Tag Archives: Apple

Could Be Cool

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Mini stores from Apple to be rolled out in Target stores across the nation. Click here to read all about it.

Target likes to focus on cool design and Apple is the coolest of the coolest.

Feels like a good fit with synergy.

But outsourcing display and marketing could be problematic for Apple. Losing control of the atmospherics and the communications of what is so special about Apple could help to marginalize the Apple brand.

Apple excels at managing its brand. This one will bear watching to see how the partnership works and whether it expands the served market for both partners.

Importance of Failure

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Failure is good.

Failure builds character. You learn from mistakes.

Second acts taste good.

Here is an article from Time – about failure from Ideas Week.

I am a little misquoted – probably my bad. I spoke about Apple and Steve Jobs – and how they failed with Lisa and with Newton; their first mobile device; failure drove them to next generation great success. See this one; Enjoy.

Closed is the New Open

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For a long time saying an eco system and platform was closed was bad.

It was sneered at as a “walled garden” and a “church.”

The world it was said wanted a “bazaar.” Open. Free. Bedlam. “Let a thousand flowers bloom.”

AOL back in the day was cursed for being “A Walled Garden.” I understand why.

I remember ads that ran on television by clients that said for more information go to AOL Keyword “company name” or www.companyname.com.

That was laughable. Every company demanded to brand its url. AOL was in the way.

Read this article about Apple and Steve Jobs by Esther Dyson. Closed. Why? Because Steve was the best?

I think Facebook is closed as well. Not open. I smile when I see clients running ads now that say “See us on Facebook.” And they don’t publish an url for their website.

The most valuable company in the world and the next great company and business. Closed.

Maybe conventional wisdom about closed vs. open isn’t correct?

Maybe value is driven by curation and uniformity and care?

Maybe closed is the new open?

Passing of Time

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The passing of Steve Jobs is a deeply personal moment for so many people and for me.

He was only 56 years old. Life is short. His commencement speech at Stanford dwelled on this issue. You should watch it sometime – it was true genius.

I first met Steve Jobs in 1979. More than half my life ago!

Pretty much all of my professional life had Steve Jobs in the cloud; he and Apple were always there.

I love his products. I love his company.

He will be missed.

Watch this film. See what he created.

I am very sad today.

Steve Jobs was a giant.

His passing feels like a gigantic wake up call for so many people.

As Apple bumper stickers once proclaimed – ” The journey is the reward”.

RIP Steve Jobs.

Founder Led Companies

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I agree with the premise of this article very much.

Founder led companies do better than “professionally managed” companies.

As I have noted as an investor and as a part of senior executive teams, great break out companies need the strong point of view and strength of will and an innate sense of what to do authentically that usually only founders can provide. Founders almost always have the best interest of the company and its customers in mind.

Great founder – great company – great value.

Love the founders; keep them in place and build the teams around them!

30 Plus Years of Steve Jobs

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We mark time as we age – milestones are everywhere around us. Steve Jobs leaving Apple Computer as CEO is one of them!

I first met Steve Jobs at a West Coast Computer Fair in 1979. I worked at Wang Laboratories; I bought my first Apple II computer there. We talked about small computers and televisions; and how one day you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.

I then had a chance to speak with him and with Bill Gates at a Roger Von Oech ” Whack on the side of the head” conference in 1981. We were all on a panel together about PC’s and “users”.

I then had the chance to work closely with Apple and him in 1983 as I created the Macintosh Buyers Guide and I had the chance to work on the launch of the Mac. I had one of the first 100 Mac’s ever made. We launched in 1984 and worked closely together til 1993!

Steve was obsessed with type face kerning; and thread count and clay content in the paper we were using; and the 7 color spot varnish of the Apple logo. He really was a stickler for quality. He had a beautiful piano and a motorcycle outside his office to inspire people on design – way back in the day. Whenever we would meet on the magazine he would be gruff – and inspiring and pushy – and say things like “make it insanely great!”

Many of us I guess that you could call early pioneers had a wonderful dinner together at the first MacWorld Conference in San Francisco. Steve was a rock god and it was an honor to be in his presence.

When I was at AOL I would get the opportunity to meet and talk with him too. About the coming online world and how AOL and Apple would work together on Apple Link and on other matters.

When Steve left Apple I met with him at NEXT to see if there were things for us to do together.

Steve then returned to Apple; THIS is the GREATEST SECOND ACT in the American drama!

No one has had more impact on people and technology than Steve Jobs in my lifetime.

He single handedly changed computing; music; television; design and rebuilt Apple into the world’s most valuable company and brand.

I am a loyal Mac user, an iPod lover, a iPhone user; I have 12 iPads built into my home to control everything; we use Apple TV as a family. We use iTunes. Like oxygen, they and he are a part of our lives.

Bill Gates is retired from Microsoft.

Steve Jobs is retired from Apple.

Time passes; things change. We all age.

This is a sad and emotional day at Apple as a company.

It is a true milestone day in industry.

Words cannot possibly express what Steve has meant to our generation.