YES. I had that flu, it turned into acute bronchitis, and put me down for six straight weeks. I was out from Late Feb through march. Its still going around, and took Lenny Kravitz out of commission earlier this year as well.
I personally lost 12 pounds while down with it. On my 200lb frame, not so bad. On Jobs' skinny ass, MUCH worse-looking.
Steve would sooner die in his chair than let go of Apple. You know this is true.
FWIW: Steve used to carry atleast 185lbs on his body and looked very fit. I'd say he's around 145lb in that photo.
I think it is pretty clear that Steve is sick with more than a "bug". All indicators point in the same direction; his limited time on stage, his weight and general demeanor, and the lack of pep visible in the whole group. These guys usually have fun on stage together, here they were off-key.
Given this, first and foremost we should remember that the #1 stakeholders in his health and survival are his children, his wife, and his friends and extended family. To his children especially, his loss would be a terrible thing.
Yet some of us have "adopted" Steve into our "virtual" family, for lack of a better term. Steve has encouraged this through the years. We may not be his friends or family, but a lot of us would feel his loss personally nonetheless. I've been following Apple and Steve since about 1978, sometimes as a user and often not, and by no means a fanboy. But this week made me see just how much of a reference point Steve has been for me during this time. I work in the software industry and have regularly seen people in the business amazed and surprised by Apple.
I believe this will continue to be the case for many years, regardless of Steve's future. He indicated he has made his peace with this in his appearance last year with Bill Gates, when he noted that more history is now behind him than in front of him. I am sure he has taken whatever steps will be required to ensure Apple's continuity as a true innovator.
Some of you think this is not the case. You compare with 1985 and Sculley's beige boxes, but there is no comparison. In 1985 Steve was not nearly as wise, nor was Apple having anything like its current success. There was infighting in the company, the IBM PC was dominating the market, and Apple was still selling Apple II derivatives at the same time as Mac/Lisa machines. It was Jobs, after all, who had the poor judgment to hire Sculley in the first place. For all his talent and vision, Jobs wasn't quite ready for CEO prime time back then, and the Apple business model was neither successful nor mature in anything near its current form. Apple made unique products and the Apple II had been a hit largely thanks to VisiCalc, a spreadsheet of all things, but it was losing market share and relevance. There were hints of greatness, but the greatness wasn't there yet.
People like Sculley thought they could do things better on the basis that Apple wasn't doing so well. Today, nobody would think that way; not even Sculley. In any case Jobs, older but wiser, hasn't surrounded himself with mediocre Sculleys. Apple's product development model is now seen as its principal asset, and everybody inside and outside the company knows this. Further, Apple has got the people and a road map good for at least five years of development, or ten if no disruptive technology comes along. Given the human resources of the company, I would not be surprised if it kept innovating well beyond that time frame. It will take a brain dead bean counter to kill it. That may happen eventually, but not any time soon.
We should hope for the best. I'm sure Steve has the best medical care and with any luck his condition may not be that serious. But if the worst happens we should think first of his family. And then we should not underestimate the capacity of the company he built to continue to surprise us for a long, long time.
I see three positions if you want to make an argument that Apple will thrive after Jobs is gone.
Jobs has hired like minded people to push his legacy.
The inertia that Jobs has set in motion with the Mac revival and the new iPhone will continue to benefit Apple for years to come.
- Anything I've ever read about those who have worked with Steve Jobs says that he does NOT hire likeminded people. He hires the absolute best Getting-Things-Done operators he can find. There isn't anyone in the executive room (headcount is now 12) that actually overlaps what HE is inexplicably excellent at too closely. Phil is the best bet from addresses, but it's a much lamer public persona. I don't see how Tim Cook would do the job (Wall Street's probable #2).
- The inertia he created the first time did nothing to prevent the company from diminishing until T-Minus-6-months-to-Chapter-11 when he was bought back.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Alonso Perez
We should hope for the best. I'm sure Steve has the best medical care and with any luck his condition may not be that serious. But if the worst happens we should think first of his family. And then we should not underestimate the capacity of the company he built to continue to surprise us for a long, long time.
