In his first extended interview since undergoing surgery for pancreatic cancer last summer, Apple CEO Steve Jobs talked with Fortune Magazine’s Brent Schlender.
“As we’ll see, software wizardry is how Steve brought Apple back from oblivion and even breathed new life into the Mac, which turned 20 years old the day we sat down to talk. Software, in a word, is the genie in Apple’s multibillion-dollar hardware business… Think back about just how irrelevant Apple seemed even two years ago. Its share of the personal-computing market had shrunk inexorably throughout the 1990s to a tiny 2%… By the late 1990s, Apple was making even its most loyal users doubt the point of sticking with the company. Its operating system was an unstable patchwork, and programmers were growing ever more reluctant to write for Macs or adapt their PC programs to run on the machines. Apple knew it needed help. It turned to a man who had started it all: Steve Jobs.
Some interesting tidbits come to light in Schlender’s article:
– That deal where Microsoft bought $150 million of non-voting Apple stock is now worth well over $1 billion.
– Schlender describes Mac OS X as “the software equivalent of a cross between a Porsche and an Abrams tank: an operating system with sleek, animated graphics and an abundance of useful and novel features built on top of industrial-strength code.”
– Adobe blew it: “In a 1998 meeting in which Jobs asked Adobe Systems executives to develop a Mac version of their consumer video-editing program changed his mind. ‘They said flat-out no,’ Jobs recalls. ‘We were shocked, because they had been a big supporter in the early days of the Mac. But we said, ‘Okay, if nobody wants to help us, we’re just going to have to do this ourselves,'” Schlender reports.
– That started Apple’s Applications Software Division which is now a 1,000-engineer-strong group.
– Schlender writes, “Jobs sees applications like iLife as the centerpiece of his marketing strategy, which is to differentiate the Macintosh from Windows PCs by positioning it as a complete multimedia machine. Right out of the box, the Mac with iLife gives users (especially the creative types) everything they need for creating, editing, managing, and playing digital content. While comparable applications are available for Windows machines, matching what Apple initially throws in free costs hundreds of dollars, and the various Windows programs don’t interact easily with one another. “Everyone in every corner of the software business could learn a lot from iLife,” says Bill Joy, the legendary computer scientist, now a Silicon Valley venture capitalist.”
– “‘I felt like a dope,’ says Jobs, thinking back to summer 2000, when his fixation on perfecting video editing on the Mac distracted him from noticing that millions of kids were using computers and CD burners to make audio CDs and to download digital songs called MP3s from illegal online services like Napster. Yes, even Jobs, the technological visionary of his generation, occasionally gets caught looking in the wrong direction. ‘I thought we had missed it. We had to work hard to catch up,'” Schlender writes. Apple did more than catch up, as we all know.
There’s so much information in the full article – it’s an embarrassment of riches. There are the stories of how iTunes came to be (started from scratch and pounded out in less than four months), how the iPod was born in November 2001 (another crash project that yielded the iPod in just nine months), and the enormous challenge of creating the iTunes Music Store.
Schlender reports, “Merrill Lynch analyst Steve Milunovich predicts that the iPod business alone will hit $6.2 billion in fiscal 2006, roughly as big as all of Apple when Jobs took over.”
“Apple has cast a shadow over Microsoft too. Jobs likes to say that the upcoming Tiger version of OS X will have everything that Bill Gates and Microsoft are promising in Longhorn, the often delayed major upgrade of Windows, now due in mid-2006. ‘They copied the original Mac with Windows 95,’ Jobs gloats, ‘and now they’re going to be copying us again,'” Schlender reports. “Mac OS X is so solid that Apple is beginning to sell Macs into markets that never before would even consider them, like the military and university supercomputer centers. Most tantalizing of all is scuttlebutt that three of the biggest PC makers are wooing Jobs to let them license OS X and adapt it to computers built around standard Intel chips. Why? They want to offer customers, many of whom are sick of the security problems that go with Windows and tired of waiting for Longhorn, an alternative.”
This article just keeps going, a highly-recommended read, (subscription required for full article) here.
Related MacDailyNews articles:
iPod success opens door to Mac OS X on Intel – March 04, 2004
Great read…I wonder where we are going next?
Magic Word: Use
For a good laugh, go read what our favorite idiot (Paul) has to say about this.
damn supscriptions
Someone post the whole thing somewhere, please . . .
