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Jobs Plays It Frank
Siqnal 11 writes "Wired has a feature about Jobs meeting with resellers at the expo, and how honest he was with them. To quote the article 'Jobs gave frank and honest answers to tough questions in this time of trouble for the company and its partners, they said. "
I think all of you are being too harsh about his language. He used "fuck" as an adjective, a verb and an adverb. I congratulate him on the wide use of his limited vocabulary.
That's how a fucking CEO handles stuff. He isn't a fucking pansy that prances around what he really wants to say. Fuck ya! Fuck!
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Don't lead me into temptation... I can find it myself.
I'd thank God if we were. I have many times seen with my own eyes salespeople go up to people asking a question about a Mac, tell them incorrect information about its specs, and then steer them towards a PC.
I heard a guy one time tell a lady that the iMac didn't have Ethernet, and would she be interested in a PC that does?(hint: iMacs have always had 100mbit Ethernet) Also, I constantly hear salespeople tell customers that Macs have no software.
The other thing is that apparently no one in the entire store knows how to use a Mac, so they always sit there frozen or turned off. I have personally intervened probably five times where I overheard salespeople telling a customer something completely false about a Mac, and felt the need to say "actually..."
My guess is Apple retail sales would increase by at least 15% if salespeople would learn how to use a Mac, and stop criticizing them constantly.
As someone who once worked for a hell-hole Canadian version of those big box stores, let me put it to you this way -
As a salesperson, there is ZERO point to selling Macintosh.
I don't know what kind of moron Jobs is where he thinks salespeople have the time and trouble to sit there and demonstrate a product. In order to make anything over $27,000/yr you basically need to run around, ringing up anyone you see carrying a box - you don't get paid a percentage of the sales price, you get paid a small percentage of the "profit". $25 profit on a $2,000 computer is $2.50 in your back pocket, so to make min wage you have to sell two an hour. I only know one person who made a decent living at it, and he basically just went up to people and said "are you buying that" and if they said no, he'd leave and sign up the next guy, leaving customers who WANTED attention to poor stiffs like me who'd yap for an entire hour to some geriatric sod who expects $400 off his machine cause he's a good haggler, not realising that all Macs are basically sold under cost, which means NO commission, no pay, your profitability numbers go down, and you lose your job.
You see more Macs sold when they're being liquidated, cause you're paid a percentage of the selling price, not the profit, and at Christmas, where you pay a "spiff" of $75 to get someone to buy a Mac. But it's damn hard, cause people are like: "But it won't run Windows" and you suddenly realise you could just unload a PC on these people and sell two more in the time it takes to get over the sales resistance on the Mac and actually make a living.
--- Jump!! Fire!! Bullet time!! - Lego version of the Matrix
Obsession? He just prefers them, and has some HI research to back him up on it.
Obsessive is a bunch of non-Mac users instinctively complaining about the lack of multiple buttons on every single Slashdot story that comes up dealing with Apple. Like one of Pavlov's dogs, really.
Who's obsessive now?
- Jeff A. Campbell
- Jeff
This article at MacCentral had much better coverage. Rather than focussing on the language that Jobs used to skake his audience into paying attention, they covered what he was actually fucking saying:
That buying a Mac at CompUSA and Sears et al. is an exercise in futility and frustration. If you go to a car dealership, they don't steer you away from the model you ask for to show you another brand and try to bullshit you while they do it.
I think Apple should sell on the Web and exclusively through its Mac retailers like MacZone, MacMall.
Screw the pimply-faced, rat-assed, pig-ignorant kids who try to screw the Mac customer for the sake of an idiotic loyalty to someone who has ripped off their parents out of of billions of dollars.
MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
as everybody has been saying, what Jobs said in his meeting with resellers isn't really news for slashdot. however if you read the rest of the article, especially the 2nd page, there are some good quotes about the importance of the DVD burning capabilites of the high-end G4s. this actually is interesting news.
it hasn't really been talked about much, as burning DVDs is not something any of us would be planning on doing (unless we're pirating DVDs). but if you look past the WaReZ kiddies, you'll realize that this is actually an important technology.
from the article: "I'm starting to think this is as important as the LaserWriter was to desktop publishing.... It's revolutionary." while i hardly think it's "revolutionary," it is important.
up until now, mastering DVDs (that can play on consumer-level players) has been prohibitivly expensive. now Apple has made this available to a huge market for a measly $3500. i personally know many people at advertising agencies and training firms that would love to put their material on DVD as opposed to VHS, but have been holding off until the price comes out of the stratosphere.
considering the fact that in the past Apple has had the highest markup on their most expensive machines, i think they're going to rake in a lot of cash from this machine. this is also a great use of the Alitvec engine on the G4, and one of those (few) situations where it really does run considerably faster than a P4. at any rate, it's a good move for Apple.
- j
Let me tell you from experience that the PC market, Apple included, is almost profitless at this point. There are so many reasons not to sell computers, which is why I think that Jobs has to get into reseller's heads that selling Macs is not a losing battle.
Most of the people who sell Macs don't make a lot of money from it, regardless of the markup. People are not willing to pay for PCs with inadequate anything right now, no matter how revolutionary Apple is.
Jobs' presence was made because he wants to assert people that he is trying to do his best to get Apple back into shape. If Apple dies in the process, he wants history to remember that he gave it his best shot, even risking a PR nightmare by using profanity in front of his dealers.
He's a smart guy; those of us who have seen Apple's latest reports know that Apple is in a little bit of trouble. Steve is dealing with a changing world that is not bending to Apple the way it used to because the younger generation doesn't remember the "old" Apple and, frankly, couldn't care less. It's an uphill battle, but, if he can't do it and fails, I don't think anyone could have done it better.
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I'm a confused consumer. Imation better sue Apple...