He tried to beat cancer in 2003 by adding different vegetables to his diet until Board and wifey convinced him otherwise \. He is known to loathe modern medicine.
- The inertia he created the first time did nothing to prevent the company from diminishing until T-Minus-6-months-to-Chapter-11 when he was bought back.
Well, my point was that there was no inertia created the first time. Apple was a market lightweight with frequent production problems. This is the period where Apple fans began to be derided, for they saw something that wasn't quite there yet, like a shared illusion. Time proved that what they saw was indeed there, but it was not obvious in 1985. Not only wasn't it obvious, but to a typical MBA it was plainly invisible, while a typical marketer thought it was merely a branding thing. Think about it, not just Sculley, but also the board and key Apple players truly thought Jobs was a problem, and that they could handle the company better.
Today it's completely different. Everybody gets it, and the value of his way of doing things is unquestioned. They will bend over backwards to do WWHD.
Well, my point was that there was no inertia created the first time. Apple was a market lightweight with frequent production problems. This is the period where Apple fans began to be derided, for they saw something that wasn't quite there yet, like a shared illusion. Time proved that what they saw was indeed there, but it was not obvious in 1985. Not only wasn't it obvious, but to a typical MBA it was plainly invisible, while a typical marketer thought it was merely a branding thing. Think about it, not just Sculley, but also the board and key Apple players truly thought Jobs was a problem, and that they could handle the company better.
Today it's completely different. Everybody gets it, and the value of his way of doing things is unquestioned. They will bend over backwards to do WWHD.
Yes. This is the optimistic conception of the inevitable change of hands.
The corporate culture will change, though. There's a definitely a chance he has imparted some of his vision, but ultimately, at the human level, more people will be given breaks for not QUITE matching up the Pantone values and pixel alignment on interface changes, new products may play it safer (lol USB-only for the new Mac? <-DECADE LATER-> lol one USB port and a headphone jack and no removable battery?), and they may not have the same unbending restraint from releasing more overlapping computers and products that don't quite stack up neatly as a business model.
They also lose their best snap-negotiator, so I see fewer headlines declaring things like, "AT&T may have risked too much in deal" or "Labels bow to fixed track pricing over WiMax," post-Jobs.
Well I took this photo of him at the presentation. Looking a bit thin I'd say.
He looks awful. I hate to say this, but I've seen people waste away from cancer, chemo, liver problems, you name it. And this is what they start to look like.
He looks awful. I hate to say this, but I've seen people waste away from cancer, chemo, liver problems, you name it. And this is what they start to look like.
That picture reminds me of the Pixar short where an old man plays chess with himself. Seriously, add ten years to Jobs and he would look just like that.
There's a definitely a chance he has imparted some of his vision, but ultimately, at the human level, more people will be given breaks for not QUITE matching up the Pantone values and pixel alignment on interface changes.
You know this how? Jobs is hardly the only perfectionist at Apple. This is the least likely problem. Some of your other comments may have more bearing. But consider the new iPhone pricing scheme is industry-standard. Jobs or no Jobs, Apple could not impose its model for the iPhone.
Perhaps a risk is that Apple will try to be more Jobs than Jobs. Many mistakes can be made. On the other hand, Apple has got to figure it out sooner or later. Let's say Steve Jobs is fine and stays at the helm for 20 years. Are you so sure he will still know what people want? He's been cool to social networking, for instance. I'm cool to it as well, but I'm in my 40's. At work I see a clear generational divide with things like Facebook and Twitter, even though every last person in my company is comfortable with technology.
Times change. We've been witness to a brilliant run and with any luck it will continue for many years. But eventually it will morph into something else. Better or worse? Who knows? You don't know and I don't know, but Apple's near future is not at risk.