“Most tantalizing of all is scuttlebutt that three of the biggest PC makers are wooing Jobs to let them license OS X and adapt it to computers built around standard Intel chips.”
Before the Lenovo deal I would say IBM, sure (IBM should be selling OS X and not Linux). HP, definitely (HP should be offering OS X and not HP/UX). Sony Vaio laptops running OS X, absolutely.
Sure the last time that the Mac OS was licensed it was bad, but that was because Apple didn’t license to a player with a built-in base that would give the Mac OS instant credibility.
Do not under any circumstances ever license to Dell. That would be a sure way to cannibalize, rather than grow, sales just like the 90s licensees did.
Stevie is a deal maker; Billy a deal breaker — who would you rather deal with? And when the deals are done and translated into product or service, the man in the black turtleneck will take to the stage and sow shock and awe.
I wonder where are we going next?
Fasten seatbelts.
“scuttlebutt that three of the biggest PC makers are wooing Jobs to let them license OS X” – That would then be IBM, Sony, and HP, don’t you think so?
And the less Apple becomes dependent on its own mac hardware sales (which is where they are going to, selling iPods like nuts), the more likely this option gets. – Time will tell…
num_flux, the beautiful thing about mac hardware is that it’s beautiful. I wouldn’t want to lose that.
License OS X? That might have been on the table (at least for the PC makers) before the Mac mini, but very strong sales of the mini will force a rethink.
The challenge is identifying the markets that a license would be viable. Forget the $399 with KMD – putting out crap computers would only hurt OS X and the Mac when they crapped out in a few months.
The interesting point about Sony is that their new PlayStation 3 is going to use an IBM chip. Apple has invested sufficient millions in the Gx chips to have a say (and receive royalties) from any one who wants to use it.
Lots of “what ifs” to think about, but if anything happens you know Steve J will come up with something we didn’t think of.
Should be fun to follow.
Can anybody please supply the full article
Oh no, Apple should not make the same mistake by liscensing OS X…
I think it would be very interesting if Apple did license OSX.
Imagine how many Windows developers would do a double take!!!
I can see apple licensing to HP and IBM for business level machines such as servers running OS X server, but I don’t see the whole sony consumer market. I think this is something that Steve will want to keep for himself. Sony make a very nice laptop and I think this would cut Powerbook sales.
Laptops are free advertising for apple, That is why they have a glowing apple logo on the back of the screen, when you are walking in the airport or into a coffee shop you can spot the apple users with in seconds.
Letting HP and IBM deal in the heavy metal will open a host of in routes for business who would never think about running a Apple OS on their servers.
Here’s a thought….
What if sony makes laptops with Cell chips? or desktops with it….It’s a powerpc chip at it’s heart, maybe they’d want to run the Mac OS? It’d be a big move for apple, and would help sony…who knows.
Can someone tell me exactly what MS copied from Mac OS ?
Well, thanks for the synopsis MDN. Irritating as hell that i have to pat $10.00 to read the article. I guess I will have to go to Borders and read it off the rack
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To NoMacForYou…
The entire GUI for starters.
There’s something a’brewing betwixt Sony, IBM, and Apple, methinks.
The licensing situation is getting interesting. A year ago I’d have said no way in hell will it happen, but there are a few differences now. This article is the first time I’ve ever seen so much attention to the fact that, yes, Apple is very much a software company. They’ve always been considered a hardware company that makes software only to sell the hardware, but that may be changing. Those of us in the know realize that it’s always been the software that makes the Mac so great, but along with that is that Apple controls the whole widget, so the experience is better. That’s where the problem with licensing comes in – if they don’t control everything, they could potentially have many of the problems that Windows deals with, like plug and play not working, weird crashes, etc. Perhaps they will do something more like what they do with HP and they iPod, where Apple manufactures it for HP, but HP supports it. There are some really interesting possibilities here.
Apple isn’t going to license os X @ least not the consumer market as someone already stated it makes no sense @ all. OS X running on a computer without the apple logo on it?? u guys are crazie! His Steveness shalt not allowth it to cometh to path! lol
magic word result- as a result of the mac mini we have so called journalists making even more stupid predictions about apple death! osX on x86 omG i think i’m having a heart attack!
