you've got a chance to ask a question at a shareholder meeting
What do you ask Jobs that would actually illuminate methodology or decision making processes to investors and the public record?
The point is to not completely and utterly waste the chance and everyone's time like several people have in the most recent ones ("Do you have any plans to add an optical drive to the MacBook Air?").
Mine is: As the only consumer tech giant who places this much focus on a compelling combination of industrial design and day to day usage, why is the headphone jack recessed in the first iPhone?
I so badly want to know what the hell influenced that detail.
The point is to not completely and utterly waste the chance and everyone's time like several people have in the most recent ones ("Do you have any plans to add an optical drive to the MacBook Air?").
Mine is: As the only consumer tech giant who places this much focus on a compelling combination of industrial design and day to day usage, why is the headphone jack recessed in the first iPhone?
I so badly want to know what the hell influenced that detail.
Comments
What do you ask Jobs that would actually illuminate methodology or decision making processes to investors and the public record?
The point is to not completely and utterly waste the chance and everyone's time like several people have in the most recent ones ("Do you have any plans to add an optical drive to the MacBook Air?").
Mine is: As the only consumer tech giant who places this much focus on a compelling combination of industrial design and day to day usage, why is the headphone jack recessed in the first iPhone?
I so badly want to know what the hell influenced that detail.
I'm not sure such a question would be appropriate at a shareholder meeting, unless that one detail caused harm to the company or stock.
I'm not sure such a question would be appropriate at a shareholder meeting, unless that one detail caused harm to the company or stock.
It was the one detail universally panned by the three columnists they allowed to review the iPhone. An objectively backwards step after 6 years of iPods with great headphone jacks.
At March 2008's shareholder Q&A, Jobs fielded three questions in close succession that were just blatant future product questions, all resulting in the same "we do not talk about future products."
The waste-of-time ones AI reported that I was remembering from this year's were: "Are you planning an Xserve mini?" "Will you add an optical drive to the MacBook Air?" "Will there be free streaming content on the AppleTV"
So much of what Apple has done over the last decade seems to have hinged on SJ's ego and personality. I think the unscheduled/unplanned loss of SJ is the greatest risk to Apple at this point in time.
Seems like a reasonable question for a stockholder to want an answer to... even if I only own a couple hundred shares.
Seems like a reasonable question for a stockholder to want an answer to... even if I only own a couple hundred shares.
From this year's:
An investor noted that the media often equates Jobs with Apple, and asked what would happen to Apple without Jobs. He responded by noting that the board already has several well qualified options to draw upon were he to be "hit by a bus," and expressed confidence in his executive team. "We've got great talent, and I think the board would have a few really good choices," Jobs said. Tim Cook has been cited by outside sources including the Wall Street Journal as a likely successor to Jobs.
I, too, am extremely skeptical the company can continue to maintain the same presence without him. The exec dream team he has doesn't really have anyone whose passions overlap with his. Tim Cook is not going to be very good at designing unboxing routines, or pushing the clever odds and ends that make their products so interesting -- as far as anyone knows.
And also there's also the fact that the last time SJ made a tireless search for the perfect CEO replacement ended with him being ejected and the company skimming the waters of Chapter 11.
From this year's:
I, too, am extremely skeptical the company can continue to maintain the same presence without him. The exec dream team he has doesn't really have anyone whose passions overlap with his. Tim Cook is not going to be very good at designing unboxing routines, or pushing the clever odds and ends that make their products so interesting -- as far as anyone knows.
And also there's also the fact that the last time SJ made a tireless search for the perfect CEO replacement ended with him being ejected and the company skimming the waters of Chapter 11.
Steve Jobs IS Apple. Although it took more than one person to start it, and it takes thousands of people to run it now, it all comes down to one person. One visionary, one ego, one Steve.
For the record, I am not a shareholder though, at this stage, in any Apple or Apple reseller public or private equity shares.