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I think it’s Steve Jobs that was a once in a lifetime aberration. Under his leadership Apple basically created three industries: mass-market personal computing,

by ponker 6y ago

I think it’s Steve Jobs that was a once in a lifetime aberration. Under his leadership Apple basically created three industries: mass-market personal computing, digital music, and smartphones.

scarface74 6y ago
I’ll give credit for one out of three - the personal computer. The digital music market already existed when the iPod came out (“No Wireless. Less Space than the Nomad. Lame.” [1]) The smart phone - a phone that could make calls and run third party apps - already existed. Apple popularized both and reaped immense profit from it, but you could say the sane about the smart watch under Cook. The Apple Watch is more profitable than the iPod at its peak [2]. Even the iPad was just a big iPhone under Jobs. It didn’t come into its own until years later. [1] https://slashdot.org/story/01/10/23/1816257/apple-releases-ipod https://slashdot.org/story/01/10/23/1816257/apple-releases-i... [2] http://www.asymco.com/2019/12/12/ipods-pro/ http://www.asymco.com/2019/12/12/ipods-pro/
- ponker 6y ago
  Sure, Jobs was not an inventor, he was a refiner, like a great chef who takes local village recipes and refines the dishes and the presentation into a $300 Michelin star restaurant. He had a great talent for taking something new, packaging it into something people wanted, and then making them want it. I had several “smartphones” before the iPhone and the first time I used an iPhone I knew it was different. I’ve seen my 9 month old baby do basic navigation on my iPhone, while I seen 45 year old colleagues of mine at the time flummoxed by my Nokia N95.
  - scarface74 6y ago
    How is that different than both the iPad (which is much better now than it was in 2011), the Watch and the AirPods. Jobs was there to see the successful transition to PPC to Intel. Cook will be there to see the transition from Intel to “Apple Silicon”. But Apple wouldn’t have succeeded without Cooks operational expertise. Apple never had to manufacturer at the scale it does now during Jobs first tenure.

by ponker 6y ago

I think it’s Steve Jobs that was a once in a lifetime aberration. Under his leadership Apple basically created three industries: mass-market personal computing, digital music, and smartphones.

scarface74 6y ago

I’ll give credit for one out of three - the personal computer. The digital music market already existed when the iPod came out (“No Wireless. Less Space than the Nomad. Lame.” [1]) The smart phone - a phone that could make calls and run third party apps - already existed. Apple popularized both and reaped immense profit from it, but you could say the sane about the smart watch under Cook. The Apple Watch is more profitable than the iPod at its peak [2]. Even the iPad was just a big iPhone under Jobs. It didn’t come into its own until years later. [1] https://slashdot.org/story/01/10/23/1816257/apple-releases-ipod https://slashdot.org/story/01/10/23/1816257/apple-releases-i... [2] http://www.asymco.com/2019/12/12/ipods-pro/ http://www.asymco.com/2019/12/12/ipods-pro/

ponker 6y ago
Sure, Jobs was not an inventor, he was a refiner, like a great chef who takes local village recipes and refines the dishes and the presentation into a $300 Michelin star restaurant. He had a great talent for taking something new, packaging it into something people wanted, and then making them want it. I had several “smartphones” before the iPhone and the first time I used an iPhone I knew it was different. I’ve seen my 9 month old baby do basic navigation on my iPhone, while I seen 45 year old colleagues of mine at the time flummoxed by my Nokia N95.
- scarface74 6y ago
  How is that different than both the iPad (which is much better now than it was in 2011), the Watch and the AirPods. Jobs was there to see the successful transition to PPC to Intel. Cook will be there to see the transition from Intel to “Apple Silicon”. But Apple wouldn’t have succeeded without Cooks operational expertise. Apple never had to manufacturer at the scale it does now during Jobs first tenure.