You know this how? Jobs is hardly the only perfectionist at Apple. This is the least likely problem. Some of your other comments may have more bearing. But consider the new iPhone pricing scheme is industry-standard. Jobs or no Jobs, Apple could not impose its model for the iPhone.
Perhaps a risk is that Apple will try to be more Jobs than Jobs. Many mistakes can be made. On the other hand, Apple has got to figure it out sooner or later. Let's say Steve Jobs is fine and stays at the helm for 20 years. Are you so sure he will still know what people want? He's been cool to social networking, for instance. I'm cool to it as well, but I'm in my 40's. At work I see a clear generational divide with things like Facebook and Twitter, even though every last person in my company is comfortable with technology.
Maybe Apple will miss the next "boat", but I don't think Apple really needs to do anything special for social networking. Apple can't do everything, and I'm not convinced that social networking sites are a good long term business model. Facebook might be thought of as the third major generation of social networking. That kind of web site seems to come and go. What Apple can do to support social networking is make a top quality web client, and Safari does pretty good for that.
Maybe Apple will miss the next "boat", but I don't think Apple really needs to do anything special for social networking.
I don't think so either. But that's sort of my point. Maybe I'm wrong. All the under-30 kids at the office have incorporated it into their daily, hourly lives. I have no idea what that use pattern will evolve into in the future; it's like another language. Maybe it's an inconsequential fad, and to me it's pretty pointless, but maybe it isn't.
Social networking was just an example. I'm saying that even with Jobs, Apple can easily miss new trends. Nobody is infallible.
Ever since he was treated for cancer, Apple has been trotting out other officers in these presentations, trying to plan for a transition. It seemed especially true this time when Jobs did less than half of the Keynote.
It's just a shame that I was just left thinking "When's Steve going to be back on stage?"
He may be looking gaunt but his charisma was definitely still there.
He looks like he's about to kick off any day now, and when he's gone, Apple is fucked. We saw what happens when Apple is run by a typical American CEO: instead of looking years ahead when planning investments and R&D, American CEOs look ahead to the next quarter's profit report. Slowly but surely, Job's replacement will fritter away Apple's reputation and quality. Apple will coast for a few years on current successes, but the innovation will end and Apple will try to compete on their competitor's terms by cheapening their products, conforming to "market forces," and generally taking the spice out of Apple's products.
Enjoy Macs now, because in 10 years we'll all be hanging on to a dying platform while Microsoft makes a killing on all the cheesy crap they copied from Apple and then improved.
Tell that to Karen Carpenter. Oh no, you can't, can you.
So, I guess you haven't heard of the health effects of the caloric restriction diet. You just wanted to make a low class uneducated swipe at someone using an ancient history formerly hot-button celebrity death.
Social networking was just an example. I'm saying that even with Jobs, Apple can easily miss new trends. Nobody is infallible.
Social networking is a fad already well onto the accelerating downslope. It won't go away, but in the long run it won' be anywhere near important as Facebook and Myspace want you to think it is.
He looks like he's about to kick off any day now, and when he's gone, Apple is fucked. We saw what happens when Apple is run by a typical American CEO: instead of looking years ahead when planning investments and R&D, American CEOs look ahead to the next quarter's profit report. Slowly but surely, Job's replacement will fritter away Apple's reputation and quality. Apple will coast for a few years on current successes, but the innovation will end and Apple will try to compete on their competitor's terms by cheapening their products, conforming to "market forces," and generally taking the spice out of Apple's products.
Enjoy Macs now, because in 10 years we'll all be hanging on to a dying platform while Microsoft makes a killing on all the cheesy crap they copied from Apple and then improved.
What are you talking about? I don't think that the board are likely to appoint someone who cannot demonstrate a proper understanding of what Apple is and what Apple is all about.
