5 Things Steve Jobs Has Misled Us About In The Last 30 Years
Note: I highly recommend reading the comments section after completing your read ... there are some corrections, clarifications, and possibly some insight!
As Apple's 30th Anniversary approaches on April 1, 2006 ... I thought I would reflect on something that the majority of the Mac web doesn't want to address.
Steve Jobs is getting an awful lot of praise and recognition as of late for being a multi faceted, immensely talented CEO ... and no doubt; he is. Most of all; he is visionary. I don't dispute the deistic award bestowed upon him; "Possibly the greatest CEO in the history of the corporate world" by Businessweek magazine.
Steve Jobs is also a role model and an inspiration to me and to my daily activity. My work ethic (which some close to me would say is impressively complex and detailed) is based not on making money, but inspiring my customers (or anyone whom I meet) creatively. Apple Computers give my customers the power to create and the promise to dream big and make those dreams come true. The money follows.
That said ... there are a few things that have bothered me about Apple Computer and in particular, Apple; under Steve Jobs. While Jobs certainly deserves praise ... when is too much ... too much? My head would have exploded by now.
1) The complexity of upgrading and repairing Macs. From time to time a Mac will be as easy as 1 ... 2 ... 3 to fix, but then there are products like the iPod, iBook, and 1st generation Bondi Blue iMacs. Occasionally there are products like the first generation Macs from 1984-1989 ... the compact all in ones that you had to have two special tools to open and then once inside ... had to figure out how to gently remove the motherboard.
Of all Macs ... the iBook is by far the worst designed computer Apple has ever made. It looks nice, all the fittings and ports have a tight tolerance construction. But upgrading or replacing the hard drive is difficult at best ... even for a long time experienced technician such as myself. Practically any part (other than the keyboard, RAM, and airport card) on an iBook is a 1 hour job to replace ... on most PC laptops, replacing the hard drive is a matter of 2-4 screws ... same with the optical drive (DVD/CD/Burner) Just opening the iBook subjects you to accidentally severing a cable that may cost a lot of money and may take weeks to get in for replacement.
The best designed computer Apple has ever made was the PowerBook Pismo. This laptop could be upgraded and expanded almost infinitely. It was easy to service for EVERY single part. It was forward thinking ... and is still a viable laptop capable of having all of Apple's modern technologies. Which brings me to #2
2) Apple has always been too far ahead of the curve or way behind the curve as far as storage technology and connectivity standards. I was actually happy to see Apple move away from SCSI in the late 90's and to see them drop the floppy drive. But contrary to that statement ... it was a blessing for other companies to continue to produce ways to connect these devices to most every Mac. I was also happy to see Apple drop ADB (Apple Desktop Bus for connecting mice & keyboards) ... a standard it should have never had in the first place. I'm not sure why Apple chose to have ADB ... I can't seem to find the reasoning in any of the "History of..." books or websites. My personal opinion is that this was a major factor in the adoption of Macs and more market share for Apple. Combined with the lack of Parallel (which was substandard to SCSI, but more widely used) prevented the Mac from being seen as "more universal". You had to buy special printers, hard drives, and scanners ... that cost more and were only sold in specialty stores.
The other key factor in this equation is Apple's integration and the quick recession from technology. If Apple had ANY more market share than it does right now ... this "yes it does, no it doesn't; have it" would be impossible to place upon it's users.
As an example ... the new MacBook Pro has an express card slot. While I have no doubt that the express card will be the standard in 5 years ... the rest of this sentence should complete itself. Apple is essentially leaving users with nothing in the short term and making us adopt new technology at a premium ... that they may drop in 5 years time. Cardbus PCMCIA slots have been available on Apple laptops for 8 years. It would have been nice to have a dual slot ... possibly making the airport card fill up the express card slot for the time being. I just feel misled ... in this regard. It's as if Apple is getting a great deal from those backing the express card standard ... just to get Apple Computer users to be the guniea pigs and first adopters at high prices. While at the same time ... we, as computer users see no price or functionality benefit in the near term.
3) Video content & mobile video management & distribution. Steve Jobs in a 2004 Special event to release the iPod Photo said,
" . . . there’s no need for video on devices like the iPod. Video is “the wrong direction to go”, “there’s no content,” “the screens are too small” and competitors to the iPod putting R&D into providing video are “digging in the wrong place.”
Now we have the Video iPod ... it is an immense success and there's talk that video content at the end of 2007 will most likely bring in more revenue than music for Apple.
So ... was it that Steve Jobs didn't want mobile video or was any of what he said in this keynote true?
It is almost a given that Apple plans a major push into the living room this year ... possibly with Mac Minis that are media management units. I do like the fact that Jobs never tries to overpromise and underdeliver ... and honestly ... I think that at the time he made these statements about mobile video ... there wasn't enough adoption of broadband internet connectivity and the competition wasn't producing anything noteworthy.
4) Relating to #3 ... Overpromising and Underdelivering ... concerning processors. Back in the 90's I was happy to be an Apple consultant. Processor speeds were relatively the same and I could say this:
The PowerPC is a RISC chip ... it's a different architecture ... it's roughly double the speed of Pentium ... so a 200Mhz PowerPC is like a 400Mhz Intel Pentium processor"
If a customer wanted me to get really technical ... I could tell them that the Pentium was a NISC (or CISC) chip (for the most part) which required a lot more code to execute the same task ... the PowerPC requires less code to execute tasks ... and therefore is faster. Also ... Apple is able to control the hardware so they are able to optimize instructions going to each component. The PowerPC in most regards was also designed with speed through efficiency and reliability in mind.
[UPDATE] A comment has indicated that I may have The CISC/RISC/NISC comparison backwards ... and I think I do ... but point is ... I had to explain it to customers in as laymen terms as possible.
Then, in the late 90's ... things started to change ... the Pentium started to outpace the PowerPC in Mhz ... I still could get by saying "PowerPCs are essentially 2X the speed ...". But, by 2004 ... Intel had hit 1.7Ghz and Apple was at 867Mhz. AMD was putting out machines that beat Intel's fastest processors to top that. Then ... in 2004 ... at MacWorld Expo ... Steve Jobs asked Jon Rubenstein, Head of Hardware at Apple to do an 8 minute presentation on The Megahertz Myth. I was convinced. But then, in 2005, at The Worldwide Developers Conference ... we are told that Apple is moving to Intel processors. We move away from a doublespeak of the "Megahertz Myth" and into a new terminology called, "Performance Per Watt". During WWDC, Jobs gave us a roadmap and explanation of the move to Intel processors. Again ... I bought it. I didn't believe it would happen ... but after it was announced, I bought into the idea.
Let me backtrack a moment ... At one point Apple couldn't deliver 500Mhz G4s so they cancelled orders and changed the order to 400Mhz G4s and 450mhz G4s
[UPDATE] * processor speeds corrected
Then there was the promise to have 3.0Ghz G5s by summer 2004. The 3.0Ghz G5 has never happened, and the G5 PowerBook that everyone had high hopes for never materialized. And yes, I realize there is a lot of detail and behind the scenes interactions that we are probably all unaware of and that were out of Jobs' control. But it does go to show that Steve is in control of Apple, but has a hard time making other corporate giants such as Motorola (producer of the G4) and IBM (producer of the G3 and G5) bend to his will.
What many of Jobs critics call his uncanny ability to influence minds & the tech marketplace
At MacWorld Expo 2006, Jobs introduced the Intel iMac and Intel Pro Laptop. But wait. The previous iMac had 1.92 and 2.1Ghz processors ... these new Intel iMacs and Apple laptops have 1.83 and 2.0Ghz processors. Yes, I realize that the processors are Dual Core ... but how many consumers understand that? How many consumers understand how a 2.0Ghz computer can be faster than a 2.1Ghz computer? Not many ... in fact ... none that I have met.
