Steve Jobs And Jeff Bezos Meet The Segway 535
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 comment is copyrighted, but nice try, bezos (Score:5, Funny)
Mike
Re:this comment is copyrighted, but nice try, JOBS (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:this comment is copyrighted, but nice try, JOBS (Score:5, Funny)
Re:this comment is copyrighted, but nice try, JOBS (Score:5, Informative)
Steve Jobs heard about the work going on at PARC and offered 100 000 Apple shares in exchange for a demonstration of their work. Some of the PARC people (notably Adele Goldberg) were very unhappy to show Apple what they were doing, but Xerox said 'do it.'
They did it.
Jobs saw the Smalltalk environment, the mouse, pop-up windows, pull-down menus and the rest. So yes, he saw the inspiration for Macintosh windowing, but the Mac interface and the Xerox interfaces are different beasts entirely.
Oh and Xerox did very nicely out of those shares.
Best wishes,
Mike.
Re:this comment is copyrighted, but nice try, JOBS (Score:3, Interesting)
Squeak [squeak.org] is a modern Smalltalk-like environment created by a research team at Apple. Disney took up the mantle when Apple decided they didn't want to develop it further. And now the project is on its own. But it's an interesting footnote to the relation of Apple and Smalltalk that not many people know about.
Hey... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Hey... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Hey... (Score:5, Funny)
Hey, is sluggy ob around here or not?
Bezos isn't the only one (Score:5, Funny)
(I agree with Jobs, btw.)
Re:Bezos isn't the only one (Score:5, Interesting)
Obvious reason for the fall... (Score:5, Funny)
His daughter pushed him.
Bush and Jobs? (Score:5, Funny)
That BETTER get a +5 Funny.
Jobs is a good businessman (Score:5, Insightful)
<rant>
But man can he act like an arrogant prick!
I love the products his company makes, and I respect his opinions, but the man needs some serious lessons in humility and respect for others. Servant leadership, lead by serving and showing others, not just by blasting them for being wrong.
</rant>
Okay then.
Re:Jobs is a good businessman (Score:3, Insightful)
Think he might have ended up making something of himself if he had? I wouldn't want to be on the recieving end of his contempt, but I can't imagine that Apple would be the company it is today if Jobs wasn't Jobs.
Re:Jobs is a good businessman (Score:5, Insightful)
I doubt the Jobs of today is the same Jobs that started Apple. I don't see him sitting in front of his investors from way back when, saying: "I am not built that way, I can't sit through a presentation for 10 minutes. If you want me to leave, I'll leave". Most people are, and Jobs was in his early career as well, in a position where acting like a conceited git will get you nowhere. I admire Jobs for what he has created, but he had no call treating the others at that meeting to such a sideshow, just because he can.
Re:Jobs is a good businessman (Score:4, Funny)
While I respect his business acumen and ability to get his way, I don't think I'd be able to handle him as a friend, or even a business associate.
What I sincerely hope is that his management style doesn't get mirrored by too many people. There are many ways to skin a cat, but I think Steve Jobs would be one of the few people who could make a cat feel so small that its skin just fell off.
Re:Jobs is a good businessman (Score:5, Insightful)
I think he can be an arrogant prick, but I actually agree with pretty much everything he said in the exerpt.
Look at the questions: Why does the design does not excite in any revolutionary way? Why are you building your own factory? These are issues that plague the Segway today. Also his suggestion for Stanford was a good one, it would have possibly forestalled some of the knee-jerk reaction seen in places like San Francisco.
Also, comments like the grocery store example were pretty insightful. That is exactly the kidn of thing that the Segway was supposed to help with.
There is a difference between 'servant leadership' as you put it, and demanding excellence and accountability from people. I've dealt with people like Jobs before - maybe not to his extent - but they only want people to be on the ball. Frankly I kind of admire that quality a bit; too many people are afraid to just confront and ask when necessary.
Arrogant Pricks in Successful Businesses (Score:5, Insightful)
1. He is a very quick study and he came in prepared. It was a bit strange that he had notes written on his hand but he knew what he wanted to say.