You're a very pessimistic person... it's all doom and gloom. Steve Jobs has proven that he's an exceptionally intelligent man, with an uncanny ability to be about 30 steps ahead of everyone else. If - and take SPECIAL NOTE of the use of the word "if" - he really is ill again, I doubt it's escaped his attention. There's every confidence in my mind that he and the board have a succession/contingency plan in place should anything happen to him. They know how valuable he is... that's why they wouldn't just replace him with a... what did you say? "typical American CEO".
Comments
And one can utilize a mouse whereas the other attracts mice!
One features a wireless mouse and the other features a deep-fried mouse.
YES. I had that flu, it turned into acute bronchitis, and put me down for six straight weeks. I was out from Late Feb through march. Its still going around, and took Lenny Kravitz out of commission earlier this year as well.
I personally lost 12 pounds while down with it. On my 200lb frame, not so bad. On Jobs' skinny ass, MUCH worse-looking.
Steve would sooner die in his chair than let go of Apple. You know this is true.
FWIW: Steve used to carry atleast 185lbs on his body and looked very fit. I'd say he's around 145lb in that photo.
Given this, first and foremost we should remember that the #1 stakeholders in his health and survival are his children, his wife, and his friends and extended family. To his children especially, his loss would be a terrible thing.
Yet some of us have "adopted" Steve into our "virtual" family, for lack of a better term. Steve has encouraged this through the years. We may not be his friends or family, but a lot of us would feel his loss personally nonetheless. I've been following Apple and Steve since about 1978, sometimes as a user and often not, and by no means a fanboy. But this week made me see just how much of a reference point Steve has been for me during this time. I work in the software industry and have regularly seen people in the business amazed and surprised by Apple.
I believe this will continue to be the case for many years, regardless of Steve's future. He indicated he has made his peace with this in his appearance last year with Bill Gates, when he noted that more history is now behind him than in front of him. I am sure he has taken whatever steps will be required to ensure Apple's continuity as a true innovator.
Some of you think this is not the case. You compare with 1985 and Sculley's beige boxes, but there is no comparison. In 1985 Steve was not nearly as wise, nor was Apple having anything like its current success. There was infighting in the company, the IBM PC was dominating the market, and Apple was still selling Apple II derivatives at the same time as Mac/Lisa machines. It was Jobs, after all, who had the poor judgment to hire Sculley in the first place. For all his talent and vision, Jobs wasn't quite ready for CEO prime time back then, and the Apple business model was neither successful nor mature in anything near its current form. Apple made unique products and the Apple II had been a hit largely thanks to VisiCalc, a spreadsheet of all things, but it was losing market share and relevance. There were hints of greatness, but the greatness wasn't there yet.
People like Sculley thought they could do things better on the basis that Apple wasn't doing so well. Today, nobody would think that way; not even Sculley. In any case Jobs, older but wiser, hasn't surrounded himself with mediocre Sculleys. Apple's product development model is now seen as its principal asset, and everybody inside and outside the company knows this. Further, Apple has got the people and a road map good for at least five years of development, or ten if no disruptive technology comes along. Given the human resources of the company, I would not be surprised if it kept innovating well beyond that time frame. It will take a brain dead bean counter to kill it. That may happen eventually, but not any time soon.
We should hope for the best. I'm sure Steve has the best medical care and with any luck his condition may not be that serious. But if the worst happens we should think first of his family. And then we should not underestimate the capacity of the company he built to continue to surprise us for a long, long time.
I see three positions if you want to make an argument that Apple will thrive after Jobs is gone.
- Anything I've ever read about those who have worked with Steve Jobs says that he does NOT hire likeminded people. He hires the absolute best Getting-Things-Done operators he can find. There isn't anyone in the executive room (headcount is now 12) that actually overlaps what HE is inexplicably excellent at too closely. Phil is the best bet from addresses, but it's a much lamer public persona. I don't see how Tim Cook would do the job (Wall Street's probable #2).
- The inertia he created the first time did nothing to prevent the company from diminishing until T-Minus-6-months-to-Chapter-11 when he was bought back.
