“The age of Steve Jobs is, to say the least, unexpected,” Michale Wolff claims for Newser. “Windows knocked him off the main stage for 10 years…”
MacDailyNews Take: Wrong.
Wolff continues, “Then the Internet seemed to sideline him…”
MacDailyNews Take: Wha?
Wolff continues, “Not to mention that serious business people (along with many others) thought he was nutty…”
MacDailyNews Take: He’s referring to Rupert Murdoch, who, of course, is the sanest man on the planet.
Wolff continues, “Then he had problems with the SEC (and not insignificant ones)…”
MacDailyNews Take: They seem pretty insignificant; Jobs was untouched.
Wolff continues, “Then he nearly died.”
MacDailyNews Take: Yay, Michael got one right!
Wolff continues, “Apple now has a bigger market cap than Microsoft (a prospect that not even the most devoted Apple fans would ever have imagined); the company is directly threatening Google for control of a significant part of the digital customer’s money and time; Jobs’ problems with the SEC have, magically, disappeared; and he seems, mirable [sic] dictu, very much alive. Is this good news?”
MacDailyNews Take: Michael Wolff is actually positing that the world would be better off if Steve Jobs were dead. And, he calls Jobs nutty! Sheesh. Then the crazy bastage implies that something nefarious happened between Jobs and the SEC, yet offers zero proof. One thing’s for sure: Michael Wolff comes off as one seriously scummy, jealous, miserable little man.
Wolff continues, “For the machine-loving consumer, Jobs’ triumph over Microsoft and Bill Gates is a marvel. Life seldom turns out this way. It’s a first in the history of architecture, where, in the mass market, the sensuous and beautiful triumphs over the functional and economic. The cost of such beauty, however, is having to accede to Apple’s world. Still, it is so much more pleasurable than the Windows world. But it is not just this world that is being acceded to—it’s acceding to Jobs himself.”
MacDailyNews Take: Trying to pass Windows off as “functional and economic” is cute, but laughably wrong. Windows has cost and continues to cost the world untold billions of dollars in lost productivity, time, and data, inflicted countless security catastrophes, etc., etc., etc. times a million.
Wolff continues, “We may never before have had a single executive in a public company who is so personally powerful. Is this good news?”
Full article – Think Before You Click™ – here.
MacDailyNews Take: So, what would Wolff prefer? A diminished, less powerful Steve Jobs, so we can all have crappier tech products? Steve Jobs has what he has for a reason: He earned it.
This, on the other hand, is what Michael Wolff is all about (Newser, January 16, 2009):
Steve Jobs, even more a Sun God—magical, temperamental, weird, frightening—than Murdoch, has nobody in his company, or world, to advise him, or challenge him, or balance him.
Reality doesn’t touch him. It is obviously not just a problem of physical heath, but of mental health, too. An obviously sick man, probably a mortally sick man, has been insisting on his own immortality—that’s nuts. The fact that most people have been willing to take him at his word has been as nutty… The logical answer to what happens at Apple without Jobs is that it dies. What you have, demonstrably, is a company without any managerial wherewithal beyond Jobs; these are Stockholm syndrome people. The big guy is dying and his crew is ready to go with him (taking the shareholders’ money along).
Michael, Steve Jobs still lives and breathes. That fact has obviously driven you to deep despair, you despicable sack of shit.
Just another fscktard. Nothing to see here.
How does MDN read this crap and not become a drunken lunatic? More power to you guys, because I’m not going to click on that link.
No wonder MDN needs to be so shrill. They have to respond to so-called experts who lack evidence, intelligence and/or logic.
“Reality doesn’t touch him. It is obviously not just a problem of physical heath, but of mental health, too.” Michael Wolff knows of what he speaks. This guy is really sick.
It’s spelled “Mirabile dictu”, you oaf !
MDN is my only news source that would call someone a “despicable, miserable sack of shit.” MDN, you have an intelligent audience, we can see Michael Wolff for the hack that he is. Act like a respectable (and unbiased) news source please. We are clearly above Wolff and the tripe he passes as journalism. Let’s act like it.
One has only to watch the D8 video to see how thoughtful, quick, wise, smart, mature, humorous, and *gasp* considerate Steve Jobs has become. He has evolved into a genius WITH incredibly excellent articulation and composure. Earth is so fortunate to have him. A true rare Giant among men.