Willie: Yeah? Which elements of the UI did they RIP? Contextual menu’s?
Overlapping windows? Comon, tell me how you would have expressed those features? If I remember correctly the courts decided they were features that werent copywritable. And that gui came from Xerox anyways…So what did they copy?
– That deal where Microsoft bought $150 million of non-voting Apple stock is now worth well over $1 billion.
The article would have been much more credible, had he never mentioned that. The subject of Microsoft buying $150M of non-voting shares always surfaces again and again, but almost everyone forgot that Microsoft had sold all the stock for profit. Microsoft owns nothing of Apple.
From Wikipedia:
Microsoft bought a $150 million non-voting share of company as a result of a court settlement between themselves and Apple. (Microsoft has since sold all Apple stock holdings.)
To the PC World who laughing now.It’s good to be the King. Nobody believe me from where I live. Now I can show the article and laugh at them. But I wonder why they drool so much at my powerbook. I guess cause It works and theirs don’t. Na It’s a Mac. That for kids. Well let me be a kid for life. Thank you Mr. Jobs
“Think back about just how irrelevant Apple seemed even two years ago. Its share of the personal-computing market had shrunk inexorably throughout the 1990s to a tiny 2%… By the late 1990s, Apple was making even its most loyal users doubt the point of sticking with the company.”
I just want to say, for the record, as a graphic designer, earning a living by using an Apple computer as myu main tool: the company NEVER was ‘irrelevant’ to me two years ago. I NEVER doubted why I was using a Mac or the Mac OS.
I own stock in Apple! Yay!!
Everyone says Apple is a hardware company. But based on whats happened since Steve Jobs returned, I’d have to say their software has been much better than their hardware. It seems that every model of computer has had problems. OS X, on the other hand, is awesome. iLife is awesome. Final Cut is awesome. Not bad for a hardware company.
I was able to get the full article through Factiva in my school’s database online, maybe that will work for some others.
The facts are, if there were only apple computers would still cost $5000 each, and if there were only MS we would still be typing c: to start the day. The world of computing is competitive and nearly perfect, now that apple has come off their high horse with the mini.
I think licensing OSX to 3rd parties would be the beginning of the end of Apple making PCs. I’ve never quite understood why Apple would sell rival PCs to PC Makers it licences its own OS to. I suppose the PCs would have to meet specific standards or something. I would imagine Sony, for example, coming up with a concept PC that would cut dramatically into Mac sales, and then what? If OSX is the prize, what difference does it make to put it into someone else’s box (Yes, I remember UMAX)? It would make a big difference to me, but what about the average Joe/Jane? Is Apple evolving into a software-specific company with an eventual split with its electronics division? I hope Apple will always control both the hardware and software, not necessarily exclusively, but in control nonetheless.
NoMacForYou wrote: “Yeah? Which elements of the UI did they RIP? Contextual menu’s?
Overlapping windows? Comon, tell me how you would have expressed those features? If I remember correctly the courts decided they were features that werent copywritable. And that gui came from Xerox anyways…So what did they copy?”
1) The court did not say those elements were not copywritable.
2) The Xerox gui was very, very, different from MacOS. (One example: icons were mostly used for actions, not documents and apps.)
3) One tiny example: If you were given the task of designing a pointer for a gui, what do you think the chances are that your design would be exactly–pixel for pixel–like the Mac’s? Windows 95’s was, just reversed black and white (incidentally, a much worse choice for seeing it against a typical white document).
So you’re saying that a mouse pointer is what all of the fuss is about? Well shit man..Fast User Switching was copied from XP, so whats the big deal about a friggin mouse pointer..You’ve got to do better than that…So in that case..Every OS copied the mac pointer right…Linux, AIX, OS/2, Windows…Etc..So how would you have made the pointer…I would have used a middle finger at this point…
You know, Ive also heard that Steve came up with apple and the logo from Xerox aswell…That may be BS though…
NoMacForYou, why are you arguing such a stupid point? Everyone and their mother knows damn good and well that MS ripped Apple off. It’s been to court on numerous occasions and found that, under the agreement they signed, they had the RIGHT to do it. MS doesn’t even try to deny it, in fact, it’s basically seen as a brilliant coup in the business world. You’re just trying to rile people up. Isn’t it time for your afternoon nap? If not, surely Teletubbies is on. Go play and leave the adults to their mature conversation!