We should hope for the best. I'm sure Steve has the best medical care and with any luck his condition may not be that serious. But if the worst happens we should think first of his family. And then we should not underestimate the capacity of the company he built to continue to surprise us for a long, long time.
He tried to beat cancer in 2003 by adding different vegetables to his diet until Board and wifey convinced him otherwise
- The inertia he created the first time did nothing to prevent the company from diminishing until T-Minus-6-months-to-Chapter-11 when he was bought back.
Well, my point was that there was no inertia created the first time. Apple was a market lightweight with frequent production problems. This is the period where Apple fans began to be derided, for they saw something that wasn't quite there yet, like a shared illusion. Time proved that what they saw was indeed there, but it was not obvious in 1985. Not only wasn't it obvious, but to a typical MBA it was plainly invisible, while a typical marketer thought it was merely a branding thing. Think about it, not just Sculley, but also the board and key Apple players truly thought Jobs was a problem, and that they could handle the company better.
Today it's completely different. Everybody gets it, and the value of his way of doing things is unquestioned. They will bend over backwards to do WWHD.
Well, my point was that there was no inertia created the first time. Apple was a market lightweight with frequent production problems. This is the period where Apple fans began to be derided, for they saw something that wasn't quite there yet, like a shared illusion. Time proved that what they saw was indeed there, but it was not obvious in 1985. Not only wasn't it obvious, but to a typical MBA it was plainly invisible, while a typical marketer thought it was merely a branding thing. Think about it, not just Sculley, but also the board and key Apple players truly thought Jobs was a problem, and that they could handle the company better.
Today it's completely different. Everybody gets it, and the value of his way of doing things is unquestioned. They will bend over backwards to do WWHD.
Yes. This is the optimistic conception of the inevitable change of hands.
The corporate culture will change, though. There's a definitely a chance he has imparted some of his vision, but ultimately, at the human level, more people will be given breaks for not QUITE matching up the Pantone values and pixel alignment on interface changes, new products may play it safer (lol USB-only for the new Mac? <-DECADE LATER-> lol one USB port and a headphone jack and no removable battery?), and they may not have the same unbending restraint from releasing more overlapping computers and products that don't quite stack up neatly as a business model.
They also lose their best snap-negotiator, so I see fewer headlines declaring things like, "AT&T may have risked too much in deal" or "Labels bow to fixed track pricing over WiMax," post-Jobs.
Well I took this photo of him at the presentation. Looking a bit thin I'd say.
He looks awful. I hate to say this, but I've seen people waste away from cancer, chemo, liver problems, you name it. And this is what they start to look like.
He looks awful. I hate to say this, but I've seen people waste away from cancer, chemo, liver problems, you name it. And this is what they start to look like.
That picture reminds me of the Pixar short where an old man plays chess with himself. Seriously, add ten years to Jobs and he would look just like that.
There's a definitely a chance he has imparted some of his vision, but ultimately, at the human level, more people will be given breaks for not QUITE matching up the Pantone values and pixel alignment on interface changes.
You know this how? Jobs is hardly the only perfectionist at Apple. This is the least likely problem. Some of your other comments may have more bearing. But consider the new iPhone pricing scheme is industry-standard. Jobs or no Jobs, Apple could not impose its model for the iPhone.
Perhaps a risk is that Apple will try to be more Jobs than Jobs. Many mistakes can be made. On the other hand, Apple has got to figure it out sooner or later. Let's say Steve Jobs is fine and stays at the helm for 20 years. Are you so sure he will still know what people want? He's been cool to social networking, for instance. I'm cool to it as well, but I'm in my 40's. At work I see a clear generational divide with things like Facebook and Twitter, even though every last person in my company is comfortable with technology.
Times change. We've been witness to a brilliant run and with any luck it will continue for many years. But eventually it will morph into something else. Better or worse? Who knows? You don't know and I don't know, but Apple's near future is not at risk.