2. He had an agenda. He clearly didn't like the design and had issues with the lack of an introduction plan and the idea to manufacture on their own.
3. He's been around the block and part of his questions and statements are really tests to see how well everybody is prepared. I'm sure if anybody knows how quickly something could be copied, it would be Jobs.
4. It's interesting to me to hear that people think that he is an arrogant prick - I guess I've worked with a lot of them over the years.
From my experience with this type of executive (as well as my own experiences over the years), what I walked away from this article is that Kamen and the company that he produced aren't in the league they need to be for the product to be a success. They clearly weren't prepared for businessmen of the calibre Bezos and Jobs.
This article probably explains to me why the Segway hasn't been a great success - instead of Kamen, who's a great product idea man, they needed some kind of arrogant prick like Jobs to control the project.
myke
Jobs was doing them a favor (Score:5, Insightful)
The account made the Segway people sound like amateurs who suddenly found themselves playing in the major leagues. Jobs was doing them a favor by playing the role of a grizzled old coach and being very blunt in trying to talk them out of doing some stupid things.
I wish I could get Steve Jobs to stay up all night thinking about my new product! They should've listened more to what he had to say.
Re:Jobs was doing them a favor (Score:4, Interesting)
Let me tell you a little story of something that happened to me when I was doing level 2 support at Tivoli. I am fairly certain that it could not possibly be covered by any NDA because I forget all the pertinent technical details :) I shared an office with two coworkers and one of them was telling the customer something on the phone that wasn't true. I asked her to put them on hold and discuss that with me for a moment, and then she like waved me off. Now keep in mind I'm 19 or 20 at this time, and she's well old enough to be my mother, so I think you can see the clash of attitudes here. Anyway she proceeded to tell them this incorrect information and when she hung up I explained to her exactly why (technically) what she was telling them was wrong. This is from information I got from a developers' meeting, mind you. Straight from the you know whose you know what.
Okay so this lady gets all pissed off and storms out to go piss and moan to our manager. So during our next meeting the boss just slammed her and praised me for going to these meetings and for trying to tell her the actual answer, hooray. This story has a fairly happy ending. But the point is that if I had been nicer about it, I probably could have told her in a way that would not have pissed her off so bad. While I came out ahead because I had been dotting and crossing, and didn't cuss her out or anything, I should have understood then (as I do now) that she would be predisposed to ignore my advice. Similarly, if Jobs wants to change the world, he has to be a little more gentle on occasion.
Re:Jobs is a good businessman (Score:5, Insightful)
Dude, it's Apple's "insistant prick" features that have made such good:
"We're going all GUI."
"We're going PowerPC."
"No clones."
"We're making colorful PCs."
"If you want to add a peripheral, you're going to have to plug it in. No opening the case!"
"Now we're making ONE color of PCs. And we're making it damn pretty."
"People can rip CDs. They can burn their own."
"No new development for OS 9."
"$.99 per song."
Apple alone has the courage to combine market research with the newest technology and announce with pride that their way is the best way. And they're right a lot more than they're wrong. If Jobs was a wishy washy guy, Apple would just be Micron, or worse, IBM.
No Right-mouse button (Score:3, Insightful)
"Users can use the funky squiggly key if they want an alternate method."
Re:Jobs is a good businessman (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Jobs is a good businessman (Score:5, Insightful)
I think it's quite telling despite having 3.5% of the market, Apple has billions in the bank and amazing pull in the industry.
Apple doesn't NEED to sell a lot of machines as long as they sellquality ones at a decent margin. There will always be a demand for it. The only time you need to sell a lot of machines is when you're in cutthroat competetion, like Dell/Micron/Gateway/HPCOMPAQ. That 3.5% market share doesn't look so small when you make 3x as much per machine -- and you don't even sell a PC under ~$800.
Re:BMW a shitty company? (Score:5, Insightful)
And your conceit fails to account for the fact that the auto world DOES exactly what you said it does. The Ford F-150 is twice the price and slower than the Focus ZX. "But you can't compare the two...they're used for different things!" Aha. Now you're getting it, my little troll.
