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NYT on Apple's Digital Way of Life
sinalet writes "The New York Times is running an article on Apple's 'digital way of life'. Most interestingly are some comments about the history of the iPod and its developers. 'Apple says it developed the iPod in just six months, faster than any major product in the company's history. The hand-held device, which contains more computing power than an early Macintosh, was put together starting in 2001 by hardware designers led by Tony Fadell, a young engineer who had worked briefly at RealNetworks, led by Rob Glaser, who has developed the Rhapsody music service.'"
Oh, Yeah, He Also Sells Computers
By JOHN MARKOFF
Published: April 25, 2004
STROLL the corridors and the atriums on Apple Computer's corporate campus these days and you will notice that something is missing. Gone are the posters and graphics accenting the company's sleek personal computers. In their place, in the main lobby, is a striking, three-story-high billboard celebrating Steven P. Jobs's brand-new billion-dollar consumer electronics business - the iPod digital MP3 music player.
In just two and a half years, Mr. Jobs, Apple's chief executive, has managed to take a well-designed hand-held gadget, add software connecting it to Macintoshes and Windows-based personal computers and convince the recording industry that he has found an elegant solution for ending its nightmare of digital piracy. In doing so, he has shifted the emphasis of Apple from what made it famous - hip, even lovable computers - to what he hopes will keep it relevant and profitable in the future: products for a digital way of life.
In fact, the wild success that Mr. Jobs has enjoyed with the iPod may have come in the nick of time. For all the acknowledged design and ease-of-use advantages of the Macintosh, Apple's overall PC business is still growing more slowly than that of its Microsoft- and Intel-based competitors.
Moreover, it was obvious at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January that a horde of consumer goods and computing companies is preparing a fresh assault aimed at bringing computerized gadgets into every nook and cranny of the home. In particular, two powerful Apple rivals, Sony and Microsoft, are betting that Mr. Jobs is wrong when he says, "It's about the music!" This year, both companies plan to release more expensive, hand-held combination video and audio players that their executives hope will blow the iPod away.
So will Apple eventually be overwhelmed by its bigger, better-heeled competitors? Throughout the technology world, there seems to be a simple, uniform answer to that question: Never underestimate Steve Jobs.
With roots both in Silicon Valley's digital culture and the 1960's counterculture, Mr. Jobs has long been an arbiter of what is cool in technology, much like a real-world version of a trend-spotting character from "Pattern Recognition," one of the cyberpunk novels by William Gibson.
AND, helped by his growing prominence in Hollywood through his second company, Pixar Animation Studios, Mr. Jobs has attained a level of influence over how life is lived in the digital age that is unmatched by even his most powerful computer industry rivals. "He is the Henry J. Kaiser or Walt Disney of this era," said Kevin Starr, a culture historian and the California state librarian.
Since returning seven years ago to Apple, the computer maker he helped to establish in 1976, Mr. Jobs has created a fusion of fashion, brand, industrial design and computing. He has opened a chain of 78 retail stores to showcase Apple's consumer-oriented designs and to surround the company's computers with an array of digital consumer products. The stores themselves have become another billion-dollar business, a feat all the more impressive considering that one of Apple's chief competitors, Gateway, failed with a similar retail strategy during the same period.
As a result, Apple is acting less like a computer company and more like brand-brandishing, multinational companies such as Nike and Virgin. The iPod's success is also the clearest indication that Mr. Jobs, if he is to successfully revamp Apple, will ultimately win not by taking on PC rivals directly, but by changing the rules of the game.
The Apple that is starting to emerge may be a harbinger. The company's growth may no longer be defined by its PC market share, now a declining sliver of the PC industry, but instead by Mr. Jobs's ability to create consumer markets.
Mr. Jobs, who says he has a 70 percent share of the market for legal music downloads and a 45 percent share of the MP3 market, see
Glad to know John Markoff still can't write his way out of a paper bag. Some of the research in this article is interesting, but... that's assuming that it's the truth.
There are no trails. There are no trees out here.
Wow, I never realized that Tony Fadell, who worked briefly at RealNetworks, which is led by Rob Glaser, who of course developed the Rhapsody music service, was the one responsible for leading the iPod design team, whom developed the iPod, which has more computing power than an early mac, in just six months, or that you could have this many commas holding a sentence together, for this long, and not think back to yourself, "Perhaps this sentence is a bit long", or something to that effect, so now you can flame away, if you want.