You know this how? Jobs is hardly the only perfectionist at Apple. This is the least likely problem. Some of your other comments may have more bearing. But consider the new iPhone pricing scheme is industry-standard. Jobs or no Jobs, Apple could not impose its model for the iPhone.
Perhaps a risk is that Apple will try to be more Jobs than Jobs. Many mistakes can be made. On the other hand, Apple has got to figure it out sooner or later. Let's say Steve Jobs is fine and stays at the helm for 20 years. Are you so sure he will still know what people want? He's been cool to social networking, for instance. I'm cool to it as well, but I'm in my 40's. At work I see a clear generational divide with things like Facebook and Twitter, even though every last person in my company is comfortable with technology.
Maybe Apple will miss the next "boat", but I don't think Apple really needs to do anything special for social networking. Apple can't do everything, and I'm not convinced that social networking sites are a good long term business model. Facebook might be thought of as the third major generation of social networking. That kind of web site seems to come and go. What Apple can do to support social networking is make a top quality web client, and Safari does pretty good for that.
Maybe Apple will miss the next "boat", but I don't think Apple really needs to do anything special for social networking.
I don't think so either. But that's sort of my point. Maybe I'm wrong. All the under-30 kids at the office have incorporated it into their daily, hourly lives. I have no idea what that use pattern will evolve into in the future; it's like another language. Maybe it's an inconsequential fad, and to me it's pretty pointless, but maybe it isn't.
Social networking was just an example. I'm saying that even with Jobs, Apple can easily miss new trends. Nobody is infallible.
Ever since he was treated for cancer, Apple has been trotting out other officers in these presentations, trying to plan for a transition. It seemed especially true this time when Jobs did less than half of the Keynote.
It's just a shame that I was just left thinking "When's Steve going to be back on stage?"
He may be looking gaunt but his charisma was definitely still there.
Maybe he just wants to live forever. The best way to live a long life is to be the skinniest guy on the block, everyone knows that.
Tell that to Karen Carpenter. Oh no, you can't, can you.
Enjoy Macs now, because in 10 years we'll all be hanging on to a dying platform while Microsoft makes a killing on all the cheesy crap they copied from Apple and then improved.
Future Looks Bleak For Jobs
Phew!
Tell that to Karen Carpenter. Oh no, you can't, can you.
So, I guess you haven't heard of the health effects of the caloric restriction diet. You just wanted to make a low class uneducated swipe at someone using an ancient history formerly hot-button celebrity death.
Social networking was just an example. I'm saying that even with Jobs, Apple can easily miss new trends. Nobody is infallible.
Social networking is a fad already well onto the accelerating downslope. It won't go away, but in the long run it won' be anywhere near important as Facebook and Myspace want you to think it is.
He looks like he's about to kick off any day now, and when he's gone, Apple is fucked. We saw what happens when Apple is run by a typical American CEO: instead of looking years ahead when planning investments and R&D, American CEOs look ahead to the next quarter's profit report. Slowly but surely, Job's replacement will fritter away Apple's reputation and quality. Apple will coast for a few years on current successes, but the innovation will end and Apple will try to compete on their competitor's terms by cheapening their products, conforming to "market forces," and generally taking the spice out of Apple's products.
Enjoy Macs now, because in 10 years we'll all be hanging on to a dying platform while Microsoft makes a killing on all the cheesy crap they copied from Apple and then improved.
What are you talking about? I don't think that the board are likely to appoint someone who cannot demonstrate a proper understanding of what Apple is and what Apple is all about.
You're a very pessimistic person... it's all doom and gloom. Steve Jobs has proven that he's an exceptionally intelligent man, with an uncanny ability to be about 30 steps ahead of everyone else. If - and take SPECIAL NOTE of the use of the word "if" - he really is ill again, I doubt it's escaped his attention. There's every confidence in my mind that he and the board have a succession/contingency plan in place should anything happen to him. They know how valuable he is... that's why they wouldn't just replace him with a... what did you say? "typical American CEO".