Market-share vs. Installed-Base (Score:5, Informative)
You can't visit a popular technology-oriented discussion board these days without hearing the oft-misconceived phrase, "Apple has 5% of the market and Windows has 95%.
There are two things wrong with this statement, the first being that if Apple has five, Windows must have 95. We as users of alternative operating systems know this not to be the case. Of course, a considerable number of desktop PCs do not bear the Windows logo.
The second problem is the implication that "market-share" can be used interchangeably with "installed-base." When most people use the word "market-share", what they really mean is "installed-base."
For example, while Apple's Macintosh market-share may be 3 percent, its installed-base is approximately 10 to 12 percent of the computing industry, a figure that's roughly similar to that of Linux based PCs.
When these figures are coupled with the remaining alternative operating systems on the market, Windows installed-base works out to be somewhere in the way of 80 percent -- a far cry from the 95 figure that is often touted.
So how does market-share play into the picture you ask?
Market-share is determined by quarterly or annual sales figures. The problem with market-share statistics is that it implies that all computers retain the same level of usability over time. It assumes that once a computer is sold, it will retain its productivity status for as long as its parts continue to function.
Unfortunately, usability statistics and replacement purchasing habits of consumers vary significantly between platforms thus causing the market-share figure to look skewed.
Linux users (for example) are known to keep aging computer hardware useful long after it was left for dead by its former Windows using owner. The open source community consistently manages to squeeze every last ounce of processing power from even the most aged hardware available.
Similarly, Mac users are known to keep their computers as primary productivity tools until the gears fall off. This is really a testament to the quality that Apple incorporated into its hardware and software over the years.
Unfortunately, the incorporation of quality into these platform's coding efforts will only fuel the notion that they are far less popular as what they are as long as market-share is the most commonly used gauge to determine platform popularity.
Because the Linux operating system's distribution model isn't tied directly to sales, it will never get a truly accurate gauge as long as market-share is touted over installed-base.
Apple on the other hand, may be in a better situation for the foreseeable future.
As we all know, the troubled economy has caused desktop PC purchases to fall to an all time low. This fact may actually work to Apple's advantage.
Everything Apple has been working toward pivots on the release of OS X running on next generation hardware.
Apple is scheduled to release next generation professional hardware in the coming weeks. The release of this hardware, when coupled with Apple's Panther operating system starts the completion of Steve Jobs' rebuilding of Apple.
It's this combination, which the computer using populace has been waiting for, many of which have said that they've been holding back their computer purchases for Apple to get the time table right.
This sudden sales windfall will occur in parallel with the PC industry's slow sales rate, which means that as long as the semi-misleading market-share statistic continues to be touted; Apple's percentage will likely jump from its current 3 percent status to double-digit growth, (somewhere in the 12 percent range) in as few as 6-9 months.
Remember, marketshare for any given company is calculated in relation to the sales of its competators. This will cause Apple's market share to make an even larger spike considering the fact that each individual PC manufacturer's sales wont be there to counter Apple's.
Of course, if the technology spinmeisters try to turn the table and tout installed-base (as they should have all along), Apple's current 12 percent status is covered there too.
Squeezing out the last drop (Score:3, Interesting)
Linux users (for example) are known to keep aging computer hardware useful long after it was left for dead by its former Windows using owner. The open source community consistently manages to squeeze every last ounce of processing power from even the most aged hardware available.
The fastest machines in my house are two PII-400 boxen being used as primary workstation and server running RH9. They do everything I want them to do. And BTW, they were given to me for free. The other server is a P233 on
Re:Jobs is a good businessman (Score:5, Funny)
I respect his opinions, but the man needs some serious lessons in humility and respect for others.
Strangely, this is exactly the way I feel about RMS [stallman.org]. What is it about technology and arrogant pricks?
Re:Jobs is a good businessman (Score:5, Insightful)
That aside, I'm glad to see that he was critical in the way he was. Initial accounts put him as saying "cities will be built around this device." Don't know where they got that quote. It seems diametrically opposed to his criticisms.
Anyone know where that "cities will be built" quote came from?
