This entry was posted on Monday, February 8th, 2010 at 9:22 and is filed under Analysis & Commentary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
Site Search:
Monday, February 8, 2010
Last year Apple stunned, excuse the pun, the Mac world and announced it would no longer attend Macworld Expo or any other trade show event effective after Macworld 2009. Many reasons circulated why Apple would make such an incredible decision with most boiling down to expense. Apple didn’t need trade shows, trade shows needed Apple was the governing thought. While that may be true — Macworld 2010 attendance and vendor participation will reveal that answer — there really is more to the reason for Apple’s ignoring the industry standards of dog and pony shows. Three words: Steve Jobs ego.
It’s no new news to make reference to the iCEOs audacity as folklore is strong when concerning Jobs character. Apple does like to put spin on things no matter what the announcement and when it told the world that it was removing itself from the trade show circuit due to cost and the desire not to be forced for product release dates, it sounded “about right” on the surface. However, one has to scratch their head and wonder why not even a year after that announcement, Apple declared to the world, in a building on the same block Macworld is held, the iPad. Okay, so it must have been the cost thingy, right? Well, maybe, but for a company with tens of billions — ya, billions — of dollars in cash, this argument doesn’t seem that valid, either.
Digging deeper into the iPad launch, one finds many interesting facts. First, the gathering was by invite only. A typical Apple strategy. Second, only well known organizations received these invites. Third, the hands-on demonstration was limited, for example CNET was only allowed to have three of its members take a look at the device to prevent “inner cross-over”. Lastly, the public was visibly forced out and prevented from entry. In the end, Steve Jobs ran the show from start to finish down to who was allowed to sit in the halls of his majesty. Plain and simple, Steve is a control freak and he couldn’t command what IDG did with Macworld Expo. So, he pulled Apple out of it.
There are many examples of Steve’s ego getting in the way of catching a bit closer to Apple-related “stuff” such as when he pulled the less than flattering biography iCon from Apple Stores world wide. The stories are extensive how Apple would fail during Jobs’ day-to-day absence during his liver ordeal of 2008/2009. Since Jobs micro-managed everything, down to what color ties his lieutenants could wear (just kidding on the last one…I think) no one thought Apple had a chance without Jobs running the ship. Really, it does not take much to run the case for Apple leaving Macworld because Jobs doesn’t like how he can’t run the show.
I’m on record for loving Apple and its products and I admit many of the reasons I came back to Apple in 2001 was because of the many great things Jobs brought to Apple. Yet, I am also very vocal about what a pompous jerk Steve Jobs is, as well. From suing blogs due to printing leaked information and talking about how they are “breaking the law”, and yet he forgets about all those free long distance calls he made in the 70s using Woz’s Blue Box as well as “ripping off” Xerox PARCs mouse and GUI for the original Mac, to naming his company similar to the then worlds most popular record label and then telling companies with iPod-like names today to “change your name, it’s simple enough;” it’s tough to accept Jobs as the genius the world wants to paint him.
As long as Jobs has a strong product on stage with him, he’ll continue to ride his high horse with little worry of being jousted off of it. Yes, Jobs can give the pseudo finger to IDG and then show the world the iPad weeks before the revised Apple-less Macworld Expo but remember this, Steve, not all empires last for ever. Rome fell and so well you. How you want to be remembered in history depends how you treat those in the present.
February 8th, 2010 at 12:26
Myself hope Apple will do something around WWDC, for non-developer.
What Apple really do miss with nixing MacWorld, is all small developer around Macintosh, that really need a place to meet customer in real life.
And real life seminars about Mac, iphone, iPad is also needed, from non-Apple people to others.
(i.e not just Apple Stores)
One thins is for sure, I will miss travelling from Sweden to California in January, few tourist at that time, low prices, but most places still open – with very nice people.
February 9th, 2010 at 9:17
Sven, not sure where you are going with this unless self parody is your aim.
You seem to damn Steveo(who after all represents Apple) for control freakery then end paras with ‘Really, it does not take much to run the case for Apple leaving Macworld because Jobs doesn’t like how he can’t run the show.’ which sorta says you give them/him, the nod.
Quite so, trade shows are a relic of the past before the ubiquity of broadband and the Apple stores(where they also control the experience).
Apple’s product release methodology is the sum total of many months/years of a wildly disparate threads(design, software, production, distribution, marketing etc etc) that culminate in a window of opportunity. And that can be very small. And that may or may not coincide with a major trade show. Coincidences do happen you know; I was doing a presentation only last week and in a group of 50+ invited attendees there were 4 with the same birthdate as me and all of them with the same christian name. Murphy’s Law – if it can happen, it will happen.
Also, re Apple ‘…ripping of Xerox PARCs mouse and GUI for the original Mac…’ some research would have shown that Apple actually paid for the technology and employed some of their developers because it was thought to be of no practical use. Your allegation should correctly be levelled at Microsoft who did no such thing whilst using the same technology.
So, ‘how you are remembered’ will have a lot to do with getting the facts straight before going loudly, to print.
February 9th, 2010 at 10:25
Thanks for the comment, @fricfrac. I see your point concerning trade shows and how between the Apple Store and broadband their use may have little importance. However, many developers and manufacturers would disagree with this notion since Macworld, with Apple’s presence, bring in many that may have never heard of the product offerings due to the static of broadband and omission of the many Apple Stores. Time and time again you hear many say, “Mac’s just don’t have that much software” and without a central depository of showcase to discover that software, more weight is added to this statement.
As to the coincidence, sure its possible, but that’s not Jobs MO. Everything has a timetable with Apple, such as notebook releases usually occurring in the spring, iPod updates in the fall, and OS releases in the summer. Heck, everyone has come to except a new iPhone every June due to the three previous models all coming in late June every time.
Lastly, Apple takes credit for the GUI and mouse of the Mac as if it was its engineering. Microsoft has purchased much technology and Mac fanbois are always quick to point out it’s still not Microsofts technology. Just because you buy something doesn’t make it your creation. Prior to that visit to Xerox’s Palo Alto facility, Jobs’ Mac team – rather Lisa team – was struggling. Jef Raskin was on a different tangent and while a brilliant man, he was not headed toward what was finally released, hence one of the reasons he left the project. While I agree Microsoft Windows 1.0 was a blatant rip of the Mac interface, Apple is no more in the right to call it its own than Microsoft can. I would suggest reading Any Hertzfield’s, a key Mac developer, “Revolution in the Valley” which gives a great walk through the PARC-era and how dramatic of an effect it made to the Mac team. This may help with you seeing how I came to my conclusion with a little bit of research.