“One of the great things about Steve Jobs is what comes out of his mouth,” Owen Linzmayer writes for Wired News in an article originally published on March 29, 2006, but we thought some would like to see it again.
Linzmayer writes, “The CEO of Apple Computer is a master of hype, hyperbole and the catchy phrase. Even when he’s trying to talk normally, brilliant verbiage comes tumbling out.”
Linzmayer writes, “Here’s a selection of some of the most insanely great things the man has said, organized by topic: innovation and design, fixing Apple, his greatest sales pitches, life’s lessons, taking the fight to the enemy and Pixar.”
Here are a few choice quotes from when Jobs was out of Apple:
• You know, I’ve got a plan that could rescue Apple. I can’t say any more than that it’s the perfect product and the perfect strategy for Apple. But nobody there will listen to me. — Fortune, Sept. 18, 1995
• If I were running Apple, I would milk the Macintosh for all it’s worth — and get busy on the next great thing. The PC wars are over. Done. Microsoft won a long time ago. — Fortune, Feb. 19, 1996
MacDailyNews Take: How we read this today: “Milk the classic Mac OS for all it’s worth and get busy creating the “NeXT” great thing: Apple’s Mac OS X platform.” The PC wars aren’t over; far from it – as current market share trends clearly show. But, Jobs was out of Apple at the time, trying to deal with NeXT, probably in discussions with Apple at the time regarding the sale of NeXT, and often says things he doesn’t believe or mean for many reasons.
And one Steve Jobs from long after he’d returned to Apple:
• I didn’t see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life. — Stanford University commencement address, June 12, 2005
And some Steve Jobs quotes that we like that you won’t find in the article:
• Unfortunately, people are not rebelling against Microsoft. They don’t know any better.
• Pixar is the most technically advanced creative company; Apple is the most creatively advanced technical company.
• The trouble with Microsoft is they have no taste. They have no taste and I don’t mean that in a small way, I mean that in a big way.
Read more in the full article here.
@Rabid Dog, you’d be surprised how handy OSX is.. just highlight a word, ri ght(or ctrl)-click a word you’re not sure how to spell, and if it’s anywhere near to close, OSX will proved the correct spelling at the top of the menu.
The OS wars are not over, but this is crunch time for all involved… Mac’s OSX ain’t perfect yet.. but it is compared to XP. By the time larger enterprises decide to upgrade, OSX 10.6 will about to ship. (late ’08).
We live in interesting times, on many fronts.
*sigh*
There is no “war” with Microsoft. I really don’t understand why there must be a war just because there are two different sides.
Apparently, not enough people have seen the video of Macworld 1997 in Boston with Steve Jobs giving a status report about Apple when he was the interim CEO. He clearly states there is no competition with Microsoft and encourages people to get out of that mentality. His quote:
“If we want to move forward and see Apple healthy and prospering again, we have to let go of a few things here. We have to let go of this notion that for Apple to win, Microsoft has to lose. Okay? We have to embrace the notion that for Apple to win, Apple has to do a really good job. … And if we screw up and we don’t do a good job, it’s not somebody else’s fault, it’s our fault. … The era of setting this up as a competition between Apple and Microsoft is over as far as I’m concerned.”
Another great quote from that video: “Apple plus Microsoft equals 100% of the desktop computer market. And so, whatever Apple and Microsoft agree to do, it’s a standard.”
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4436710013736446644
(about 39 minutes; S.J. starts speaking at 6 minutes into the video, the quotes are near the end)
Perhaps some think it’s different nowadays now that Apple seems to be healthy and prospering. However, that’s not a reason to start trashing one’s health and prosperity by going back to the old mentality of competing with Microsoft. What’s the point?
Apple may be actively expanding its user base, and that may mean more Macs get bought and affect the market share numbers for those people who bother counting such things. But market share doesn’t matter as much as actual use of the product. So what if a lot of people buy something? It just means a lot of people fell for the marketing. Big whoop. What matters is whether the product is used at all or was left to collect dust, or perhaps thrown away or given away. And nobody cares to track that, and few care to be careful to not get taken in by a marketing bandwagon. For example, just because a lot of people went to see a movie on opening night doesn’t mean everybody liked it, so what does it matter what a movie makes during its first weekend?
All I care about is Apple continues making the software I enjoy using (such as iLife, other apps included with Mac OS X, and Mac OS X), and their feature-rich hardware in half the physical volume and weight (such as iMacs with ambient light sensors for the power light). I prefer ease of use of software over having to be a computer technician, and devices that fit into my life without having to use a crowbar or compactor.
Really, why waste time talking trash about computers with Microsoft’s OS when I can actually being doing something on a Mac? I mean, come on, take a clue from Apple’s ads. Talk up what you like doing with your computer instead of wasting your karma being insulting. Consider: if we only talked about Macs to other people, then Microsoft would never get mentioned. People forget what they don’t hear about. Besides, do you think they really need to be reminded of their troubles? They need to know options.
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I doubt I’ve heard anybody I’ve met say what they created or enjoyed with their computer unless they owned a Mac. Microsoft Windows based PCs are kind of like the kitchen sink: you gotta to have it to have everything, but you don’t expect to get as much out of it as you put in it. Personally, using a Mac gives me greater value of my time, so I can do without having everything.
MW: “been” – This so-called war has been over for a long time. Move along, nothing to see here.
“The OS wars are not over, but this is crunch time for all involved… Mac’s OSX ain’t perfect yet.. but it is compared to XP”
The fact is that they are and have been for a while. 2.8% worldwide share shows that.
The Mac “resurgence” seems to be largely based on a million boot camp downloads and Windows compatibility which is good for Apple as a hardware vendor, not so good for Apple as an OS X vendor.
That is a stupid response MAC DAILY NEWS