5) Lastly ... the Disney buyout of Pixar ...
Personally, I think this merger comes at a different time than say Pre-Incredibles.
I think the merger is dishonest because this will be Pixar's least successful film to date.
This movie (Cars) is geared towards boys - girls have no interest in cars ... I feel it's why A Bug's Life didn't do great ($160 million) vs Finding Nemo ($340 million) (US Domestic)
While I'm sure it will be a great film --- outdoing anything Dreamworks could possibly think up ... I just think this deal is being made at a time when Pixar stock could take a huge hit because of lackluster box office results for Cars.
As admirers, we have to think that one day, Steve Jobs will have failure ... and one day ... a succesor to Apple will have to take his place. They will be hard shoes to fill and a tough act to follow, no doubt.
Visit ThankYouSteve.com to get a T-Shirt Recognizing Steve Jobs For 30 Years Of Service To Apple Computer & It's Customers. (no affiliation ... just thematically related.)
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Apple,
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89 comments (click to read or make your own):
On the video iPod.
Jobs said that most companies are trying to put video into these devices. He is correct in all statements he made. These companies that were trying to put video capability into the device did not try to influence the content providers to get on-board. They thought the content providers will automatically come, but consumers cannot buy hoping that someone will join in future. So, when he introduced iPod with video capabilities, he also got in content providers.
Now, given that iPod has video capabilities, why was it not called "iPod Video"? Because these are testing water approaches. I still do not feel that iPod is the right device to watch video. There will be a true iPod video in future, but that's not all that it will do. You might find a tablet-like mac, which is easy to carry that can also play video.
On the dual-core macs.
Yes, the architectures were different, hence comparing PowerPC to Intel were like apples and organges. The key difference between Intel and PowerPC is the lack of altivec like unit for Intel. Intel was good in integer performance and in those computations where you did not require a lot of conditional executions (branch stuff; intel still has the best branch prediction unit in the market). Indeed, the PowerPC were faster in certain aspects compared to the Intel in certain aspects and vice versa.
The move to Intel does not mean that whatever was told was wrong completely. Intel has plans for making dual-core chips that meets a wide variety of requirements. IBM does not. They have dual-core PowerPCs, but will they have a scaled down version for laptops? No. So, that leaves one with no option, but to switch.
Even in the currently form, the intel machines are offering better performance over older PowerPC models only because of their dual-core nature. In the laptop segment, the PowerPC (in PowerBook) was miserable primarily due to the bus speeds. Freescale is going nowhere with their design. How can 2.0 GHz machine beat out 2.1 GHz older machine? Well, now it has two cores!
There's a reason why some PC computer makers do not put the clock speed in their summary specs, because that's misleading.
Anyways.. an average customer should be concerned about what he wants out of teh computer (as he/she uses it like a tool). The more-than-average-techie should do his homework before buying a computer.
Hold grudges much? Times have changed and so has the Apple market-- any good CEO in the tech industry needs to adjust and cut the cord from time to time to meet the needs of it's market and it's users.
Faulting Jobs for nitpicky mis-steps here and there along the way is short-sighted. As quickly as technology changes and new technologies become available there are so many instances where any CEO trying to move ambitiously forward can step into a pothole.
However, business, like sports, is judged by the final score and not necessarily the fumbles in the process of getting there. What Jobs has done w/ Apple is nothing short of amazing and outweigh any negative contributions you've listed here..
Why ADB?
Because it had most of the advantages of USB, ten years before USB existed.
As a bonus, it could function as either an RS-422 or RS-232 port.
Really, if Apple had not developed ADB, Intel would not have developed USB. There would have been nobody to copy, and you'd be hooking up your webcam over the parallel port!
Just a word or two...
Steve Jobs is a human being, flawed and great at the same time, stop making him out as a savior.
About your grips about the hardware updates, don't buy the bloody products if you don't agree with them. You have a choice.
As for you Pixar comments. I don't know about you, but a bugs life did more than that, and is considered a hit. As for the buy out, hey, if the board of Pixar thinks its a good idea, then why fight it.
Last comment. I understand all of your comments. But you forgot one more "Misled", Apple is here to make a dent in the universe. No, its here to make a dent into our wallets. Its a business. Steve said it best. He doesn't believe a tech company can change people, only people can do that. Apple is a good company, but in the end, its a company, which wants to make money, like everyone else.
Have a good day, and a pleasant tommorow.
Sigh.
1) Jobs has never been big on "upgrading" Macs. In fact, it wasn't until after he left the company and Gassee was brought in as head of engineering that we actually got expandable Macs. Jobs was a big believer in the "external bus"--those of us old-timers remember the original Macs 1Mbps "external bus" via the serial ports. The theory is that a Mac would work much like your high-end stereo, with lots of components plugged into it rather than sitting inside the box.
Of course, it didn't work that way. 1Mbps was way too slow for anything.
But Jobs has never been a fan of expandability and he's always been upfront about it. I wouldn't say he "misled" us--he was just wrong. There are certain things about a computer that we do want to upgrade (like memory, hard disk space, etc.).
2) ADB was the predecessor to USB. It's one of those things that Apple came up with that Intel said, "Hey! That's a great idea!" The advantages of ADB from Apple's point-of-view is that they can use standard connectors for all their peripherals. You don't have a different wiring rig and connector for the mouse and another one for the keyboard, like in the original Macs. This makes it a few cents cheaper.
From a customer side, the immediately obvious advantage to ADB was the ability to use the mouse with either your left or right hand :^). In theory, ADB was more expandable but because of the slow speed of ADB (again, 1Mbit), it was never that useful for printers. The only ADB devices I ever saw--besides mice, joysticks, and keyboards--was a very flaky modem and a colorimeter.
I agree that it was a good idea to drop ADB and go with USB rather than come up with ADB 2.
By the way--ADB also came around after Jobs, so I'm not sure about his "misleading" us...
3) Well, Apple does not pre-announce products. I suppose that means they'll mislead as to future products. Yeah, the video end I thought was pretty silly, too.
4) Here's where most of that opening sigh comes from. Guess what? Technology advances! So the same statement made by Apple in 1998 about the PowerPC chip versus the Pentium II may not equate to the Pentium III released a year later.
It's sort of like bashing Bill Gates for (allegedly) saying that "640K should be enough for anyone" in 1982. Yes, that was true--in 1982. By 1988, it was ludicrous.
Also, did Apple move to the Pentium architecture? Nope. They moved to Intel's new architecture as shown in the Core Duo. So, no, don't worry--The Megahertz Myth is still a myth.
And "Performance Per Watt"? This is very important for the machines Apple "wants to build"--again, that pesky future thing. There was no way Apple could do a PowerBook/iBook G5. There was no way Apple could do a Mac mini G5.
I'll be curious about what Intel might have up it's sleeve to compare with the PowerMac G5 Quad. While "Performance Per Watt" is nice, the "Performance" is far more important than the "Watt" in professional circles--especially if it means getting home in time for dinner with the wife and chil'in.
But to get back to "misleading"--no. It's just that any kind of speed advantage one way or another is fleeting.
This seems to be a general rant of little substance.
1) Upgradability: I don't see where any one was misled. I don't recall anybody saying Macs were easy to upgrade. Apple has always used relatively proprietary parts with machines that were manufactured in a factory. In the early days of the IBM clone (the 1984 Macs era), people were assembling and selling them out of their dorm room. Of course they were easy to assemble and disassemble.
2-5) As you know, the business climate changes. To make a statement in the past and assume that it still holds water in future is obviously putting a little too much faith in our business leaders fortune telling skills. Let's not forget, Bill Gates once asked why anyone would need more than 640 KBytes of RAM.
