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Steve Jobs is not like you and me.
- aston 18y agoMistitled. Why not just call it "Love-Hate: Why iPod chief Tony Fadell is really leaving Apple" like Cringely did?
- nihilocrat 18y agoHonestly, the title seems fairly apt. The author starts the article with the sentence, and proceeds to mention a plethora of things which argue that this sentence is accurate.
- aston 18y agoIf you didn't already know Steve Jobs was an ego-centric CEO with a cult-of-personality keeping him going before the article, you're pretty far behind in tech news. However, I had no clue about the reasons behind Fadell's firing, and that's the real point of the article anyway.
- shutter 18y agoFrom the article: > "But if Apple fails in that, Steve Jobs will just pick up the phone and choose IBM Microelectronics as the fab to build the next generation of Apple’s PowerPC processors – a contract worth billions, but ONLY if IBM drops all legal action." Uh, Apple doesn't use PowerPC anymore.
- tptacek 18y agoPA Semi is PPC.
- alaskamiller 18y agoIt will.
- tlrobinson 18y agoI can't see Apple switching Macs back to PPC any time soon. In the last 10 years they've forced Mac developers and customers to switch to a totally different operating system AND processor architecture. Both were good moves, but it seems silly to switch back. Apple has said they bought P.A. Semi to create custom chips for their portable devices: http://blogs.wsj.com/biztech/2008/04/24/jobs-still-hearts-intel/?mod=WSJBlog http://blogs.wsj.com/biztech/2008/04/24/jobs-still-hearts-in...
- skalpelis 18y agoThey didn't switch to a different processor architecture, they switched to a system where processor architecture is insignificant, hence the universal binaries, not Intel binaries. They could put any kind of chips in their computers and any universal application would be one recompile away from working on the new processor architecture.
- andrewf 18y agoThat was the theory, but it's not the way things are anymore. A whole load of stuff is being released Intel-only now. The newest PowerPC machines are now two years old, so if you're releasing something that needs a this-generation machine to run reasonably, why bother? This proportion is only going to grow over time. And it will probably be riddled with endian bugs, alignment assumptions, and x86-only toolchains. Going back to PowerPC would be at least as traumatic as the initial switch.
- jdg 18y agoI never felt like the "initial switch" was that traumatic at all.
- mattmaroon 18y agoThis is exactly why I buy AAPL puts. The cult of Steve weighs far more heavily on their share price than their actual results. Apple's success is clearly due to a lot of people. Nobody does that well due to the brilliance of a single man, and Steve Jobs isn't as bright as people give him credit for. The man tried to cure his own pancreatic cancer by eating carrots for Christ's sake. Yet every time he sneezes their shares drop $10. So I buy puts knowing that one day, probably soon given the way he's looking lately, he'll announce his retirement (either voluntarily or due to illness) and their share price will plummet, at which point I'll sell my options and then go long AAPL, because really, they don't need him.
- yters 18y agoHow will a company that is so shaped by one man have an effective successor? Especially if he seems to kill off anyone who could be a good successor?
- thorax 18y agoWell, some of these people could come back later to lead it. Less effectively than if they were there longer, but... maybe better than nothing?
- yters 18y agoMatt's point is that it will run well even without Steve. But, at least according to Good to Great, such ego companies fail pretty hard once their leader leaves.
- mattmaroon 18y agoI haven't read that but perhaps I should. Either way I think selling the puts is good. But if I'm wrong that Apple can't function nearly as well without him, I shouldn't reverse positions after.
- yters 18y ago
- reidman 18y agoIt's worth noting that the writer of "I, Cringely" has pumped out more than just a few off-base Apple articles in the past. Apple merges with Intel, Apple teams up with Blockbuster, Apple to stop making hardware, Apple buys Adobe...
- Prrometheus 18y agoAnd the article is composed primarily of (plausible sounding) speculation.
- jimbokun 18y agoYes. Cringely is the absolute master of (plausible sounding) speculation. It describes almost every article he has written. It's usually pretty entertaining plausible sounding speculation, though.
- olefoo 18y agoThe plausible speculation based on anonymous 'sources' makes the whole thing sound rather like celebrity gossip.
- ojbyrne 18y agoEverything in Silicon Valley is Ego. For all the bozo CEOs who take all the credit for _everything_, there's a gazillion unsung heroes who are smarter, faster, and are completely unsung (but hopefully they get some cash when there's an exit). That's the dynamic.
- Dilpil 18y agoSteve jobs tears cure cancer...