What if…
Sony and Apple get together and each make Cell-based PCs that can run Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X… at the same time. I believe that’s one of the things that Cell is able to do well. Talk about Trojan Horse for Apple. Businesses and consumers buy these amazing new Cell based machines that can run any OS, with the intention of running Windows as usual (albeit quicker than on Intel) and in there is also Linux and Mac OS X. On that level playing field, imagine which OS would succeed? I can already imagine PCs bogged down with viruses etc switching to Mac OS X with a flip of an imaginary switch and continuing on their way getting their work done… It might be worth it for Apple to have to compete with Sony for this whole new hardware business… it’d not be like they’d be competing with Cell Based Dells if they don’t want to. And Sony is a lot like Apple in wanting to make great hardware and not have to be brought down to the lowest common denominator to compete in comodity machines… it could work couldn’t it?
NoMacForYou, if it was left up to Gate’s vision of the future – everybody would still be doing DOS line code. MS incorporated those GUI changes to compete with Apple. If you look at the operating systems from both companies, year to year, Apple has always been one step before, and it sure looked a hell nicer. Check out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_GUI
I got a “theory”.
I’d also point out that, in one case, one built on the other.
Fun example: Aliases. Apple had them “first” (yes, Unix people, I know, they were in Unix…) in System 7.0, circa 1991. Apple made one mistake in presentation, though: in the Finder, aliases used italic type for the name. This was the only visual way to tell if something was an alias instead of an original. Unfortunately, not all languages support an italic typeface–namely, Japanese. Thus, Japanese users had no way to visually discover whether something was an alias or not–they had to “Get Info” on the file.
When Microsoft introduced “Shortcuts” in Windows 95–essentially ripping off Aliases (okay, they both stole from Unix)–they added the little arrow badge.
In Mac OS 8, Apple also added the arrow badge to aliases, stealing from Windows.
Frankly, this is the way of the world and the nature of competition. Someone comes up with a good idea, someone else comes along, sees that idea, and improves on it. I’m sure Apple looked at the nature of MP3 players before coming up with the iPod. IBM looked at what everyone else was doing with PCs before they came out with the IBM PC.
This has happened for years in the hardware business and is happening in the software business, too. If you will, Apple comes up with the good idea. Everyone else copies it a few years later. If you want the good idea first, you buy Apple. If you’re willing to wait, buy a PC.
NoMacForYou
If you have a big problem trying to swallow the GUI story, then let me give you another one; this would be a lot easier to go down.
MS stole the codes of Quicktime to build their very own media player for Windows 3.1
When Apple approached them, they flat out denied it, so Apple brought them to court. In the court, Apple engineers took apart the codes of the windows media player (called video for windows I think) and showed that almost everything was copied right out of the quicktime player’s codes.
Here’s some links for you to read if you’re that interested.
http://www.pa.msu.edu/~hamlin/facts/1stltr.html
follow it up with
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,16141,00.html
and maybe this one too
http://www.aldridge.com/redirect_newslink22
The beautiful irony of who copied who, is you can’t copy SECURITY. It has to be coded and built-in the hard way. MS has fallen totally on its face in this regard.
From the article:
“By the late 1990s, Apple was making even its most loyal users doubt the point of sticking with the company. Its operating system was an unstable patchwork…Apple knew it needed help.”
Sounds like MS of today, no?
Thanks for the links Ed. I wasnt aware of that little tid bit of info..I dont really have a hard time swallowing the GUI thing…The mouse pointer thing just seems like nit picking..Like a car with a steering wheel…(How else would you do it? a Joystick? LOL)..So does that apply aswell to WMP? I wouldnt blame MS for ripping off quicktime..Its still superior to anything i’ve seen from redmond..But as Peter so elequently put it…
“Frankly, this is the way of the world and the nature of competition. Someone comes up with a good idea, someone else comes along, sees that idea, and improves on it. I’m sure Apple looked at the nature of MP3 players before coming up with the iPod. IBM looked at what everyone else was doing with PCs before they came out with the IBM PC.”
>Joe McConnell wrote: The facts are, if there were only apple computers would still cost $5000 each, and if there were only MS we would still be typing c: to start the day.
What crystal ball did you pull this fact from? Did you shake a little extra this time?
