“Even two years after I left Apple, I still feel like I celebrate two Christmases: the one I celebrate with my family, and the one in January that we celebrate when Steve Jobs gets up on stage and says: ‘I have a few things to show you today that I think you’ll really like,'” Chuq von Rospach reports for The Guardian.
“When I worked there, the MacWorld speech was always the point at which most of us stopped work and gathered around the screens – there was always a big gathering and a special screen in the restaurant. Work would stop for a while as everyone enjoyed the surprise. And for most of us it was a surprise; only for those in the small teams working on, say, the iPhone or the new release of Apple’s office suite iWork would know precisely what was coming; and even they didn’t know what the other teams had. And afterwards people talk about it for days; and the staff discount means that there are plenty of orders right after the speech ends,” von Rospach reports.
“Only, of course, this year it won’t be Steve. It’ll be Phil Schiller, Apple’s own Vice President of Demos, as we liked to call him, because he’d always be the second guy who’d come out to help Steve out,” von Rospach reports. “I’ll still tune in with great anticipation, and while people are already predicting there will be no major announcements, I’m not so sure.”
von Rospach reports, “When I joined, John Sculley was CEO and the Macintosh II was the state of the art… When I left, Steve Jobs was in charge and the Macbook Pro was the best of the best, the iPod was a global success and Apple was reshaping the music industry.”
Full article – recommended – here.
“Chuq von Rospach”?
Wasn’t he in The Sound of Music?
i prefer scott to phil
I love this part:
To people who wondered how what the atmosphere would be like inside 1 Infinite Loop, I said: “Just imagine Steve Jobs wandering the hall with a flame thrower in hand, asking random people ‘do you work on MobileMe?'”
Chuq’s exaggerating for dramatic effect. My time at Apple overlapped Chuq’s by several years, and we didn’t walk around in fear of sudden dismissal.
-jcr
On the other hand, the closest I came to being fired outright at Apple was questioning out loud Jobs’ then recent decision that a 70 character line width was more than sufficient for the Mac then in development.
I didn’t know that he was on the other side of the cubicle wall, and he didn’t recognize my voice, so couldn’t find me.
Other than that, up until the big layoff in ’85, I enjoyed every minute working there.
To people who wondered how what the atmosphere would be like inside 1 Infinite Loop, I said: “Just imagine Steve Jobs wandering the hall with a flame thrower in hand, asking random people ‘do you work on MobileMe?'”
Classic.
That has to be one of the most enjoyable pieces I have read in a long time. He really seems to put forth what it was like to work at Apple, the desire to perfect the power to be your best. Takes a lot to do that over the number of years he worked there.
His comment about CD’s movies on VHS makes me think about trade shows, that face to face encounter seems to be on the way out. Now a days, it is hard to have a good face to face conversation with someone without interruption from a mobile phone or some other distraction.
Nonetheless I do hope the Macworld Expo goes well. I tend to think that for Apple to be healthy over the long run they have to consider the legacy of the company post Steve Jobs. One way or the other though, I think history will have a much better portrayal of his contribution to our technology world than…what was the name of that other guy again? Bill something.