Great work, you nailed it.
OT: Are you a self employed tech, and do you work with just Macs?
-Fish
http://www.castablasta.com
Intel came out with the 1.7 GHz P4 in 2001, while Apple had the 867MHz G4 in 2001.
Apple had the 2.0GHz G5 in 2003, while Intel was at 3.2GHz
1) Things change
2) Jobs can be wrong (and has admitted so)
3) Not all of his comments were meant to be absolute.
4) His comments have all been based on fact or his own opinion. Much of your judgements have been based on rumors and your own speculation.
What's the point of having a blog if you never allow people to comment on it? *shaking head* Anyways, girls like cars, too. A lot of my female friends dig cars. Girls even work on cars. As a guy, I think it's a kewl thing.
Only 5?
... On 9 December 1998, Steve Jobs publicly stated that rumors of HyperCard's
discontinuation were "bullshit."
Steve has the magic touch which many CEOs do not have.
Didn't Apple his 1 Ghz in 2003? Apple was well
beyond 1Ghz in 2004.....
Does anyone else know that the megahertz myth is actually a lie in itself? The pipeline diagrams apple used to describe how cumbersome the Intel processors can be was a total fallacy.
a short technical note about this is that whenever the code would hit a "branch", apple would show the intel chip having to restart the whole pipleline... that is ridiculous. The branches would maintain the same position on the pipeline and all compilers create assembly that allows the processor to execute statements AFTER the if() branches
Although this article isn't quite well written and is mostly opinion, apple has made so many poor decisions when it comes to computer hardware that Mactards, who do not understand the hardware engineering, seem to ignore behind the glow of their polished GUI's.
I'm not going to flame, because I appreciate what you are trying to say.
I will however add, that I was never able to see the 2x Intel speed claim that PowerPC used to have over x86.
In my day to day life back then, I used a clone Pentium 2 233mhz and an original beige G3/266. My P2 ran circles around the G3 in Photoshop and AFX renders...
Additionally, there was Apple's great pride when they presented the 64 bit G5 processor... now, after the presentation of the Intel Macs, suddenly nobody talks about 64 bit being the future any more.
Well you forgot the mother of all things I quit apple over: Proprietary Hardware running Apple OS. Microsoft would be taken out behind the woodshed if it had prop. hardware, I think this fact is always overlooked by the Mac faithful. I was so happy when you could buy a Mac from almost anyone, I think Dell could do a good job, after all they have Linux?!?
ipod video,
the screen is larger (can be produced cheaper)
now there is content
batteries are better and storage cheap enough
cheap enough to be produced and sold
and there is market,
Steve Jobs does not say that a video ipod should not be made ever, just that it is not the time.
The cars movie. I dont not think this exclusively for boys. This is an animated movie with characteristic animated cars with faces, such as the animated series Thomas the train which have been once a success. Not a car review tv-program or anything like "fast and furious", boyish movie.
It is a myth that girls only like barbie etc ...
Just a note: A Bug's Life box office sales suffered not because of Pixar's misguided intentions, but due to the prior release of Dreamwork's Ants. While A Bug's Life was subjectively the better film, the public had "seen it already" given Ants had been released earlier in the year.
Very interesting, thanks. I've had a feeling about the Mhz Myth for a while. It's gonna be tought to backtrack opn all we've heard about that for 3 years. That said, I love Apple, love my iBook, and plan to buy more Apple products. ;-)
Chris
http://amateureconblog.blogspot.com/
So you wrote all this rant to sell a t-shirt at the end? You're definitly funny.
Its Customers, not It's Customers.
Its = possessive
It's = It is
Um, I'm not really an Apple fanatic or anything but some of your points don't really go anywhere...
Why was he dishonest about the megahertz myth again? I'm just not sure what you're saying, originally he said that PPC processors were faster but now he's saying that Intel processors are more efficient in terms of power. How is that misleading or dishonest?
I doubt those are all Steve Job's misleadings. Didn't ADB and SCSI come after Jobs was fired about 90 or 91?
And maybe ... you ... could ... write ... a .... sentence ... without ... all .. the ... periods ... for .. once. Take a friggin writing class! For all that is good and holy, use COMMAS.
As for the iBook being the worst design ever, you should specify. You mean "the iBook is the worst design for a technician." I'm sure the other 95% of Mac users love their iBooks even if they can't open them up. Most users wouldn't open them even if they could. That's for technophiles and nerds, which isn't most consumers. Macs are made for regular people, not nerds. If you want to open a Mac up, get a Pro machine, don't expect it in a consumer Mac.
Also, you only listed two Macs, you never mention the ones that are easy to open up. Like the G4 Tower. The iPod shouldn't be opened up without a service tech. It's not hard to open an iPod anyways .. i've done it.
And if the PowerBook Pismo was so upgradable, why aren't people using them today?
The ADB and SCSI arguements are pretty lame ... Steve Jobs pretty much axxed those when he came back to Apple. He's the reason you have USB and Firewire on your Mac.
What is with your arguement for video content and mobile video? You contradict yourself. You quote what Jobs said about mobile video, and then you say that bandwidth issues and nothing noteworthy from compitition made his statements true. What is wrong with you? Not to mention your sentences are always seem incomplete and fragmented .... kinda ... like this ... ...
As for the overpromising and underdelivering, that happened once. They promised 3Ghz and it didn't happen. Since Apple keeps most everything secret, they don't usually promise much, so you don't have a very good arguement there.
As for the proprietary hardware accusation made by "anonymous" The reason Apple "makes the whole widget" is because most PC makers use the cheapest components, bundle crappy software trials and adware, and that's where Apple excels. They have quality control. All the software bundled with an iMac of very good quality. The parts are all quality. They focus on the user's expirience rather than low price and cheap products.
1) your only true argument here for computers that are still in production is the ibook. ibooks are meant to be as small as possible while still being effective, did you expect it to open like a g4 tower?
2) ibooks haven't had pcmcia cards for ages, and powerbooks have only had one. i would venture to guess that 75% or more pcmcia slots are used for network interfaces, all the new standards are included on the new macbook.
apple can sit around and hope people start making some peripherals for it or they can release it and let them get cracking.
DMann said...
"Didn't Apple his 1 Ghz in 2003? Apple was well
beyond 1Ghz in 2004....."
The expo where Steve Jobs presented The Megahertz Myth was 2004 San Fran - he used an 867Mhz vs a 1.7Ghz Intel
"So you wrote all this rant to sell a t-shirt at the end? You're definitly funny."
No, I just thought that it was funny ... I have no affiliation or even like or dislike of ThankYouSteve.com
If you'd actually read the article it was actually more praise for Jobs ...
Whatever. Don't present as fact your opinions. You just come off as shrill and bitter.
As a Mac user since 1986, let me state that you've misled us about a lot more things than Steve Jobs ever did. Your article is replete with factual errors.
1. Jobs has never said Macs are easy for users to upgrade or repair. In fact, it was at his insistence that the early Macs were so difficult to get into - he didn't want people mucking about inside the computer. The original iMac followed the same model. He has never misled us about this.
2. Whether Apple has been ahead of or behind the storage and connectivity curve, where has Steve Jobs misled us? And most of your examples are from the non-Jobs era: SCSI was post-Jobs and came at a time when there was not standard in the PC world for connecting external drives. ADB got its start on the Apple IIgs and moved to the Mac in 1987. The PC world has had how many different keyboard connectors since then?