>Joe McConnell wrote: The facts are, if there were only apple computers would still cost $5000 each, and if there were only MS we would still be typing c: to start the day.
What crystal ball did you pull this fact from? Did you shake a little extra this time?
“..Like a car with a steering wheel…(How else would you do it? a Joystick? LOL)…” – NoMacForYou
Yes. Actually, very early versions of the automobile did not use a steering wheel. They used steering levers. In fact, as an early measure against auto theft around the turn of the century (1900), the Leach Motor Carriage actually had a removable steering lever.
And as to your last assertion, theft is not the way of the world. It’s only the way of the unscrupulous.
I like this one
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,16058-2,00.html?tw=wn_story_page_next1
BSOD
“And as to your last assertion, theft is not the way of the world. It’s only the way of the unscrupulous.” –
I agree..Peter wrote that – not me…
>Ndel wrote: Those of us in the know realize that it’s always been the software that makes the Mac so great…
I’ve used the Mac for years and I can only agree with this statement if you started out with “Since OSX”. The OSX/G5 homerun made the Mac a viable platform for many.
>Ndel wrote: Those of us in the know realize that it’s always been the software that makes the Mac so great…
I’ve used the Mac for years and I can only agree with this statement if you started out with “Since OSX”. The OSX/G5 homerun made the Mac a viable platform for many.
Life feeds on life feeds on life feeds on life……
For all of you bitching about subscriptions go to http://bugmenot.com
NoMacForYou wrote: “The mouse pointer thing just seems like nit picking..Like a car with a steering wheel…(How else would you do it? a Joystick? LOL)”
The point is that: yes, anyone should be able to design a pointer. Except, apparently, Microsoft, because they couldn’t even do that one little thing on their own. I didn’t say it was the most egregious ripoff. It’s just that it is one thing that you can point to that couldn’t possibly be just a case of parallel development. It’s pixel-for-pixel!
Also, not being able to come up with an original idea yourself is not an excuse for ripping off someone else’s original idea.
Mac & PC Guy, I couldn’t disagree more. The operating system has always been what makes the Mac so great, regardless of which version it was. Obviously comparing System 6 to OS X is laughable, but every version of the Mac OS was brilliant in it’s time. Things only started get tired in OS 9 (IMHO) but I think that had a lot to do with making the transition to X as painless as possible.
I can see an advantage of Apple licensing OS X to manufacturers of PowerPC builders, ike they did with the clone makers, but not to x86 makers.
x86 is a broken and fragmented platform with too many standards problems. IBM may now be having trouble getting enough G5 chips out, but Apple wins on quality of design.
Making a x86 Mac will confuse the price/quality issue even more. People will be confounded by the choice of PowerPC or x86 and thinking they are getting more for the money with x86 they will lose and wonder why they got a “Mac”.
Apple needs to stick with IBM and PowerPC. It would be nice to see a Power4 or Power5 server/workstation running OS X, but not x86.
Open up the platform. Apple can compete very well on price and design. More open manufacturing will encourage more third-party hardware developers (video esp) to bring more products to the Mac. We’ll see more user-configurable options too.
Apple should allow users to configure their systems more. When they do that they will see an explosion of demand from computer enthusiasts. Home PC tinkers are dying for a Mac they can mod. Truely mod, not just replace a hard drive and up the RAM.
Just look at the mini mods. People love it for what you can do. Small, quiet and cool. Rock solid OS. The mini is going where Jobs probably never expected. Open it up and see where it goes!
Open it up Apple! But not to Wintel.
Microsoft should port Windows to Pow .. oh never mind. People will figure it out soon enough.
bugmenot doesn’t work for this one–it’s a paid subscription service.
Bugmenot worked for me. Haven’t gotten to read it thoroughly though.
MS sold all the non voting stock over the years after the deal and held none (IF I recall correctly)
They DID make money on the deal, just no as much as they would have if they’d held it until now.
brought to you by the word “CAME” ….. tooo many visions to write something witty
Hey, Pete:
How the heck did you get BugMeNot to work for this? It requires a subscription address or account #, but all BMN gives you is a username and password.
Thanks!
“And as to your last assertion, theft is not the way of the world. It’s only the way of the unscrupulous.”
Thank you for walking into this one. After a day of carbonizing antique code, I need the laugh.
