2008 Steve Jobs interview about early App Store success & future of Facebook emerges
A previously unheard interview recording with former Apple CEO Steve Jobs was published, giving a glimpse into his perspective just a month after the launch of the iPhone App Store in 2008.
"The total revenue has been $30 million in the first 30 days," Steve Jobs told Wall Street Journal reporter Nick Wingfield, now with The Information. "Developers get $21 million. Nine of that $21 million is going to the top 10 developers. A lot of small developers are making a lot of money. This is just in the first month," he enthused.
The executive sounded an optimistic note in much of the interview, suggesting the App Store was bound for success since there would be "a lot more iPhones out there in the future and a lot more iPod touches." The company has mostly neglected the Touch for several years, preferring to concentrate on iPhones and iPads -- the latter only premiering in 2010.
"Who knows? Maybe it'll be a billion-dollar marketplace at some point in time," Jobs continued. "This doesn't happen very often. A whole new billion-dollar market opens up: 360 million [dollar run rate] in the first 30 days, I've never seen anything like this in my career for software."
The interview also gives a glimpse back at early dilemmas, such as how to price apps and whether or not Apple would eventually allow third-party distribution. As of 2018 iOS distribution is still locked to the App Store without jailbreaking a device.
Other tidbits from the interview include Jobs offering early praise for Facebook and its iPhone app, and noting that Google and Facebook were already seeing the iPhone as a leading driver of mobile traffic, crucial to their advertising businesses.
"I think there are a lot of people, and I'm one of them, who believe that mobile's going to get quite serious," Jobs concluded in the recording, "because there are things you can do... Obviously, mobile's with you all the time, but there's services you can provide with mobile that obviously are not relevant on a desktop, such as location-based services integrated into your application. They can be mighty useful and we're just at the tip of that. That's going to be huge, I think."
"The total revenue has been $30 million in the first 30 days," Steve Jobs told Wall Street Journal reporter Nick Wingfield, now with The Information. "Developers get $21 million. Nine of that $21 million is going to the top 10 developers. A lot of small developers are making a lot of money. This is just in the first month," he enthused.
The executive sounded an optimistic note in much of the interview, suggesting the App Store was bound for success since there would be "a lot more iPhones out there in the future and a lot more iPod touches." The company has mostly neglected the Touch for several years, preferring to concentrate on iPhones and iPads -- the latter only premiering in 2010.
"Who knows? Maybe it'll be a billion-dollar marketplace at some point in time," Jobs continued. "This doesn't happen very often. A whole new billion-dollar market opens up: 360 million [dollar run rate] in the first 30 days, I've never seen anything like this in my career for software."
The interview also gives a glimpse back at early dilemmas, such as how to price apps and whether or not Apple would eventually allow third-party distribution. As of 2018 iOS distribution is still locked to the App Store without jailbreaking a device.
Other tidbits from the interview include Jobs offering early praise for Facebook and its iPhone app, and noting that Google and Facebook were already seeing the iPhone as a leading driver of mobile traffic, crucial to their advertising businesses.
"I think there are a lot of people, and I'm one of them, who believe that mobile's going to get quite serious," Jobs concluded in the recording, "because there are things you can do... Obviously, mobile's with you all the time, but there's services you can provide with mobile that obviously are not relevant on a desktop, such as location-based services integrated into your application. They can be mighty useful and we're just at the tip of that. That's going to be huge, I think."
Comments
Combine that with Steve’s charisma and coolness and you have the makings of the greatest tech CEO of all time. I’ve been fascinated by Jobs since the ‘80s. He was the perfect guy to bring computing to the masses. He completely transcended that ‘80s “nerd” label. Jobs would have never named his company Microsoft. Yet that’s what everyone else did in an attempt to achieve legitimacy. Steve knew his and other’s ideas alone with great people around him would ligitimize a tech company called Apple when no one else would have dared.
Great read, btw. There are some great NeXT-era interviews when he was starting to lay back a bit, that are truely enjoyable to read.
Oh well, not everyone is destined to be a billionaire.
Like so many other things, Apple’s innovation wasn’t creating something from nothing, but rather reorganizing things from a hot mess to something simple and intuitive. With the App Store came a process for purchasing apps that were so inexpensive that the price wasn’t a barrier to trying something new. Developers would profit from volume sales rather than a high markup. Apps used a standardized UI, making instruction books unnecessary. Apps were vetted by the store, ensuring compatibility and security. Installation became simple and quick. Finally, a single store on your device with streamlined billing meant the act itself of finding and purchasing apps would no longer be a barrier.
The App Store took most of the things that made buying software a hassle and moved them out of the way. The huge sales figures that Jobs noted in the interview was just the first indication that he had once again simplified the complex and found a vast reservoir of untapped demand.