Very interesting interview of Steve Jobs

elektro80

http://news.independent.co.uk/business/news_analysis/story.jsp?story=445686

This interview offers a few extra angles on the Apple product strategy.

seraph · Posted: Wed Sep 24, 2003 2:02 pm Post subject:

well... Steve Jobs is great
Nothing to say. I know that being a happy customer of his computers:
from a UMAX Mac compatible, to a G3 and now a G4

seraph · Posted: Wed Sep 24, 2003 2:11 pm Post subject:

the fact that the vast majority of the computer market is infected by a virus called WINDOWS reminds me that someone once said:
the minority can be wrong but the majority is never right Very Happy

elektro80 · Posted: Wed Sep 24, 2003 2:19 pm Post subject:

Well yes..

But they do mistakes too. The latest 10.2.8 update was pulled. Anyway.. that is far more decent than issuing a patch for the patch that patches the other patches etc. I admin a huge number of boxes and I will say that from a network admin point of view Apple really does provide good stuff. I do have some views on particular issues, but those are really not about Apple.. but about the state of components that vendors are forced to use. We need a lot better harddisks. They are huge.. many are fast.. now we need the silly things to have a decent life expectancy. The way harddisk tech is like right now is like if our shoes had been soaked in nitro. Sigh..

On the other hand, Jobs makes a few interesting strategy points in this interview and yes.. vision is the main thing about doing business.

elektro80 · Posted: Wed Sep 24, 2003 2:33 pm Post subject:

I am not that opposed to Windows myself. WIN2K pro works just fine. I am less happy with XP. Hey.. we have had the network location feature for like years.. ten years?? more?? On XP you have no real way to make network location presets.. XP does have a few options yes.. but these present insane limitation.. This can be fixed using third party software.. but on the mac this works .. and great..

I guess a lot of seasoned mac users still look at Windows as a bad joke. Hmm.. well.. What it is .. is really a low budget OS with some nifty features. It does work.. kinda OK most of the time too.. and most people are satisfied with the Windows OS family.

mosc · Posted: Wed Sep 24, 2003 2:45 pm Post subject:

Can't help but jump in here. At the Modular 2003 conference in London it was made apparent to me that in Europe, Apple is much less popular than in the US. This amazed me because I used to think it was the other way around. The reason given was cost. Folks at the conference from Cycling '784, MAX/MSP, said that by offering their products on Windows, a much bigger market opens up, at least potentially.

I think Apple should sell its OS at competitive prices for Intel hardware. This will develop into a huge market for them. If it would hurt their hardware business is would be to increasing software revenue. MacOS on Intel hardware will diminish the impact of the inevitable forthcoming Linux encroachment onto the desktop. At the Modular 2003 conference there was considerable information on audio and music tools for Linux systems. Linux is looking more and more capable in non-server applications.

elektro80 · Posted: Wed Sep 24, 2003 2:58 pm Post subject:

Good point. And there is always a market for inexpensive gear. Apple is not going after that one.. and that might be a wise choice. If you are not a market leader with a mix of essential products.. competing in that market segment is usually unhealthy. But these are good points you made Howard.

Weird thing is that if Apple decides to get its act together they could go enterprise computing.. a field Microsoft has never had a go at ever.

Linux is nice, but right now I prefer the BSD underpinnings of OS X and the Apple hardware rocks. This is not really just a matter of CPUs, but also serviceability and overall design ( I am not talking about the nice cabinets here.. I spend most of my time inside the boxes anyway.. )

I will make an issue out of the fact that I am not putting Windows and PCs down. They are quite OK and well..the main thing is having tools that get the job done. The reason why I posted this item was that the interview provides some unsight when it comes to Apple´s strategy.

elektro80 · Posted: Wed Sep 24, 2003 3:17 pm Post subject:

Hmm.. one more try.. I was like trying to suggest a discussion of the importance of strategy and marketing etc. and not a mac vs. pc debate.

Apple is a good example that it is possibly to be a high profile enterprise and earn money.. wih a healthy profit.. and still be a small player in the field of computing.

Hopefully we could turn this into a discussion of how to promote what we do.. I do know one thing.. I am not doing computing..I am doing music Very Happy

seraph · Posted: Wed Sep 24, 2003 4:00 pm Post subject:

elektro80 · Posted: Wed Sep 24, 2003 4:04 pm Post subject:

Well.. I know.. comes as a shock doesn´t it? Cool

seraph · Posted: Thu Sep 25, 2003 9:11 am Post subject:

Beginning in the Fall 2003 semester, Berklee College of Music will require all entering students to own an Apple Macintosh laptop computer that meets certain minimum standards established by the college.
http://www.berklee.edu/computers/default.html

My Alma Mater has always been a Macintosh stronghold Very Happy

elektro80 · Posted: Thu Sep 25, 2003 9:15 am Post subject:

Well... hmm.. any possibility for Steve Jobs having visited the place and have had some talks with the administration?

seraph · Posted: Thu Sep 25, 2003 9:51 am Post subject:

15 years ago, when I was there, every workstation in the Music Synthesis Department had a Mac Plus. Do you remember them?
David Mash, Berklee Vice President of Information Technology, has always been a Mac user.
Visit his site www.mashine.com
He is an Apple Master Very Happy

elektro80 · Posted: Thu Sep 25, 2003 10:29 am Post subject:

Well.. yes.. I still have some FXII , some SE models.., a few Plus, and a full range of the various powermac models.. All the very old models are sold off years ago. I regret that noe. Hmm.. and I miss that Portable ( the suitcase from hell ) - that one was cute. Hmm.. I even have the FIRST external Apple CDROM drive.. hehe.. I even have that huge huge Philips CDR burner.. the first pro Philips CDR model.. cost approximately the same back then that the G5 dual cpu 2gig box does now.. and then some. Sigh...

seraph · Posted: Thu Sep 25, 2003 1:26 pm Post subject:

I too had an external Apple CDROM SCSI drive (the one with the CD caddy, I think it was called this way). I used it with my Akai S1100 sampler. It was a 2x!