George Carlin once said, “Have you ever noticed that their stuff is shit and your shit is stuff?” (eg, “Somebody get this shit out of here so I can put my stuff down!”) Well, did you ever notice that Apple copies from Microsoft but Microsoft steals from Apple?
Read some of the lengthy justifications for “music sharing.” They’re not stealing because the person has not been deprived of the use of the music, etc. Now take those and apply them to Microsoft and Apple. Gee, how can one use of intellectual property be stealing while the next one isn’t? Hmm…
Does Microsoft copy from Apple more than Apple copies from Microsoft? I’d say absolutely. I think we can come up with dozens of examples of Microsoft copying Apple ideas and only a few where Apple copied Microsoft’s ideas.
But lets keep our terms straight. It is copying. It is not stealing. Okay, the QuickTime case–that was stealing! (Enter Microsoft apologist mode) “But it wasn’t Microsoft’s fault that they, coincidentally, had Video for Windows contracted out to the same people that Apple contracted to do QuickTime for Windows. It was just a coincidence!” (Exit Microsoft apologist mode)
Original innovators and inventors hardley ever receive the recognition and credit they surely deserve these days. The media is a scary medium for as there are too many gullible people on this plannet to be fooled.
Unix Unix Unix!
Xerox Xerox Xerox!
Nuff said.
I just went to bugmenot and input fortune.com as the url. It came back with an account number 188066379
That’s it.
WHEN YOU GET TO THE PAGE THAT ASKS FOR THE PASSWORD, PASTE THAT URL INTO BUGMENOT.COM AND YOU WILL HAVE THE LABEL CODE THAT WORKS
<<oops – caps lock>>
thanks matt!
NoMacForYou,
Microsoft got an advanced, inside look at the Mac in order to write software for it’s release. They came up with to very good apps that later evolved into Word and Excel.
Microsoft then asked Apple to do a GUI for them to sit on top of MS-DOS. Apple said no.
Microsoft then came up with their own GUI that evolved into Win 95 having never paid to see what Xerox had done with their GUI, like Apple did but having very intimate knowledge of Apple’s Mac GUI.
Now you do the math, if you can.
3 big computer makers may be hounding Apple for OS X, but only one, maybe two will come out with anything.
IBM, and HP. They have the most to offer Apple in return. IBM using OS X (on Power Chips) will guarantee larger production of the chips, less time to ramp production, greater economies of scale. Also wonderful enterprise creds. HP with its “we distribute to the entire known universe” sales channels, and more enterprise creds.
Either or both will license OS X server, xsans, xgrid, and build them into Power based datacenter and supercomputer solutions. Apple will clean up and increase market share to 20%+ when halo from the IBM/ HP server sales start generating orders for work stations and desktops. A win-win-win for all involved. And for everyone who will move away from windows based junk
the only thing Bill didn’t steal from Apple
http://www.microsoft.com/security/bulletins/200502_windows.mspx
NoMacForYou: a few hardware things I remember the mac having well before PCs:
SIMM (memory modules – Mac Plus)
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3.5″ floppies
ejectable floppies
ADB (predecessor to USB)
overlapping windows
a mouse
“legacy-free”
cheap networking (appletalk)
all-in-one design (Original Mac 128k)
Sound (as standard)
SCSI
square pixels
the command-key (aka windows key)
nice fonts
resource forks
that’ll do for now, i kinda dropped out around the 68020 “Mac II” when i started working on 88K’s and unix, and only recently came back.
I’m sorry. I didn’t do my homework. I’m just such a Microsoft fanboy that I let the lack of my knowledge get in the way of a having a coherent argument.
I am an M$ fan boy, I’ll admit it. So who gives a shit?
“Faith” as in “The guy who wrote the post with my name (NoMac) is a Foolish And Ignorant Theological Hummer, who cant come up with anything more original than – “I’m sorry. I didn’t do my homework. I’m just such a Microsoft fanboy that I let the lack of my knowledge get in the way of a having a coherent argument” – the other NoMacForYou
“Ignorant Theological Hummer”
I am so clever!! Weeeee!
NotMacForYou
I would suggest you try n get hold of the movie “Pirates of Silicon Valley”. That movie is actually a very well made documentry of the beginings of Apple & Microsoft. Despite the fact that I already knew quite a bit of both company’s history prior to watching that show, I was totally surprised by some of the things Microsoft did to get to where it is today.