See that "design is really nice" bit? That's the tricky part.
Designing an intuitive, efficient UI is no easy task.
Possibly, or it may be that he doesn't want the chance of something slipping out. If you do a press item on Apple, and can only talk to 3 people, those 3 people are accountable for everything. By contrast if you can talk to anyone, then anyone can be accountable, and you can't plug leaks.
It's not like he hides who does the work. Everyone knows who the designers are, and many times, the keynote presentations are done by the product designers.
T Money
World Domination with a plastic spoon since 1984
Tony Fadell, a young engineer who had worked briefly at RealNetworks, led by Rob Glaser, who has developed the Rhapsody music service
It's a good thing these people's amazingly successful software business principles didn't carry over to hardware.
Designing an intuitive, efficient UI is no easy task.
They bought the software for that UI from Pixo.
Not to say that they didn't do a fast and excellent job.
There are no trails. There are no trees out here.
Designing an intuitive, efficient UI is no easy task.
Agreed, but it isn't really an issue of time. Apple does good design, because they have people who are experienced at doing it. You could spend 2 weeks, or 2 years on a bad UI design, and it would still be bad.
I think they were talking about how it was amazing to just put out such a product in 6 months, and I just don't see what is so amazing about it. How long should it take? 9 months? A year? It is just a music player.
Someone who I trust to be knowledgeable on the subject once told me that the developers of Watson actualy had inside knowledge of what Apple was doing with Sherlock. Whether it was code or concept they knew Apple was doing Sherlock and they wanted to be there first. And the more I think about it, the more it makes sense. I mean think about it. Why the hell would they name it watson? It's a search program, search -> detective, when people say detective, I doubt they think of watson before Sherlock. So why Watson? If you thought your product was first of it's kind, and original, and didn't know another company was producing and releasing a similar program called Sherlock, why would you use Watson? It makes no sense.
Also, Steve is very keen on privacy about what's going on inside of 1 Infinite Loop. He wants info released when *he* wants it released. Before then and someone's getting their heads chopped off. (Yes, both of them)
A while back, days before they boosted the old G4 line, there was a leak on their web site with the new specs and prices - basically, the wrong image was put up. Rumour has it, he flipped his lid about that one...
If you reply, do so only to what I explicitly wrote. If I didn't write it, don't assume or infer it.
They bought the software for that UI from Pixo.
Not to say that they didn't do a fast and excellent job.
Ah, but software is only half of the answer, grasshopper.
Now go -
ponder the Thumbwheel,
and the Infinitely Reduced Number of Buttons.
Meditate on the Zen of No Moving Parts.
Dwell on the mystical FireWire Integration.
And do not ignore the Inviting Symmetry of the Thing.
(I leave it to someone else to set up a crack about the battery)
If Jesus wants me it knows where to find me.
The first gen DID have moving parts. Well, "part".
The scroll wheel!
The success of the iPod doesn't seem to have significantly changed Apple's market share," said T. Michael Nevens, a director at both Borland Software and Broadvision and the former director of McKinsey & Company's technology consulting practice. And Mr. Nevens said that there was "no support for the theory" that the new digital appliances would bolster computer sales.
T. Michael Nevens is completely missing the point, I think.
I am reminded of an earlier interview with Jobs - I don't have the link, I believe it was maybe a Time article around the launch of the flatpanel iMac - and the interviewer kicked off the story with a description of his arrival. He came into the room that Jobs was in, sitting on the floor yoga-style, with a powerbook, and he was going through fonts. He sat there for 10 minutes looking at these various fonts, not speaking to the reporter. Then he looked up and said something like, 'Aren't these just beautiful? I love the fonts we licensed for OS X.'
This is a funny insight into Steve Jobs. I think he's just really bent on the idea of these seamless computers. When you really think about it, that real plug-and-play sort of mentality has always dominated the Mac experience. I think Jobs, Zen Weirdo that he is, fucking hates the whole Windows scene because to him it is just really really tacky. Too many options that are crap, none of it consistent, none of it forming something totally coherent from top to bottom.
So when T. Michael Nevens, or Random Slashdot Angrybot, says something about iPods not selling more Macs or affecting Mac sales, or not inreasing market share which clearly they have, just not appreciably in Macs, they are missing the context. Jobs' whole Seamless Vision Thing flows down from his input into the designs. The reason that iPods talk to iTunes so well, which talks to iPhoto and iDVD and all the other iCrap is because he just insists that it should work that way.
