4 ms·

Meh. Remember Bill Gates presenting Windows 95 feature Plug'n'play, and the blue screen of death? The product wasn't exactly a failure, regardless. Presentatio

Meh. Remember Bill Gates presenting Windows 95 feature Plug'n'play, and the blue screen of death? The product wasn't exactly a failure, regardless. Presentation is important, but not that important.

jldugger 6y ago
It probably helps to recall that Apple had been on the brink of bankruptcy at the time, and as a hardware company, gambles their future every year by ordering inventory.
Schiendelman 6y ago
For Windows, presentation wasn't that important. For Apple, it would have been. Windows was the default operating system for business already. Apple's products at the time were an alternative, not the mainstream, and sold largely on the customer's desire to live a different life. Apple sells a lifestyle as much as they do a product; you've always been able to see that in their marketing. The customer visualization of themselves in that life is formed first during those keynotes - and it's easy to break with a problem like the one Jobs cared about. Since Cook took over, Apple's really switched largely to productionizing what they already had; that makes sense, it's what he's good at. Hopefully, he's kind of a caretaker until someone visionary can take the helm again.
- mandeepj 6y ago
  > Hopefully, he's kind of a caretaker until someone visionary can take the helm again Just waited until Apple launches iCar and iGlasses (AR/VR headset)
  - mandeepj 6y ago
    wait*
birdsbirdsbirds 6y ago
That's the power of a monopoly. Apple didn't have it when the iMacs were presented.
m463 6y ago
It tarnished the brand, but maybe it's like pennies, where people sort of expect them to have that brown tarnished color. Here's the deal - if you're charging a premium for a product, it has to be exceptional. I had a friend who worked for the airlines (this was pre-9/11 days). He would tell me stories about first class customers. One guy came to the airport and bought 2 first class tickets to france for he and his wife and paid an astronomical sum for last-minute tickets. no problem. Stuff like this happened all the time. But he said the flip side was that you CANNOT disservice a first-class customer. If you want to see a REALLY MAD person, bump a first class customer. Their expectations are in line with the prices. high.
Lammy 6y ago
Please forgive my pedantry, but it was a Windows 98 beta, not 95 :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IW7Rqwwth84 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IW7Rqwwth84
- protomyth 6y ago
  Yep. Steve Jobs did have a computer crash after that on a keynote and mentioned that's why they had two on stage. Macworld 2005 had the line "Well, that's why we have backup systems here." Actually, there are compilations of all the bloopers made during Apple keynotes. They weren't all perfect.
protomyth 6y ago
To be fair, Apple had one outlet for presentations and Windows had a horde of salesfolks in the ecosystem making different kind of presentations each day. Bill Gates had IBM fronting him and Compaq's actions with the BIOS made him rich.

Meh. Remember Bill Gates presenting Windows 95 feature Plug'n'play, and the blue screen of death? The product wasn't exactly a failure, regardless. Presentation is important, but not that important.

jldugger 6y ago

It probably helps to recall that Apple had been on the brink of bankruptcy at the time, and as a hardware company, gambles their future every year by ordering inventory.

Schiendelman 6y ago

For Windows, presentation wasn't that important. For Apple, it would have been. Windows was the default operating system for business already. Apple's products at the time were an alternative, not the mainstream, and sold largely on the customer's desire to live a different life. Apple sells a lifestyle as much as they do a product; you've always been able to see that in their marketing. The customer visualization of themselves in that life is formed first during those keynotes - and it's easy to break with a problem like the one Jobs cared about. Since Cook took over, Apple's really switched largely to productionizing what they already had; that makes sense, it's what he's good at. Hopefully, he's kind of a caretaker until someone visionary can take the helm again.

mandeepj 6y ago
> Hopefully, he's kind of a caretaker until someone visionary can take the helm again Just waited until Apple launches iCar and iGlasses (AR/VR headset)
- mandeepj 6y ago
  wait*

birdsbirdsbirds 6y ago

That's the power of a monopoly. Apple didn't have it when the iMacs were presented.

m463 6y ago

It tarnished the brand, but maybe it's like pennies, where people sort of expect them to have that brown tarnished color. Here's the deal - if you're charging a premium for a product, it has to be exceptional. I had a friend who worked for the airlines (this was pre-9/11 days). He would tell me stories about first class customers. One guy came to the airport and bought 2 first class tickets to france for he and his wife and paid an astronomical sum for last-minute tickets. no problem. Stuff like this happened all the time. But he said the flip side was that you CANNOT disservice a first-class customer. If you want to see a REALLY MAD person, bump a first class customer. Their expectations are in line with the prices. high.

Lammy 6y ago

Please forgive my pedantry, but it was a Windows 98 beta, not 95 :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IW7Rqwwth84 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IW7Rqwwth84

protomyth 6y ago
Yep. Steve Jobs did have a computer crash after that on a keynote and mentioned that's why they had two on stage. Macworld 2005 had the line "Well, that's why we have backup systems here." Actually, there are compilations of all the bloopers made during Apple keynotes. They weren't all perfect.

protomyth 6y ago

To be fair, Apple had one outlet for presentations and Windows had a horde of salesfolks in the ecosystem making different kind of presentations each day. Bill Gates had IBM fronting him and Compaq's actions with the BIOS made him rich.