Re:Jobs is a good businessman (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Jobs is a good businessman (Score:3, Interesting)
He's better than he used to be. 'Infinite Loop: How the World's Most Insanely Great Computer Company Went Insane' by Michael S. Malone has many of his famous diatribes against pretty much anyone he met.
Great book BTW, it shows that Apple is a company that couldn't live with Steve Jobs, but certainly couldn't live without him.
A fascinating person (I'm sure psychology students in the future will have him as a case example), without his drive, Woz would never h
Innovative, elegant, anthropomorphic, (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Steve Jobs story (Score:3, Funny)
As the story goes, one day he returns to his car to find a note on it: Park Different
This story may not be true, but if it isn't, it SHOULD be.
Re:Jobs is a good businessman (Score:2)
My fiancee tends to complain about that nuance of myself as well....but that's another story.
I see nothing wrong with speaking up and standing up to someone when they are dead wrong, and perhaps a written article doesn't sufficiently express the mood of the meeting as it were. His points were all valid, absolutely. I could also insert a PCI card using a sledge hammer. I wouldn't do so. Some of the n00bs at Best Buy or CompUSA may tr
this week i reach 1,000 miles on the segway ht (Score:5, Interesting)
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/ [bookofseg.com]
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
Re:this week i reach 1,000 miles on the segway ht (Score:3, Funny)
Re:this week i reach 1,000 miles on the segway ht (Score:5, Funny)
PROPAGANDA!!! DO NOT BELIEVE PARENT (Score:4, Funny)
How much do they pay you? Please tell me they pay you.
Re: the only one dumb enough to post (that's me) (Score:5, Informative)
it does seem i'm the only person who has a segway that reads slashot and is willing to post (and get all sorts of nasty comments and insults). have at it.
Re: the only one dumb enough to post (that's me) (Score:4, Funny)
--
mcp.kaaos
Re:Dude... (Score:2)
Re:this week i reach 1,000 miles on the segway ht (Score:5, Insightful)
Why is everyone jumping on this guy? Wierdly compelled? In that case, stop incessantly advertising [Linux|Macs|Windows|Whatever], since you obviously have an ulterior motive.
He's entitled to his opinion and this is called word-of-mouth advertising. Guess what IT'S EVERYWHERE, but just because he's one out of maybe 10 people on here who owns one, he's a corporate lackey? WTF. I don't own one, don't want one, but I don't care if he posts suggesting people try it. Maybe, someday, I'll see one & get to try it out. If I think it's cool enough, I'll be a dork and tell everyone to get one too.
Re:Incase you didn't know... (Score:3, Funny)
you can email me, call me, look at my personal journal of technology or my segway owner journal. i put it all out there to share with folks good and bad, have at it. insult me, poke me, it's all fine. i write books about mobile devices and rich media, i work for the company that did bmwfilms, i live in seattle, wa. i use a segway but do not work for them in any way or get paid to do anything involving the segway, never have. i love reading slashdot, it's been my home page for years, i subscribe to su
... So? (Score:3, Insightful)
They think something about an object, great for them. What's next? Uproar in the slashdot community because Steve Jobs farted? This is supposed to be a new site (or at least that's what I keep telling myself), not some sort of weird online tabloid for the geek culture.
Re:... So? (Score:5, Funny)
You're new here, aren't you?
Jobs sez - Just like a Windows PC (Score:5, Funny)
"This is just like a Windows PC. It moves rather slowly, and at any moment you might get dumped off"
Re:Jobs sez - Just like a Windows PC (Score:5, Funny)
Congratulations!
You are the winner of the "First Post about Microsoft/Windows in a story that has nothing to do with it" award for this thread!
Amazingly, you managed to make a joke about Windows crashing, which is of course, really, really funny! In fact, it's so funny, you have been awarded with several funny moderations! Just to let you know how funny and original you really are!
Please, enjoy your prize and fame you will have earned as a result of your really funny Windows joke!
PITA investors (Score:2, Interesting)
Having had a number of investor meetings in my time, the PITA investor is rarely achieves anything useful other than making you feel like shit, and giving themselves an ego boost.
