art in the sense that they are the culmination of millions of hours of research and experimentation by great scientific minds. I appreciate complexity and I thought that simplification of the computer to the point that it was looked at as just another consumer electronic device was almost blasphemous. That was what I saw in Apples of the past.

Times sure change quickly, as does the perception of a young man. I have shed most of my egotistical and elitist perceptions regarding technology. Still certain traits are hardwired into my brain and no matter how much I mature they will stick with me. I still appreciate complexity. Apple OSX and the direction of the company recently have turned me into a convert. The image now is one of a company with a cutting edge operating system that while still accesible to beginners caters to those who are a bit more advanced. A 21st century operationg system with the ability to be run through a command line. The beauty that is a stunning GUI combined with efficent code and little details that bring a smile to your face when you ponder how clever they are. I like this new image of apple that is emerging, it has made a convert out of me.

Same here, been using Apples since I got the Apple II, except I never used X beta. I used the orignal OS X, and hated it. It was buggy, slow, crashed, and was not any improvement over OS 9. So I waited it out till I got my hands on X.2 and fell in love. I have never been happier with the way my computer has worked. It is going on three years old now and I won't need a repacement for at least another year. It isn't blazing, but it gets the job done, thanks to OSX. I have only had one system crash since I started using OS X exclusively a few years ago. I'm in love! Absolutely the best OS Mac, or anyone, has ever made. Keep the greatness coming Apple!

Steve's whole "It's the #1 MP3 player in the world!" banter is making me extremely nervous. He's acting like Apple doesn't need to accomodate- what if Microsoft said "we're the #1 software company in the world- why should we have to..."...

Oh never mind

The nice thing about Apple's position is if Microsoft really started picking on them, it would catch the attention of the DOJ. Thus, Micro$oft won't.

iPod adverts in the UK? The iTMS must be on its way.

During a show on the "1100 Greatest Number Ones Ever". Crafty.