Jobs was clear that the iMac was following a lead dropped in the PC world, and Apple established USB as a real world standard - something Intel couldn't do. Apple has also been the first to include CD-ROM, built-in ethernet ports (using their dreaded AAUI connector), a trackball on a notebook, a trackpad on a notebook, and much more. Of course, most of this didn't happen when Jobs was at Apple, so he didn't have the opportunity to mislead us about them. (That is the central thesis of your rant, isn't it? That Jobs has misled us?)
3. Steve Jobs has been willing to change course. He pushed for DVD drives on Macs when the rest of the world was embracing CD-RW. Oops, next generation of Macs had CD-RW instead. At one point he didn't foresee Apple ever going after the flash MP3 market, but when memory prices made it practical, the iPod shuffle and nano became dominant. Ditto for video - when it became practical to add it, when the market demonstrated demand for it, Apple made a way to do it.
Misleading someone means leading them to believe something that isn't true. It doesn't mean that if you change your mind you've been misleading people when you advocated your prior views.
4. Steve Jobs was at NeXT and Pixar when the G3 came to market. Ditto for the 68040, PowerPC 601, and G4.
Yes, there is a MHz Myth. Compare the 68030 and 68040 CPUs - the newer one was roughly twice as powerful at the same clock speed (MHz rating). Some CPUs are simply more efficient than others, which also applies to the G3 vs. earlier PowerPC chips.
After all your pre-Jobs rants, you finally get to one that applies - maybe the first in your extended diatribe. Yes, Steve Jobs way overstated the benefits of the Intel Core Duo in the new Macs. And Apple marketing is repeating those claims.
For those who caught the keynote, the screen behind Jobs showed the SPECint and SPECfp numbers that substantiated his claim. The problem is, simply because a CPU is twice as fast as a limited range of functions doesn't mean the new computer is going to be twice as fast. Apple should stop overhyping Intel inside.
5. Disney's board of directors decides that Pixar is worth $74 billion. Where has Steve Jobs misled anyone? What in the world is dishonest about Disney's offer and Pixar's acceptance of it? This is business as usual in America.
So out of five areas where you claim Steve Jobs has mislead us, you get partial credit for one.
You won't be seeing a link to your trip on Low End Mac.
Dan Knight, publisher, Low End Mac
I absolutely agree with swapping the iBook's hard drive. It took me a frustrating 1.5 hours, and I had a screws left over when I was done! In the same vein, the previous (thicker) iMac had many user replaceable parts, and now the new (thinner) iMac requires a tech to do it again. Apple does bounce around between easy and hard accessibility.
Regarding ADB, while it was non-standard, it was superior to the PC keyboard/mouse connections at the time. The best feature of it was that it was daisy-chainable, which reduced the number of wires to the PC box. There was even an ADB modem available. In the same vein, SCSI was superior to parallel because it was faster and daisy-chained, too.
And, of course Steve was downplaying video prior to the Video iPod as a strategic move. He knew it was in the pipe, but didn't want to legitimize the portable video before it was ready to ship. As he proved with iTunes, digital animation, and now portable video, he can open and legitimize a new market segment on almost a whim.
Anonymous said: "Whatever. Don't present as fact your opinions. You just come off as shrill and bitter."
And people jumped on ME for poor grammar and writing in my article.
In case you didn't know ... this is a BLOG ... it IS my opinions ... unless I specifically SAY "FACT" or give detailed accounts of personal experiences ... then that is all factual as well.
If you can point out anything that is specifically not true ... I will correct it or debate it.
Anonymous said: "Additionally, there was Apple's great pride when they presented the 64 bit G5 processor... now, after the presentation of the Intel Macs, suddenly nobody talks about 64 bit being the future any more."
Yes, I did forget that ... but the people who knew (like you) understood where I was going.
Anonymous said: "Proprietary Hardware running Apple OS."
But Gateway and HP do the same thing - proprietary hardware running Windows.
Anonymous said
"ipod video,
the screen is larger (can be produced cheaper)
now there is content
batteries are better and storage cheap enough"
None of these are true applied to Apple ...
The screen is rather insignificantly cheaper, but I will grant your argument a little merit.
APPLE CREATED THE CONTENT & THE DISTRIBUTION - are you saying you couldn't load video onto Personal Media Players and that nothing was available before the video iPod?
Battery technology hasn't changed ... the replacement batteries for iPods that were available two years ago are better than the current iPod Video battery
... from what I know (somewhat speculatory) the 1.8" drives have not increased or decreased in price for Apple as a volume customer. I'm basing this partly on what i could get a 1.8" drive 1.5 years ago vs what I can get it for today.
Take into account your statements do NOT apply to Apple's business model ... Apple typically does not pass cost savings onto its buyers ... they must make an average 25% margin or Wall Street would hammer the stock. NO OTHER computer company (or technology company for that matter) has these kinds of margins ... if there is ... please indicate.
Anonymous said:
"The cars movie. I dont not think this exclusively for boys. This is an animated movie with characteristic animated cars with faces, such as the animated series Thomas the train which have been once a success. Not a car review tv-program or anything like "fast and furious", boyish movie."
That's a good point and I admit my last comment was a bit of a stretch ... but I gues we'll have to see how well it does. Just note that boy themed movies have been the least successful for Pixar - Incredibles & A Bug's Life.
Dan Knight said: "1. Jobs has never said Macs are easy for users to upgrade or repair. In fact, it was at his insistence that the early Macs were so difficult to get into - he didn't want people mucking about inside the computer. The original iMac followed the same model. He has never misled us about this."
I didn't say he said it ... I think people are misled by the difficulty to add to or repair their computers. It takes a trained Apple Tech a lot longer to open and repair an Apple than a trained PC Tech to open a PC.
"2. Whether Apple has been ahead of or behind the storage and connectivity curve, where has Steve Jobs misled us? And most of your examples are from the non-Jobs era: SCSI was post-Jobs and came at a time when there was not standard in the PC world for connecting external drives. ADB got its start on the Apple IIgs and moved to the Mac in 1987. The PC world has had how many different keyboard connectors since then?"
The first Macs under Jobs had SCSI - PCs had serial and parallel connectivity and there were hard drives and CDROMs available as well as scanners and printers. ADB wasn't under Jobs, but was propogated ... if I'm not mistaken HE MADE THE deals for ADB and then also used the technology a little under NEXT. It was better ... it just wasn't commonplace and I couldn't Apple mice anywhere. Until USB came along - Macs couldn't hook up to "cheap" adapters for PC peripherals. I say in the piece I am pleased with the direction Macs had gone up until the expresscard ... while it is forward thinking it's not backward compatible.
"Jobs was clear that the iMac was following a lead dropped in the PC world, and Apple established USB as a real world standard - something Intel couldn't do. Apple has also been the first to include CD-ROM, built-in ethernet ports (using their dreaded AAUI connector), a trackball on a notebook, a trackpad on a notebook, and much more. Of course, most of this didn't happen when Jobs was at Apple, so he didn't have the opportunity to mislead us about them. (That is the central thesis of your rant, isn't it? That Jobs has misled us?)"
Ok ... you got onto me about this ... none of the innovations/connections you mentioned in that paragraph were under Jobs.
USB was well established ... but you are right Jobs vision and standardization brought USB to be more common and pretty much THE connectivity standard.
Again, I will tell you ... you read this piece in an inflamatory way ... did you also read the praise? I was tied of seeing all the posts on the net with praise without any criticism ... Steve Jobs deserves all the praise he can get and no one is better at being a CEO ... however, he is not perfect and he is not Christ.
"He pushed for DVD drives on Macs when the rest of the world was embracing CD-RW."
yeah, he chose DVDRAM - did any consumer video player use that? (maybe now, but then?)
"Steve Jobs was at NeXT and Pixar when the G3 came to market. Ditto for the 68040, PowerPC 601, and G4."