When you’re done, try and find time reading the agreement terms & conditions for a Windows server and you’ll be shocked by it.
“There are the stories of how iTunes came to be (started from scratch and pounded out in less than four months)”
One minor error there… iTunes software wasn’t “created from scratch” by Apple. Oh no, it had to buy SoundJam (remember that awesome app? kinda looks like iTunes, does it!) and then rename it iTunes.
So don’t give me this BS about how Apple started all this shiz from scratch and had to work it’s ass off using a few beans and a stick.
I praise Apple for all it’s accomplished, but by buying other software companies, doesn’t make you any better than Micro$oft.
“In a 1998 meeting in which Jobs asked Adobe Systems executives to develop a Mac version of their consumer video-editing program changed his mind.”
Which consumer video-editing program ?????????
Rob –
You are in error.
Itunes came out and then apple bought soundjam later.
re: licensing OS X
Won’t happen. Jobs’ ego is much to large to allow this to happen. Once again, Apple will snatch defeat from the gaping jaws of victory… >sigh<
I don’t think Apple will or should license OSX to other consumer computer makers.
Apple as its own strategy that has been working and should not adopt MS strategy.
The strongest strategic move I can see if licensing OSX to IBM and HP for business use. Those two can get OSX into business far more effectively than Apple can alone.
several points:
nomacforyou: xerox developed an early GUI… apple gave them a bundle of pre-IPO stock to look at their development and take ideas… that stock made xerox quite a bit of money. MS took the contract which said they could use GUI elements in their applications and stretched that to mean their OS. if the court’s decision were being made today, i think it’d be different… back then most non-geeks couldn’t differentiate between an app and the system it runs on.
ignorantliberal: i wouldn’t exactly call ADB a “predecessor” to USB. and you can add to your list of apple firsts cd-rom drives and firewire.
ed: “pirates of silicon valley” is *not* a documentary. it’s a dramatic screenplay based on a book… it has actors in it (noah wylie and anthony michael hall), not archival footage of real people. and many of its “facts” are not well researched.
mightymac: no, apple *did* buy soundjam from casady and greene and hire their head programmer jeff robbin. itunes version 1.0 had preference dialog boxes that were completely identical to soundjam, down to the wording and the position of buttons.
ok, i’m off to bed… have fun
PLEASE ! Don´t answer NOMACFORYOU,, he´s just here to spread FUD.
Visit this site for the FULL story : http://macwerner.typepad.com/
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Bakthev Sing = )
Rob:
re: Robbin and a couple of other programmers started over from scratch and pounded out the first version of iTunes in less than four months.
The development of iTunes scenario (excerpted):
“But what about the “jukebox” software necessary to manage what could conceivably be thousands of songs on the computer? Windows PC users already had several jukebox programs to choose from, but only a handful of Mac developers were tinkering with them. One was a company called SoundStep, founded by a then 28-year-old software engineer with an MBA named Jeff Robbin, who had left Apple literally the month Jobs returned. His program, SoundJam, wasn’t ready for market, but Jobs bought the company anyway, primarily because Robbin had impressed people while at Apple before.
The alacrity and breadth of what transpired over the next 13 months are hard to believe in hindsight. Robbin and a couple of other programmers started over from scratch and pounded out the first version of iTunes in less than four months. That was just in time for Steve to show it off at the annual Macworld trade show. The application simplified the importing and compression of songs, but more important, iTunes was a powerful and ingenious database that could quickly sort tens of thousands of songs in a multitude of ways, and find particular tracks in a trice.”
Here’s what I think will happen in the near future -1 to 2 years, just as Microsoft begins to rollout Longhorn & “Shoehorn” (XP with Longhorn tech tacked on)…
Taking into account IBM’s recent decision to open up the PowerPC architecture, more of those systems will become available on the market, embedded and PC. The embedded market looking for an OS will more than likely turn to Linux, but manufacturers who adopt the PowerPC for desktop/PC solutions will want an easy to use operating system and will look to Apple to begin licensing OS X.
If IBM is truly interested in the proliferation of the PowerPC they need to have a serious “desktop” operating system that could compete against Windows or use Windows itself – Microsoft obviously already has their NT Kernel ported to PowerPC a la PowerMac Dual G5 XBox development platform., but for them to port the other 50 million lines of code to the PowerPC, it will take a fairly long time. And for all of Linux’s utility, it is still not up to par with Window’s or OS X’s usability.