Then Rob Glasner talks about opening the iPod up to Rhapsody users, of course Jobs balks because he already has made the concession to market forces in selling the iPod for Windows at all. That is his mea culpa for keeping the original Macintosh project clamped down.
If Jobs had his way all of these little projects would make money - but if some of them have to act as bridges, or enabling mechanisms - the physical stores, the iTMS - then they will do so. The fact that all of the software and hardware work perfectly together is just the way Jobs wants it to work.
If Jesus wants me it knows where to find me.
I believe there are twelve step programs for peple like you.
"one treats others with courtesy not because they are gentlemen or gentlewomen, but because you are" --G. Henrichs
I have a Canon digital camcorder, a Fuji digital camera, an Apple iPod (mini). I don't care about making music so garage band isn't for me but if I did it would be a non-Apple keyboard.
My point? Where is Apple going with this digital hub thing? They make great software (that they give me) for all these other pieces of equipment, so where the heck is Apple going?
a couple thgoughts:
The PDA/Phone - Jobs said he isn't interested in a PDA and they are way behind on cell phone tech (not to mention, everyone has one or three) but there are few good options for BOTH and if Apple could do for the PDA-Phone what they did for the digital music player, it would really shake up the market. So the chipset is Mororola or whatever, as long as the interface is from Apple they would control the experience.
The Digital A/V Player - I don't know about you but I don't own a DVR yet because I want a device that will manage music, broadcast / captured broadcast video, and prerecorded media (CD/DVD). Another area where Apple could use iPod lessons learned and make something to build into TVs and stereo systems. It is high time HDTV's started coming with Eithernet and Airport Extreme!
I only came here to do two things; kick some ass, and drink some beer...looks like we're almost out of beer.
I think they added the Power Over Ethernet for school/colleges where there may not be a power socket in every classroom. But you could be right.
This story is much more intriguing than that. Bushnell assigned Steve Jobs to design the circuitry for Breakout, but it was too difficult for Jobs. He asked his friend (and Apple co-founder) Steve Wozniak to help, and promised to split the payment from Bushnell. Wozniak did it in four days and was paid $350. But it turned out that Bushnell actually paid $5,000 for Breakout -- Jobs pocketed the remaining $4,650.
Ironically, Wozniak's design was so complex that no one at Atari could figure out how it worked. They had to redesign the entire game so it could be tested.
They bought the software for that UI from Pixo.
Nope. The UI is Apple's. Pixo sells an OS for embedded devices.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
Always glad to hear when I'm full of crap.
There are no trails. There are no trees out here.
Open one up and look at the quality inside. Even the parts no one is ever supposed to see are superbly designed. It's the attention to detail that makes the 6 month turnaround so cool.
And the 3rd generation iPods are even better. I can only imagine what's next. Bring it on.
The four buttons (menu, play/pause, forward, back) were also moving parts.
And if you want to get really nit-picky, the lock switch at the top is moving, bringing the total to 6 moving parts.
While this comment is interesting, it is spoken like like a true geek. In the rest of the world--it is common practice to keep the R&D efforts of a company under wraps. Generally companies want to ensure that their competition is not able to get a leg up by taking shortcuts and getting to the market first. This behavior is not unusual. I am not arguing that Jobs' ego is not enormously huge, just that the point you attempt to make is invalid. Let me put it on another level for you. Example: you write some incredible code that is going to bring peace and harmony to the world, but you want to make sure that it is actually going to do as it says. Then a friend of yours decides that this information is too cool and can't wait--so they tell the world what you have done. Now the pressure is on and you are trying to push your code out the door without being able to certify the reliability. It sure sucks for you that your friend released the information before you were ready, doesn't it. But then again it is because you have a huge ego, that is why you wanted to tell the world about it. As the CEO, Jobs is responsible for the successful coordination of efforts. He takes the pressure, and he takes the credit. He has not publicly humiliated any of his engineers (that I know of). Well, let the flames begin, but please try to consider the point. I repeat that I am not arguing that Jobs' ego is not enormously huge, just that the point you attempt to make is weakly supported and appears invalid.
Well, if we're gonna "go there" then I'd definately include the harddrive. It's not like iPods are solid-state.
It is true if they need a selection! Do you think there is nearly enough selection in the indie market? What happens when people want to buy the great majority of popular music? Duh.
They're not going to abandon the computer market simply because the computer is the center of the digital hub.
T Money
World Domination with a plastic spoon since 1984