There is no excuse for bad manners in any setting, and in that context I would have p
Re:PITA investors (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Re:PITA investors (Score:2)
Hmmm maybe they're looking to buy them out? (Score:2)
Segway is more advanced than we thought! (Score:5, Funny)
I'm impressed. I didn't realize the thing was both sentient, and self-loathing.
Re:Segway is more advanced than we thought! (Score:4, Funny)
Kindof like... (Score:5, Funny)
Wonder what "Dubya" thinks... (Score:2, Funny)
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/03
I hear those things are a bitch to ride.
Re:Wonder what "Dubya" thinks... (Score:5, Insightful)
the segway without being powered on it much like standing on a log with platform stuck to it. the prez needed to step off of it. we've all fallen off bikes, tripped, etc...usually we don't have people taking our pictures.
Re:Wonder what "Dubya" thinks... (Score:2)
Re:Wonder what "Dubya" thinks... (Score:5, Informative)
However, if you wait too long, it'll shut off, and when you step up, it won't turn on and you fall on your face. That's almost certainly what happened. (It's happened to me)
So far everyone is jumping on the bandwagon.... (Score:5, Insightful)
Maybe its not the greatest thing ever (I don't know, never seen one in person), but for a brand new product that is not a ripoff I think its doing pretty well. How great was MacOs 1.0 compared to OSX? Not very good at all, but its a starting point, the initial idea is out there, and basically it works. Now its time to expand and make it better.
Everyone is always ranting on here about how nothing is innovative anymore, and that all of these laws stifle innovation, and when something that is actually innovative finally comes out, here come the naysayers. I guess I should expect this from
Re:So far everyone is jumping on the bandwagon.... (Score:5, Insightful)
You're missing the context. System/Finder 1.0 was great for it's time. Sure, yank it out of context and compare to something now and it will suffer, but compare it back to other things that were available in 1984/5 and it was revolutionary. The question is can the Segway be thought of in the same context? People could immediately see the usefulness in the innovations of the first Mac, can the same be said for Segway?
Jobs said the DESIGN sucks (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Jobs said the DESIGN sucks (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Jobs said the DESIGN sucks (Score:5, Interesting)
Wrong product. (Score:2)
The reason why Steve Jobs doesn't like it (Score:5, Funny)
It's all about looks, people.
Slashdot anomaly? (Score:5, Funny)
From the front page:
Steve Jobs' gut reaction, quoted in the article: 'It think it sucks!'"
From the article page:
Steve Jobs' gut reaction, quoted in the article: 'I think it sucks!'"
Is someone really manually retyping these twice?
I hope, if so, that Slashdot has at least employed a Cadre of Elite Geese to do this... Oh yea it says right here that they have.
Re:Slashdot anomaly? (Score:2)
Re:Slashdot anomaly? (Score:3, Funny)
Steve Jobs is right. (Score:2, Insightful)
And in tomorrow's news... (Score:5, Funny)
GWB.. (Score:2)
Why they suck, first hand account. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Why they suck, first hand account. (Score:4, Insightful)
First off, they don't have anything to make them visible in the evening hours (reflectors/lights). Combine that with being totally quiet and you have an accident waiting to happen.
So... like a pedestrian? No reflectors, relatively silent, etc. Sure people don't go zooming around at 15 KmH - usually - but that's more attributable to an Asshat Segway Driver, rather than inherent suckage, don't you think?
As for the 'large footprint' its certainly no larger than a mountain bike (handlebars) so I conside that a nonstarter.
interesting points (Score:5, Insightful)
people haven't bought them, they were overpriced, and they don't look that impressive.
it's a $X,000 scooter, at least that's what it looks like.
a Viper is just another really big engine, but put it in the right body....
Proof! (Score:2)
Conclusive proof that sometimes even a blind squirrel gets a nut.
Oh, another thing . . . Ginger, IT, Segway? Who named this thing, anyway? J.R.R. Tolkien? Is Ginger the Westron and Segway the Sindarin?