What a total asshole who doesn’t deserve to be alive himself.
drbacon,
MDN tells the truth. Their Takes are interjections of opinion, not “unbiased news,” which, if you had any notable intelligence, you’d know doesn’t exist.
MDN, of course, keep doing exactly as you’re doing. Most of us are smart enough to appreciate your cutting frankness – that’s exactly why we keep coming back for more!
I’d like to be a fly on the wall with this guy and Rob Enderle. It would make the X-Files look like a reality show…
Steve Jobs is worth billions, Mikey Wolff isn’t worth a popcorn fart. Newser? Never heard of it.
Michael Wolff is a moron.
Eric Willard is a moron.
Billy Gates still wants a stylus.
Steve Ballmer needs new chairs.
La la la la la la…
He keeps asking, Is this good news?
Yet he never really provides an answer. Apple beats Microsoft in market cap, Apple makes beautiful products, Jobs is powerful.
Mikey…what is your fsckin point? If you want to paint SJ as evil, then do it moron.
MDN is my only news source that would call someone a “despicable, miserable sack of shit.” – drbacon
Too bad for you, but it’s certainly a big part of why I love MDN!
Just another attempt to manipulate AAPL stock. I bet a few people are all set to profit from any fluctuation in stock value this article may cause.
p.s. @MDN: no need for name calling, even with an article as despicable as the one at hand, which, I admit, does a very good job at name calling, innuendo and plain lies in the most vicious way possible.
Perhapsps someone will spike his condoms with C4 so that the next time he gets a woody it will blow his brains out of his butt.
Michael Wolff? Never heard of him. Why should I care what some guy writes for a website I’ve never heard of?
I don’t really understand the point of this piece.
While many facts are obviously wrong, it generally is positive towards SJ. However, the question of whether it is good or not that SJ is so powerful makes no sense. He is powerful in his industry (which is media as well as tech), but I don’t see him using his business power in any abusive way. Compared to many other powerful business leaders (i.e. Jack Welch) he doesn’t pontificate on other peoples businesses or issues, and (more important) keeps his political views pretty much to himself. The only thing he kind of pushes on anyone outside Apple’s business context is vegetarianism and organ donation.
In any case, this a**hat writes for a POS website called “Newser” that nobody ever heard of, so why I care what he says anyway?
A friend of mine has said it well:
“Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds”.
And that friend is none other than Albert Einstein .
Shit happens, man… sometimes®
This guy gives sacks of shit a bad name!
Michael Wolff……
Why don’t you go outside and play Hide and Go F YOURSELF!!!
Wolff is lower than the whale S#@! at the bottom of the ocean…a WHINY, SNIVELING, ENVIOUS Little Man!
I think it’s fine for MDN to make the comments they make… I do have one problem though with vicious attacks on individuals directly. When Mike Wolff or any of the many M$ hacks that are out there make comments, we know who they are coming from. At least they have the guts to put their NAME behind their comments. I would love to see MDN editor(s) put their name up so we can applaud their comments personally. If it’s a collective group coming up with these “takes”, at least put a “who we are” link somewhere on the page.
I visit MDN probably as much or more than anyone on here… and will keep visiting, but I sure would like MDN to stand up like men (or women) and back up their comments with real names.
@drbacon… “despicable sack of shit.”
nah, pretty much describes what I was thinking.
The irony of course is that it is Microsoft who was lead by a delusionist, is still led by an even greater delusionist and who seem to have no one competent, either without delusional or remotely talented, or even known to replace him. But then one wouldn’t expect those fed on such delusion to actually notice the obvious.
The moron writes that Steve has nobody to challenge him, but just cast week at D8 Mossberg asked him just that: “Are people allowed to tell you you’re wrong?” and Steve responded, “Of course! All the time.” He said it so causually I believed him, too.
Steve Jobs dead is bad for the Apple. Steve Jobs alive is bad for the Apple. The iPod selling is bad for the Apple. The iPod not selling is bad Apple. The iPhone success is bad for the company. The iPad success is bad for the company. The Mac’s continued success is bad for the company.
I have using Apple products for 30 years but anyone here who has been an Apple supporter from even the late 90s already knows the frustration.
After all this time, is it really necessary to defend or explain our disdain and even open hostility to so-called “tech so-called analysts?
Is an in depth discussion really necessary after all the lies, half truths and distortion… After all that, is there any point in explaining, again and again, why so much of the criticism of Apple is venal nonsense?