No on the G3 and definitely no on the G4. And NeXT used 68040's.
"Dan Knight - publisher Low End Mac"
I am amazed that you of all people would post such a flame ... but I guess I could expect it ... most stuff on the Low End Mac site is hard to read and factually inaccurate (such as your G4 not under Jobs statement)
The fact that you don't understand the MHz myth is bad enough, but an article stating that Steve Jobs has misled "us" without proof of him ever saying that Macs were easily user upgradeable and serviceable is crap.
You made this article to attract attention... To bring people to your crappy blog and hope they would take the time to look at your other articles.
As someone who used to do desgin work with PowerPC processors, there actually was a "Megahertz Myth".
More interestingly, even Intel bought into the MHz myth when they designed the Pentium 4, sacrificing efficiency for ever higher clock speed. The idea being that at the same MHz the Pentium 4 is slower than Pentium 3, but because of some design tradeoffs (if you're interested in processor design check out ars technica's technical blackpapers) they thought they would be able to increase the clockspeed to very high numbers. (I rememeber being told by an Intel guy we'd be at 8GHz plus by now on the P4 arch).
They got burned by sacrificing everything for clockspeed in their design (which is why the Pentium 4 architecture is being abandoned by Intel). AMD is starting to eat their lunch because they took a more wholistic performance approach with the Opteron desgin (e.g. integrated memory controller).
On failure, I think teh Steve has had some pretty monumental failures. Check out the Lisa, that was a huge flop for apple, and Steve's pet project at the time (it was named for his daughter after all).
What sets Steve apart is that he learns from failure, he took what he learned from the Lisa flop and plowed everything into the first Mac.
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And most of your examples are from the non-Jobs "SCSI was post-Jobs and came at a time when there was not standard in the PC world for connecting external drives. ADB got its start on the Apple IIgs and moved to the Mac in 1987."
Jobs brought these technologies to Apple. Post Jobs or not.
"The PC world has had how many different keyboard connectors since then?"
Same # as Apple ...
PC = serial, AT, PS2, USB
Apple = serial, RJ8, ADB, USB
Jobs used Apple serial, non standard DB25 SCSI, same floppy drive, and ADB ports while at NeXT. If the intentions were for NeXT to be a success, then he was trying to mainstream these non-mainstream connectivity standards (whether they were superior or not makes no difference)
Now that Apple has chosen to adopt an inferior standard over its OWN SUPERIOR standard (USB (inferior) vs firewire (far superior) ) whatta you know ... more iPods are selling and more Macs are selling ... more developers are supporting the Mac than ever.
Next, maybe you can list all the things Bill Gates has mislead us about in the last 30 years? Or, maybe you don't have the staff do complete such a project?
"You made this article to attract attention... To bring people to your crappy blog and hope they would take the time to look at your other articles."
Thank you for paying attention to me.
Please read the other articles and flame like you did this one.
"Next, maybe you can list all the things Bill Gates has mislead us about in the last 30 years? Or, maybe you don't have the staff do complete such a project?"
Funny ... but I'll state this again, this is more of let's settle into reality piece and praise of Jobs than anything ... what my point here was ... he is a great CEO ... these are very very small blips concerning mistakes ... it has just bothered me that he is being set up a deity and not a man ... setting him up constantly in the media as Saint Jobs will only magnify a mistake if he makes one and could be catastophic for Apple and it's shareholders.
My title was meant to be inflamatory.
It's kind of funny. As an Apple customer since 1979 (& someone who stopped being an Apple customer for a while), I have a long list of gripes with things Apple has done over the years. Almost none of them are on this list.
Likewise, I could make a list nearly as long of Steve Jobs deceptions, & I think it would also be completely different than this list.
No criticism intended...just observation.
"This movie (Cars) is geared towards boys - girls have no interest in cars"
Wow! This is so completely contrary to my experience. Most of the girls & women I've known have had an interest in cars. My 3yo daughter asked for a "red truck" for Christmas, & she loves it.
"I have a long list of gripes with things Apple has done over the years. Almost none of them are on this list."
Jackwhispers: I tried to make these specific to Jobs ... a few comments here have pointed out other failures ... but this was not my intention. The intention was to show Jobs is human. I just posted an inflamatory title.
"This movie (Cars) is geared towards boys - girls have no interest in cars"
Wow! This is so completely contrary to my experience. Most of the girls & women I've known have had an interest in cars. My 3yo daughter asked for a "red truck" for Christmas, & she loves it."
Jackwhispers: Like I said in a comment previously ... I guess we'll have to see. I know a lot of girls who like cars too ... but admit ... girls like dolls (Toy Story) and fish (Finding Nemo) and Silly Animals who make Monsters look friendly (Monsters Inc)
Thank you for your comments and critique. I think of everyone ... you are the only one to understand where I'm coming from while politely disagreeing.
Factual error about the first G4 Powermacs. They were intended to be 500 MHz at the high end, but the high end slipped to 450 MHz when they shipped. I should know, I moved mine (bought in Sep 1999) to my research lab 2 months ago after getting a Quad G5.
Agreed, being 50 MHz off the mark doesn't detract from the point you were making. But why did you have to recommend googling about the early G4 processor downgrade fiasco... when you obviously didn't do it yourself. This is sloppy, even for something as slack as a blog.
I tend to think that this type of negative thinking will not get us very far.
1.) Most Apples (excluding powermacs and those designed for professional use) are designed for home users. These home users are not expected to go through the tedious upgrade processes and the systems are designed as eye candy for them.
2.) I agree, it is a pitty that we will not have a pcmcia slot. But when express card becomes the "norm", I will sure be glad that I have one in my laptop and do not have to go purchase another computer in a year or two to get the improvements that come from that technology.
3.) I believe that Steve really did believe that video content was the wrong way to go. He could have admitted his fault, but he went ahead and provided a product that alot of people in the market were screaming about.
4.) Steve made promises for the PowerPC processor that didn't pan out. Apple does not design these chips, they only purchase them. In the end, they were too energy hungry and did not give the processor bonus that Intel chips gave. Great move for laptops! Also, desktop systems may become cheaper to run.
5.) He is a business man. He believes in Pixar. Disney believes in Pixar. Disney was not willing to give Pixar the cut that Pixar felt they deserved after many very successful films. I am sure that Disney didn't want to lose Pixars future ability to generate revenue. So, why not buy out Pixar? Steve becomes the largest single shareholder in a great marketing company and Disney gets to retain a close relationship (even closer) with a company that has made them alot of money in the past and has the potential of making alot of money for them in the future. Have you seen Disneyland? It has Pixar based movie rides popping up all over now. It is a good way to get the next generation of children excited.
Anonymous said: "Most Apples (excluding powermacs and those designed for professional use) are designed for home users. These home users are not expected to go through the tedious upgrade processes and the systems are designed as eye candy for them."
But most of these consumers are "invoice shocked" when they see that they are being charged for 2 hours service and that the repair took 3-5 days in the shop.
Macs are difficult to troubleshoot CORRECTLY. Most techs replace parts that do not need replacing ... just to complete the repair faster ... almost as a Hail Mary fix.
Apple can make elegant computers that are easy to fix, upgrade, and maintain ... I gave such an example ... The Pismo.
"And people jumped on ME for poor grammar and writing in my article.
In case you didn't know ... this is a BLOG ... it IS my opinions ... unless I specifically SAY "FACT" or give detailed accounts of personal experiences ... then that is all factual as well."
Yeah, I know. But I expected a good article. Even blogs can have good, well written articles. No really! It's true!
This is a little point, but I think you have CISC and RISC reversed. CISC has smaller code (Complex Instructions), but takes more clock cycles to perform each instruction. RISC has more code, but performs each instruction in fewer cycles. The purported speedup that apple was claiming was that RISC gets more done per clock cycle than CISC.
