Rare photo pictures young, rebellious Steve Jobs flipping IBM the bird
A photo captured nearly 30 years ago and brought to light this week shows a shaggy-haired Steve Jobs, clad in blue jeans and a leather jacket, expressing his affection for then rival IBM while walking the streets of New York City in the lead up to the launch of the first Mac.
Andy Hertzfeld, one of the original members of the Macintosh team that helped pioneer the personal computer revolution alongside Jobs and Steve Wozniak, published the photo to his Google+ page on Thursday in memoriam of the late Apple co-founder and his rebellious spirit.
The 28-year-old Jobs had flown to New York City with Hertzfeld for a quick meeting with Newsweek in December of 1983, as the publication was putting together a cover story for the launch of the Macintosh the following month.
"The photo was taken spontaneously as we walked around Manhattan by Jean Pigozzi, a wild French jet setter who was hanging out with us at the time," Hertzfeld said. "Somehow I ended up with a copy of it."
Although his editor begged him to include the photo in his 2004 book Revolution in The Valley, Hertzfeld admitted that he was "too timid" to ask Jobs for permission, especially given that IBM was still supplying processors to Apple for its Mac product line at the time.
Andy Hertzfeld, one of the original members of the Macintosh team that helped pioneer the personal computer revolution alongside Jobs and Steve Wozniak, published the photo to his Google+ page on Thursday in memoriam of the late Apple co-founder and his rebellious spirit.
The 28-year-old Jobs had flown to New York City with Hertzfeld for a quick meeting with Newsweek in December of 1983, as the publication was putting together a cover story for the launch of the Macintosh the following month.
"The photo was taken spontaneously as we walked around Manhattan by Jean Pigozzi, a wild French jet setter who was hanging out with us at the time," Hertzfeld said. "Somehow I ended up with a copy of it."
Although his editor begged him to include the photo in his 2004 book Revolution in The Valley, Hertzfeld admitted that he was "too timid" to ask Jobs for permission, especially given that IBM was still supplying processors to Apple for its Mac product line at the time.
Comments
edit: Fine, I'll start it off...
Ahh...
That's just a picture....
This was on live nationwide TV during Monday Night Football (1972). The commentary is by Frank Gifford, Howard Cosell and Dandy Don Meridth:
Houston Oilers fan
1. Their products are exceptionally reliable - hence you see pre Lenovo Think Pads in use still today. In fact, I would happily pay for a ThinkPad that ran OS X for that superb keyboard!
2. IBM put a lot of effort into ergonomics - again, consider our love of clicky keyboards, starting with the IBM PC, and the excellent ThinkPad keyboards.
3 Exceptional industrial design - their contemporary desktop machines and the ThinkPads were superb, very well built and sexy too.
4. IBM innovate, from modular computers, the ThinkPad butterfly keyboard (short lived I know) and others - not to mention their bleeding edge Chess playing mainframes.
5. Superb advertising.
6. Renowned customer service, hence the phrase, "No one ever got fired for choosing IBM." (Or similar.)
7. Research labs that have contributed to a lot of what goes into Apple products!
In other words, IBM are a respectable competitor, but in no way evil or boring.
@gofonebox
Anyone else find it ironic that Hertzfeld posted this on his Google+ account? If Jobs was around he'd be doing the same thing at Google HQ as he is in this photo.
Hypocritical that Google allows photos like this on Google+, but not if it's your personal profile picture.
Would someone like to photoshop the IBM to "Google"? That would look real nice in color!
btw: I've seen this photo before--it hasn't been hidden for 30 years.
True enemies need to be flawed or evil, and IBM were not and are not. Yes, they appear boring, however not in reality:
1. Their products are exceptionally reliable - hence you see pre Lenovo Think Pads in use still today. In fact, I would happily pay for a ThinkPad that ran OS X for that superb keyboard!
2. IBM put a lot of effort into ergonomics - again, consider our love of clicky keyboards, starting with the IBM PC, and the excellent ThinkPad keyboards.
3 Exceptional industrial design - their contemporary desktop machines and the ThinkPads were superb, very well built and sexy too.
4. IBM innovate, from modular computers, the ThinkPad butterfly keyboard (short lived I know) and others - not to mention their bleeding edge Chess playing mainframes.
5. Superb advertising.
6. Renowned customer service, hence the phrase, "No one ever got fired for choosing IBM." (Or similar.)
7. Research labs that have contributed to a lot of what goes into Apple products!
In other words, IBM are a respectable competitor, but in no way evil or boring.
@gofonebox
No offence, but this sounds kind of trite.
IBM was doing some truly evil stuff back then and they most definitely were the "enemy" of the new personal computer movement epitomised by people like Jobs at the time.
IBM like Samsung is a lot of different things at different times. At this particular time they were an evil, anti-consumer behemoth that was dominating and controlling the market place for no particularly good reason.
This photo has been bouncing around the internet for a long time now.
Rare? This photo has been bouncing around the internet for a long time now.
Not the straight-on one. Just the angled one.
Blue, purple or pink?
It was the 80's so I assume all of them. Together. Zubaaz style.