-Peter
Jobs... (Score:2)
Same about the design. Now I know why Apple's computers are so good; Jobs knows what will sell, and doesn't market (Ok, forget the cube) what won't. Seems he's a smart business guy, whereas Dean is...an engineer.
Makes sense why the Segway has, well, failed to put it bluntly.
And for everyone thinking Jobs says the Segway sucks, you need to RTFA. He was talking about the design; he said the segway itself was "incredibly innovat
Where is v2? (Score:2)
In all that time it appears the product hasn't changed at all. Didn't they learn anything from their private trials in that time? It would appear that all of the original criticisms leveled against it are still valid.
Seems like another potentially brilliant idea torpedoed by corporate culture.
Was it redesigned? (Score:5, Interesting)
Steve Jobs' Comment (Score:5, Insightful)
The part they left out. (Score:5, Funny)
-----
Jobs: Will it come with Firewire?
Dean: Um... Firewire? Why would it--?
Jobs: Will it come with Firewire? Will it?
Dean: I don't understand what you're--
Jobs: You really ought to license Firewire from us and slap a logo on this thing and that's all there is to it.
Dean: But what on earth would people want--?
Jobs: Why would they not want the the most reliable, insanely fast connectivity solution built in to this revolutionary device? How will they sync their Palms and iPods to this? Have you thought about that?
Dean: That's ridiculous. I don't--
Jobs: Okay. Nevermind. This sucks.
------
Anyone else like SJ's comment... (Score:5, Interesting)
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'.)
Stevie in action... (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Shitting one's pants (Score:5, Funny)
Thanks Steve! Now I have a whole new goal for when I present my next project pitch to the captains and commanders I work with!
Woz is more segway happy (Score:5, Interesting)
jobs shouldn't be surprising, but it is (Score:5, Interesting)
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'?
cognitive dissonance (Score:5, Funny)
My mind is revolting against itself! Who or what am I supposed to like?
P.S. Please, someone, tell me what I can do on a Segway that I cannot do on a bicycle [scottseely.com].
Re:cognitive dissonance (Score:5, Funny)
Shit your pants.
Comment removed (Score:3, Funny)
Another Example of Jobs' Candidness (Score:5, Interesting)
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!"
Out of context (Score:4, Informative)
Re:The President... (Score:2)
Re:The President... (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.gothamist.com/archive/002674.php
Re:The President... (Score:3, Funny)
Yeah, I would imagine after the slap on the wrist M$ got, Steve Jobs thinks he sucks too.
Re:I think it sucks! (Score:2)
Steve Jobs in the bar. (Score:5, Funny)
He goes over to the windows, and verifies that they can be opened and closed, and also minimized (with the use of shades). Next, he looks behind a table and finds a mouse. It is only after he finds the trashcan behind the bar that he decides to sue the bar owner for infringment of his GUI patents.
Re:I think it sucks.. (Score:2)
Technically superb, but as a long term product I'm not so sure. It just brings laziness to an all time high.
Where is my anti-gravity flywheel??? (Score:5, Funny)
This product has been the biggest letdown since the year 2000. I waited, white-knuckled and anxious, for way too long in hopes that I'd be able to zip across the countryside 40 feet in the air and at
The segway is an excellent example of what happens when you don't give out enough details concerning a product and act in extreme secrecy all to protect your whiz-bang idea of a $5000 scooter.....or SCO unix source code...
It was when (Score:4, Insightful)
What I love about the way brandido wrote it was:
But that isn't true. He had seen Ginger a day earlier and had time to reflect on the whole thing. He thought it was solid, but lacked a look that people would be drawn to. The quote should have had this additional thought added to it But instead he wanted to go for the shock value. Somehow this appearing on
Heck... (Score:3, Insightful)
Damn, Steve Jobs was on top of things here. He hit the nail on the head and could be considered be 100% right about what he said. Just some of the things he thought:
Sure. (Score:3, Insightful)
My original point, if you read my post, was that this is a non-story. We might as well be asking Ken Lay what he thinks about the global energy markets and this new energy product called "trading". While he may have some expertise and thoughts on the matter, what he says is really not all that important to the success/failure of the product. The sa