However with very little work and in very little time Apple could open OS X to non-Apple made PowerPC based hardware. And I believe they will do this on a limited basis. Beginning with certain “partnerships” with other high profile PC makers.
By the end of this year, all three major game console makers will use PowerPC technology at the core of their systems; Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft. The important one being Sony who I believe over the course of the next few years will begin a very important and close partnership with Apple…
#1 Sony will become the first licensee of FairPlay and begin offering players that can play both AAC and ATRAC. Sony will continue to sell only ATRAC songs through it’s site, but it’s customers will also be able to use iTunes. (Apple likes to say the Music Store only exists to sell iPods, however, I believe Apple is far more interested in making sure Microsoft does not become a de-facto standard in multimedia content. To do this, they must open up FairPlay to other high profile content providers.)
#2 Sony will begin making PowerPC based PCs along with continuing to manufacture Wintel systems. Becoming the 2nd licensee of OS X (see side note below), Sony will be the first to offer their customers a real choice – pushing consumers more towards PowerPC/OS X based systems for multimedia and security reasons and keeping Wintel for those who need that “compatibility.”
side note: the first OS X licensee will be IBM. IBM is currently in the process of removing it’s ties to both Microsoft and Intel as evidenced in it’s attempt to sell off it’s PC business and it’s huge Linux on PowerPC push. With OS X Tiger on the desktop IBM will be able to offer an easy to use, solid, secure, standards compliant PC that will be completely compatible with IBM’s back-end Linux servers.
On ending, I’d like to point out Apple’s answer to OS X on x86: the Mac mini.
What an excellent week for me and Apple! I just got my 2nd iPod yesterday, a 40g. And today my 40 shares of Apple stock turned into 80. Freakin’ awesome. And this trove of Apple info was the icing on the delicious cake.
Article says iTunes done from scratch in 4 months.
I seem to recall that Apple bought a company that had a program much like iTunes just before iTunes was released. I don’t remember the old program but I had a copy of it a few years ago when I won it a Macworld Expo for wearing a flashing button. The visual effects graphics were nearly identical between the 2 programs and the look and feel was very similar.
Anyone remember what that program was and the company that sold it?
NoMacForYou: Apple was investigating GUIs before the famous PARC visit. The PARC visit is why they use a mouse rather than a joystick. Things like pull-down menus and overlapping windows are Apple inventions, and the “Region” data structure and methods was awarded a patent – the inventor thought he saw overlapping windows at PARC, but hadn’t really. So he thought he was copying PARC but it turns out PARC didn’t have overlapping windows!
The whole Macintosh Finder was Apple innovation, as PARC was all Smalltalk propellerheads who didn’t see a need for such a thing. Windows Explorer, KDE, and Gnome all owe their very existence to the Finder.
What Apple got from Xerox, they paid for. Then they turned it into a sellable product, and changed the world.
Microsoft is radically uncreative. They acquire technology through barratry. It is easy to undercut your competitor when you steal what you sell.
I personally can’t wait for Windows to begin killing people in large numbers. City emergency services that use Windows, hospitals, airlines, all have life-threatening situations caused by Microsoft incompetence. One day, William Henry Gates II won’t be able to buy his son’s sorry ass out of jail.
Not even Judge Vaughan Walker will be able to turn a blind eye to negligent homicide and manslaughter.
pirates of silicon valley is a good movie, i liked it
So what if the OS is licensed? The thing about an OS is that it is, in it self, _useless_ (even if I know X comes with some nice software)! I could not change to OS-X even if I wanted to simply because _none_ of the programs I am using is for OS-X. I will volunteer that I use some very specific software but I don’t think I am the only one having this problem. For me one of the interesting things with OS-X is the CPU it is running on. Will making it run on Intel CPU’s do anything? I can’t see how that would benefit apple apart from getting a lot of people to try it on their existing hardware. What Apple should focus on is to get program developers to port programs for OS-X as well as Windows, and the user base would automatically increase.
I think, Apple should develop Macintosh machines and ship them with brand new Microsoft Windows 7 preinstalled. lol… 😀
Can someone tell me exactly what MS copied from Mac OS ?