"Factual error about the first G4 Powermacs. They were intended to be 500 MHz at the high end, but the high end slipped to 450 MHz when they shipped. I should know, I moved mine (bought in Sep 1999)"
Jackwhispers: Thanks ... I corrected it.
"why did you have to recommend googling about the early G4 processor downgrade fiasco... when you obviously didn't do it yourself. This is sloppy, even for something as slack as a blog. "
Jackwhispers: I had looked up so much yesterday ... I did that one from memory ... you're right it was sloppy ... but that's the beauty of comments ... I changed it after confirming your statement through Google.
psst. The PowerPC chips actually need *more* instructions to do the same task. The RISC is Reduced Instruction Set - the CPU has less of a vocabulary but because of this, it can do more of them in a shorter amount of time.
What you end up with is a much more simple CPU that runs cooler, uses less power, and costs less to manufacture, but require more instruction to do what you want them to do. Compilers are more complicated, executables are larger..
In today's x86 chips, the instruction set is still of CISC design, but the CPU cores are basically RISC with a translator unit. It's been this way for quite some time.
Poor Macs,
Apple will make money on their new walkmans, but Linux has a better shot at Windows. 90% of the world uses Windows, vendors write software for that 90%. Good luck changing the world.
All in all a good read, well written and well summarized but very biased in some cases although I agree with you on some points (the megahertz myth was a big faux-pas). There is one part of your article that i don't agree with.
Customers do understand the difference between dual core technology and the old G4 chips. The only thing we have to do is explain to them and they get it.
I never underestimate the power of comprehension of any customer. If they don't understand or are still confused; we haven't done our job. I used to sell Apple products to prosumers and consumers and never have I encountered a situation where I had to repeat myself from lack of understanding with the customer.
Sebastien Gomez
Apple News, Final Cut Pro Tutorials
http://macgomez.typepad.com
"I tried to make these specific to Jobs"
But most of your choices struck me as more Apple in general than Jobs specific.
"I know a lot of girls who like cars too ... but admit ... girls like dolls (Toy Story) and fish (Finding Nemo) and Silly Animals who make Monsters look friendly (Monsters Inc)"
In my experience, boys & girl tend to like/dislike those things in about equal proportions as well. (Just that we tend to call the boys' dolls "action figures".) Add cars & bugs to the list, & the same remains true.
If "A Bug's Life" didn't do as well as the others, I think it has less to do with the choice of bugs. The pace of that film perhaps has less inertia compared to their other films. I tend to think the blander design & more subtle acting of the main characters has a lot to do with it.
Although, maybe it also has something to do with the fact that kids (& adults!) who like bugs like them as they are. The overly cutified & overly humanized ants in the film perhaps lose too much of the real bugs' appeal.
Or, come to think of it, maybe it isn't that bugs don't appeal to enough people so much that ants aren't the most appealling bugs. Which ends up, I think, being a refinement of your original point rather than a disagreement.
But I've rambled off topic enough...
"Thank you for your comments and critique. I think of everyone ... you are the only one to understand where I'm coming from while politely disagreeing."
You're welcome.
I didn't read all the comments, but it seems to me that all the proprietary standards (i.e. SCSI, ADB) that Apple stuck with for so long were continued under former CEO John and not Steve.
Why blame Steve for all that. There were two other CEO's for Apple and they both had an opportunity to make the changes. The proprietary issue cannot be fully put on Steve.
I expected your article to list actual comments and then to show timelines that proved how he was wrong about where Apple would or would not go. You did some of that, but I felt that your article was 50% Apple Tech complaints that we've heard over and over again. Regardless of whether I agree with you or not, the issue of standards topics that kept Apple in the dark ages doesn't seem to fit under the title of your article. I do happen to agree with you on the particulars, but your article would have been far more poignant had you reserved those points for another article titled, "Apple unnecessarily shoots themself in the foot when they jump too far ahead of the Technology curve. Moreover, the ricochete of the bullet wounds our wallets unnecessarily"
The bigger problem that I had in your arguments were in the problems created by the unavailability of processers at certain promised periods. These are not particularly Apple's fault. Motorola's inability to provide processors in sufficient quantity and maintain generational sped improvements as well as AMD or Intel have is outside of the scope of Apple. It's ludicrous to debate any of this processor issue as some problem that Apple had control over. This is not a point that is a "Steve mislead" issue. Come on man! Let's be real about this issue.
Dell is in current talks with AMD. Dell has the luxery of looking at AMD or Intel. Apple didn't have such a route to head into because of compatibility issues as you are well aware. Thankfully, they are compatible for the PC. Knowing Steve as I think I do, I doubt that he would make statments about new processor upgrades and then fail to deliver them if he had any say in the outcome. Steve doesn't control Motorola. You missed pointing out the fact that Motorola has a significant blame to own for Apple's processor issues that caused Apple Tech's such as yourself angst.
I would have enjoyed your article far more if you had stayed on topic with Steve's misleading statements that were directly attributed to things he had complete control over.
Overall, good article. If you're article weren't well written and thought out, I wouldn't have bothered to even comment. Good job. Nice Blog. Keep it up.
While I don`t know much about the megahertz myth and processors I do appreciate someone daring to criticize THE STEVE.
I recently realized, that I would never be able to use an ipod such as the nano or video on my G3 ibook, simply because I don`t have USB 2.0 ports. I have Firewire. My ibook is about two years old. I wouldn`t have minded if my computer had come with USB 2.0, but two years ago Apple didn`t seem to think that was important, and I trusted them. I wasn`t concerned too much about connectivity with the PC world, and I trusted that Apple would make sure, that they at least supported their own products for a reasonable range of time. That I would at least be able to participate in the small Apple world. That was stupid of me, I know.
It makes me wonder, why I should go on supporting them, because I am now pretty much isolated in an isolated world. I realize that an ipod is not such an important thing, but I think the fact that they just dropped firewire, without even bothering to mention or explain why marks a trend that I don`t like.
Thing is, I feel left behind and I feel betrayed. And because Apple very much relies on Steve Jobs as a persona to market their policies and products I feel betrayed by Steve. A few months ago had I seen him on the streets I would have asked for an autograph, these days I would look at him, with tears in my eyes and say "Firewire?", while playing "Walk on by" on my Trekstor MP3 player...
Elvissa:
You can use an iPod with USB 1.0. It's backward compatible. The iPod doesn't know the difference. It's getting data, but at a slower rate. I have a few friends who have iPods with older PCs and Macs. USB 2.0 hasn't really been around that long.
USB 1.0 still does a fine job. But, if you're picky (and depending on what you want out of life) find an older iPod on eBay that uses Firewire to sync and you'll be *just as* happy.
Cheers.
BTW - Great posts in the comments.
You`re right, I know that I can theoretically load my ipod via USB. I already have a shuffle and, honestly, it is already a pain to load the 512 MB, it takes forever. I wanted to upgrade to a nano or video, and even the thought of trying to load 4 or even just 2 GB with my ibook makes me dizzy. It is not really an option. Especially with videos.
And for the record, I´m getting an ipod photo, used, via ebay, the Trekstor thing was a joke, I´m not that desperate yet. Just hurt ; )
Why is everyone here a bunch of whiners. I think the biggest lie here that is in front of everyone's face is the fact that the G4 PowerBook and its predecessors were very power efficient, yet the new Mac Book Pro burns more watts. G4 PowerBook = 65 watts, Duo Core Intel MacBook = 85 watts. Do the math there is something amiss there. The iMacs are equal at 180 Watts, but I expected at least a little bit better gain there, but equal? Come on. Makes you wonder about the processing per watt crap that Steve fed us.
here's for all the people who don't like my punctuation
YoU''''ve ....""" GoT ((( 2 .... mUcH ...?? Time On /// Your hands . period. exclamation!!
