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Steve Jobs And Jeff Bezos Meet The Segway
deadwood writes "Ever wanted to know what Steve Jobs and Jeff Bezos really thought about the Segway the first time he saw it? At the Harvard Business School site, there's an excerpt from the new book 'Code Name Ginger', giving a recounting of the Apple and Amazon bosses' first impressions of the device. Steve Jobs' gut reaction, quoted in the article: 'I think it sucks!'"
this week i reach 1,000 miles on the segway ht. i really like mine.
the segway ht fits my travel needs pretty well, i don't think it's for everyone-- but it's worked out okay for me. i run, walk, ride a bike, take cars but most of my travel is via a segway...i wrote it up, here's the travel log so far:
http://www.bookofseg.com/100days/
it didn't replace walking, i walk, cycle and jog. the segway replaced my car. i don't think it can do that for everyone, but it did for me.
steve jobs said "i think [the design] sucks. its shape is not innovative, it's not elegant and it doesnâ(TM)t feel anthropomorphic". it's very functional and the desgin (in my opinion) is good for version 1 of a product, i'm looking forward to the new models which are smaller, lighter with greater range.
cheers,
pt
Have a gander at John Allen's analysis of the fall. Somewhat tongue-in-cheek of course.
If I had a bunch of pain-in-the-ass investors who were likely to tear apart my presentation then I would try to keep them as-involved in the process as possible, rather than leaving so much to a single meeting where they can rip you to shreads.
In this situation, potential investors have every right to be critical of a product. After all, it's their money right? Additionally from an academic perspective, this sort of thing is kind of like a thesis defense where it is your committee's job to be critical, ask the hard questions and get you to think about your work and it's applicability. But again, a dissertation defense, like a product into to investors needs to have the presenter maintain control of the meeting.
There is no excuse for bad manners in any setting,
This is true, but I suspect that Jobs had spent more than a little time and effort analyzing this product. Given that he would be a potential investor, he should have some say in how the product is manufactured and distributed. Kamen might have done well to listen to him a little more carefully as the points he raised were valid, especially with people reverse engineering. After all, the rest of the computer industry has been copying Apple Computer for years right?
Additionally, people like Jobs are efficient and can get things done with a modicum of effort through established workflows and relationships. So, when it is obvious that someone else (and a potential business partner no less) is screwing up, it is hard to be patient especially when you can see the shortcomings of the proposal.
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Jobs said the design sucked. Who knows what it looked like back then? He's talking about the shape, the way it looks. I'd say the Segway looks pretty cool right now. Chances are that what Kamen put together out of cardboard boxes was a crude prototype. They probably did get a design firm involved to finalize the shape and appearance of the device. Jobs is right, a good industrial design firm can produce devices that look like works of art.
Partly, explained Tim, because giving our code to someone else would be a great risk. Not a good reason, in Jobs's view, because the code could easily be reverse-engineered. No it couldn't, said Tim. Could, said Jobs.
That was pretty funny to me. Is this a guy who's been bitten by the reverse-engineering phenomenon before, do you think?
And people wonder why Apple gets testy about Aqua themes... I'd be testy to, if I was the victim of one of the biggest UI ripoffs in history. (I'm not sayin' he's right.. I'm just sayin'.)
If Jesus wants me it knows where to find me.
Its interesting to get unfiltered Steveness like this. For those decrying his rudeness... where have you been? He has been like this from the beginning.
The important thing is he was giving them the unvarnished truth. His insightfulness was genuine- he saw directly to the heart of the issues.
The insiders were obviously much too close to things, too sure of themselves. They had insulated themselves for too long- they would have benefitted much more if they had brought outsiders like Jobs and Bezos' much earlier in the process.
His rejection of the pleasantries and Powerpoint crap was the essential "Don't waste my time" of someone who actually values their time. He has two companies to run- he doesn't need to waste time watching somneone click through a stupid time-wasting presentation.
I am not like him at all- much too polite in real life. But he sure as hell makes sure things happen and he makes real products that people will pay premium dollars for. They should have paid even closer attention to what he said than they did.
http://www.woz.org/seg/ - Steve Wozniak, the *brains* behind Apple, seems a lot more Segway enamoured.
i'm surprised by jobs' comments but i shouldn't be. his hardlined stance and staunch trenching of ideas is exactlly why he was fired in the 80s but his reaction toward the segway screams what he's doing at apple. after reading the article, doesn't it suggest that he is more of a force at Apple in pushing the UI, business strategy, product/manufacturing strategy than anyone else? Its clear that Jobs respects designers ("They'll give you stuff that will make you shit in your pants...") and it seems like Jobs hands ideas off to designers to give him something he doesn't know he wants (iMac, iPod UI, translucent plastics).
considering everything that went wrong with the Segway launch (how many people have ACTUALLY seen a ginger in person?) its possible to say that Jobs was partially right. the article talks about the ginger but it screams the way Jobs thinks and approaches a problem. the launch of ginger is interesting but give me a book about Jobs rants from the past 8 years and I'll shell out for that. Not to mention the Pixar vs Disney negotiations... (Disney is going to get ownned)
just ranting...
doesn't it make you wonder about WWDC being Apple's internal code for 'We Will Delight Crowds'?
That's an oversimplification and untrue. Read the article, you'll see that while he had all sorts of things to say about how the marketing, manufacturing, and design procceses should proceed, he never once said anything derogatory about the concept of the Segway itself.
The following was related to me by my co-worker Eric, who was the first American employed at Apple Japan:
Shortly after Eric arrived in Japan in the early 80's, he accompanied Steve Jobs on a visit to Canon. Cannon recently introduced a desktop copier which intrigued Steve Jobs. At the meeting Steve Jobs challenged the Canon execs and engineers to design a smaller laser printer the same way they were able to shrink the size of a copier.
In those days a laser printer was about the size of a washing machine or a large business copy machine. The only laser printers available were floor models only; nothing you could put on a desktop.
One year later Steve Jobs was invited back to Canon in Japan to see the results of his challenge. Eric went with Steve, a female translator who worked for Apple Japan, and a Japanese manager working for Apple. Steve Jobs and Eric were the only Americans there at the meeting, and only the Apple employees spoke English; none of the Canon people did. All communication from Steve Jobs to the Canon people were done via the translator.
When they got to Canon, a roomful of proud, beaming Canon engineers and managers presented Steve Jobs with their 'minaturized' laser printer - no longer the size of an American washing machine, just perhaps the size of a Japanese washing machine. Just the same it was not the desktop model that Steve Jobs envisioned.
When the interpreter relayed the question from the Canon folks asking what he thought of the their new laser printer, she really squirmed when Jobs said "Tell them it is a piece of shit!"
In any case, I think that Jobs' intense questioning proves that he really was engaged with the product; he treated it just as he would anything Apple designed, and insisted that it hold to the same rigorous standards. That his fears turned out to be well-founded suggests that, no matter how his worries were couched (he does seem to have a penchant for incontinence as metaphor, doesn't he?), his call for a solid business plan, a real launch strategy, and the tripartite mantra of "innovation, elegant and anthropomorphism" would have been well-heeded.
"Freedom is kind of a hobby with me, and I have disposable income that I'll spend to find out how to get people more."