Thanks for all the comments ... even those that disagreed ... this was educational for me and I hope educational for you. I corrected a few things in th article as comments pointed them out.
I can't comment on relative speed between Pentiums and Power PCs but back in the old days I ran some tests between a 1 Mhz 6809 and a 5 Mhz 8088. The 6809 was faster doing block moves in memory than the 8088 even though the 8088 has registers for that purpose.
Good article. I agree with you in saying that it's just a blog. No need to get your panties up in a bunch over a couple periods. I liked the article, but I think that people who whine are more entertaining.
Well, I liked the article. Good even for a BLOG.
I worked as an engineer for Motorola for a year and a half after college (electrical engineering). I am under the impression that the real reason why PowerPC processors are faster with lower frequencies, is that the clock cycle to operation ration is lower. Meaning: for every PowerPC clock cycle you get 4 operations (rising and falling edges), and for every Intel clock cycle you get 2 operations (rising edges). Intel does not use the same quality silicon and other materials, and does not concentrate on making both sides of the clock cycle unform, and thus can't use both. Motorola processors are designed for a much larger product market, including militray mission critical applications, and cannot afford to suck as much power, so there is more of a focus on getting all you can out of a clock cycle. Intel however, decided that it could generate higher processor bandwidth by following a prodct road map where they concentrate on higher frequencies with less uniform clock cycles. That is how they got to be the GHz Kings, and how IBM and Motorola fell behind.
But my thoughts are that pure processor speed is not the issue. I could get a lot done on a slower processor without all the overhead. This is where I think the mac moves ahead of the Intel cored computer. The genius of the mac is that the entire system is designed to coordinate badwidths, based on the needs of the Unix platform. Unix as an operating system is capable of requiring very little overhead, because it essentially a tiny core with as many peripheral non-critical threads running in such a way as to not affect the operating system. Notice that when an application in a mac hangs, you can select another application and it runs normally. This doesn't happen with Intel. PowerPC chips can operate four instructions at the same time, Intels can only run two at the same time. Now that the new Intels are dual core they can essentially run four instructions at the same time at higher frequencies than the PowerPC. The only drawback is power consumption and stability, which I am sure Intel has assured Jobs is not a problem, and thus Jobs feels like he isn't losing anything in moving to Intel.
I'd be interested to learn whether the dual core can run two sets of two of the same type of instructions at once, or four different types of instructions at once, like the PowerPC.
Actually I should revise after rethought. The Power PC does an instruction on every flat edge:
_|-|, There are four flat edges. Intels do an instruction on the falling and rising edges: _|-|, ther are only two. When you base your instructions on the flat parts of the cycle, those flat parts have to be a certain length or the transistors won't recognize them as flat parts, thus limiting the PowerPC clock speeds. With the Intel clock speeds can get much higher because the rising and falling edges are easier to detect, say with a comparator. When you use continuous flat segments to trigger innstructions you have to use differential calculus to determine if an edge is flat, say for instance by taking a derivative to show that the voltage has not chnaged. The Power trade offs are actually very similar because the calculus logic requires more power than a comparator. But the calculus logic is more stable because it is more accurate than a comparator which essentially only uses one data point compared to the several data point required to determine if an edge is flat (at least three).
"the P6 core of the PentiumPro processor and its successors has special functional units which expand, or "crack", the majority of the CISC instructions into multiple simpler RISC operations. Internally, processors using the P6 core are RISC machines that emulate a CISC architecture."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RISC
GIRLS LOVE CARS!!!
This ignorant nonsense about a transportation vehicle being for one sex plain aggravates me - not because it is sexist or traditional or what have you - but because it is stupid.
Cars are like clothes for women. Except they are clothes that function as a ticket to independence.
WIll someone ever find a cure for idiocy?
You type... like... William Shatner.
Good article though!
On the issue of opening up computers: Sure most normal customers don't tinker around with the inside of their computer. But even Apple computers may need to be repaired. And when someone's Mac needs parts replaced, who gets to deal with Apple's difficult to open designs? The technicians of course. Just because we are Apple fans and like working on Mac hardware does not mean we have to blindly accept whatever Apple throws our way.
As for iBook being the worst designed laptop, I would say that the 12 inch Powerbook takes the cake. For example, removing the keyboard requires the technician to pull several keys off the keyboard in order to access the screws under the keyboard. And anyone who has ever been to a CompUSA store and seen laptop keyboards with keys pulled off will understand what a terrible keyboard design this is. And since accessing many internal components requires first removing the keyboard, the 12 inch Powerbook's poor keyboard design becomes even more troublesome.
Removing the DVD drive in a 12 inch Powerbook requires removing almost every internal component including the hard drive, modem, logic board, and several dozen screws.
Do people think Apple technicians are mindless robots who happily take in whatever a customer brings in without question? The truth is, many Apple technicians are not happy with current Apple hardware designs because they require major disassembly even for the most basic components. Many Apple authorized repair centers will not even repair laptops in the shop. Instead Apple repair centers will just ship the laptops to Apple for repair, adding several days to the repair process. They do this even when they are able to order parts from Apple. What does it say about Apple's laptop designs when Apple authorized technicians don't want to touch Apple laptops? If Apple made their laptops easier for technicians to take apart, then more technicians would be willing to repair Apple laptops. And customers would get their laptops back sooner, and with lower service fees. Even the most computer illiterate average consumer should be able to understand this.
But poor accessibility does not apply just to Apple laptops. For example, replacing the power supply in a Power Mac G5 Quad requires first removing the front and rear fans, all PCI Express cards, Airport card, front panel board, processor, and logic board. Including the screws for the power supply, we are talking close to 50 screws here! Just for a power supply!
If people think that Apple hardware serviceability is not their problem, then they better be prepared for longer downtime and increased labor charges whenever their Mac needs parts replaced.
"Just note that boy themed movies have been the least successful for Pixar - Incredibles & A Bug's Life."
Ummm ... that's just plain silly. Toy Story and Toy Story 2, about a cowboy toy and a space man toy, are arguably just as "boy-themed" as the Incredibles, and significantly *more* "boy-themed" than "A Bug's Life". FWIW, I've always regarded ABL as more girl-themed than the rest of the Pixar movies, with its flowers and ladybugs all over the place.
ABL "failed" (if $160M is failure) because Dreamworks beat Pixar to the punch with the (IMHO) dreadful Antz.
That having been said, I'm not overly enthused for Cars. Much less so than I have been for any of Pixar's previous efforts. However, the one of which I had previously been the most skeptical turned out to be Pixar's biggest success to date (Finding Nemo), so what do I know?
Just wanted to throw my two bits in, the Pismo was hands-down my favorite laptop design to come out of Apple. Partly because I just have a think for black rubberized and easy to service cases. Not to say the newer aluminum one's aren't nice, or in the case of the 17", easy to service. While the 15" and 12" are much harder, I have gotten my time to take a 12" down to everything but the bottom case and display to 45 minutes flat. There is much to be said for, say, IBM's design which typically uses 3 to 6 different screw types at most for most work. Granted however that those (along with a lot of Dell's) are also designed to be serviced more often in an enterprise environment where, sadly, the Mac is not quite so focused or marketed (for the time being at least). No excuse though for the iBook being as hard as it is to service.
Kuddos to the earlier comments covering modern Intel processors being RISC based, but also one more thing on that. At the time the PowerPC standard/alliance was formed, the whole RISC and CISC battle was still somewhat hot and technology limited the implementation of a RISC chip under a CISC interpreter and such. So at the time anyway, it made total sense to stick with RISC and a lot of what came out later (MHz Myth, etc.) was marketing in many ways and marketing doesn't always handle things truthfully (not saying that's good or bad, just saying). At the time of the MHz Myth marketing though, there was still something to be said about the PowerPC's performance in media intensive applications, specifically dealing with the presence of the AltiVec engine. The loss of that will be felt, for a little while anyway, in the switch to intel. That being said, Apple isn't switching to Intel for the Pentium 4, or even really for the Core chip. The switch is for their next generation chips, the first of which will be released later this year. The Core chip is still basically a newer Pentium M/Centrino (depending on how you take it). Apple is switching for the "Intel Next-Generation Micro-Architecture", which includes Merom, Conroe, and Woodcrest. Merom being laptop, Conroe being desktop, and Woodcrest being server. All of which (if i remember my conference info correctly) are going to be 64-bit, they just aren't done yet. These chips are the center of the whole performance per watt argument, and it's fairly valid at least in comparison to the G5, whose thermal requirements were especially high.
That's a bit much of a rant, sorry about that there, just thought I'd share.
Good work on the article by and large, we're only human, so mistakes can be made and no one needs to die ;) Definitely a provocative title. Keep up the good work!
I can't believe I spent time reading this.
Everyone who's commented does have good points and i have to say that Microsoft have done a damn good job of standardising PC hardware to make life easier for those who aren't geeks (IRQ settings, anyone?) but that in itself is their problem - their obligation to legacy, which is one thing that Apple have never had. I remember the first flavoured iMacs, everyone was like "no floppy drive, wtf?" but now, hey, when was the last time you used a 1.44" disk? If redundancy is the price of progress I say we take it.
Either way we have to agree that Monsieur Jobs is an astute businessman, and there's not anyone in the world who wouldn't want to achieve the success that he's had, turtleneck sweaters or not, and being "mislead" is not so much his fault as it is ours, I mean, I held onto floppies as long as I could, but you know what? He was right.
Anyhow. I've had a 12" G4 powerbook since it was first released. Sure, it's outclassed, outgunned and out whatevered, but it still does everything that Steve said it would. It works.
That was kinda emotive.
On their Xserve web pages, Apple says:
"Xserve is designed for instant access to drives, PCI cards, fans and power supply — no special tools required."
"Since Xserve and Xserve RAID are designed for easy swapping of critical parts, you'll be ready to resolve the most common hardware failures quickly."
This is a far cry from Apple's current desktop and laptop hardware designs which require a total tear-down to replace simple parts.
Aren't desktop and laptop computers also used in enterprise IT environments? How would a server administrator feel if he had to take out 50 screws and every internal component of a rack server just to replace a power supply?
I'm sure Apple would like enterprise customers to purchase a few dozen or a few hundred Power Macs, iMacs, and Powerbooks to go along with those Xserves. But Apple is seriously mistaken if they think that an IT staff which support hundreds or thousands of computers is going to see nothing wrong with having to remove 50 screws and totally gut out a desktop computer in order to replace a power supply, or having to totally gut out a laptop computer and pull keys off the keyboard just to replace a DVD drive.
"There is much to be said for, say, IBM's design which typically uses 3 to 6 different screw types at most for most work."
While we are on the topic of screws:
Current Apple laptops use tiny, flimsy Philips screws which strip very easily. These screws look like the type which are used in eyeglasses and jewelry.
They also use tiny Allen screws which require a hex key to remove.
Most other laptops including Dell, HP and IBM require only a Torx T8 and a Philips #0 screwdriver to take apart. On the other hand, Apple laptops require a Philips #0, Philips #00, Torx T6, Torx T8, Allen hex, and various metric sockets.
mislead |mɪsˌliːd| verb ( past and past part. -led |-ˌlɛd|) [ trans. ] cause (someone) to have a wrong idea or impression about someone or something : the government misled the public about the road's environmental impact.
Please, when did jobs claim that every mac was a blast to upgrade? I don't remember him saying how the iMacs (prior to the first gen. iMac G5), iBooks or eMacs were "easily upgradable*. A nice juicy misleading quote from Jobs would certainly help your case. Interestingly, when taken to task for that in a previous comment by dan knight, you say you never said Jobs said anything misleading, but then immediately say how consumers were mislead. Let me just put the relevant parts here to refresh your memory:
"Dan Knight said: "1. Jobs has never said Macs are easy for users to upgrade or repair. In fact, it was at his insistence that the early Macs were so difficult to get into - he didn't want people mucking about inside the computer. The original iMac followed the same model. He has never misled us about this."
I didn't say he said it ... I think people are misled by the difficulty to add to or repair their computers. It takes a trained Apple Tech a lot longer to open and repair an Apple than a trained PC Tech to open a PC."
How are people mislead when they weren't led to believe anything in the first place? And if jobs never led anyone to believe that every mac was easy to upgrade, how come this is listed as one of the "5 Things Steve Jobs Has Misled Us About In The Last 30 Years"? Really, try explaining that, please, let me in on your profound wisdom, because my little mind just can't see the logic here at all!
Please also point out where Jobs "mislead" (see definition above) people about SCSI and ADB. Also, I would like to know where you get your information about jobs introducing ADB and SCSI to the Mac while he was still at Apple. I can't remember reading that anywhere. Also, your understanding of what standardisation looked like in those days seems pretty limited (comparing SCSI to Parallel??? Keyboard and Mouse interconnects etc.)
As for point five, well that one really took some understanding. So, selling Pixar to Disney is dishonest based on performance for a Movie that hasn't been released and I'm sure you haven't seen yet. Your Metric for failure is A Bugs Life, which, despite everything, was still a great financial success for Pixar and Disney. WOW! So, how's your fortune teller doing? Or maybe I should enquire about your therapy sessions. You have been going haven't you?
Sorry to slide into a childish flame at the end, but this is one of the most illogical, badly written attempts at generating hits I've seen in a while. I mean, even Enderle writes with more logic and understanding of the subject than what I have just read. Your weak attempts at defending yourself in the comments doesn't inspire much confidence in any future writing from you. I think I'll avoid wasting my time on reading this blog in future. I'd get more insight and entertainment off a cereal box!
Btw, please read and re-read the definition of misled. I assume for you it's a bit like the way many Americans us the term irony. They don't actually know what it means and mistake it for "coincidence". To use both terms, it's ironic that you mislead people to believe that your rant would contain something about Jobs misleading people, when at best you scrape on the surface of the subject in two out of the promised 5 points. I must say, exposing yourself in such such a manner does take some guts!
Wow, I can't believe I wasted so much time honouring this drivel with a response. Oops, there I go again, flaming! Sorry, your writing brings out the worst in me!
"Cars are like clothes for women. Except they are clothes that function as a ticket to independence."
I just did a quick poll of 5 men & women - aged 27 to 63.
I asked them to write answers to these questions: Yes or No.
Cars or Clothes - what do you look at more or admire more?
Cars or Dolls - which did you play with when you were a child?
Out of Cars, Dolls, Fish, and Bugs --- which two least appeal to you?
So ... please don't give me that - the answers were 100% as I expected ... I imagine they would be 99% as I expect if I did the poll with 100 men and women.
"Please, when did jobs claim that every mac was a blast to upgrade? I don't remember him saying how the iMacs (prior to the first gen. iMac G5), iBooks or eMacs were "easily upgradable*."
Apparently you didn't read the article ... the process for easily serviceable parts and reasonable expectations for components to be replaced or upgraded isn't true with Apple. Steve Jobs has said time after time he didn't like people inside computers because of the warranty issues.
Also ... this is my opinion ... the Pismo was such a huge success, especially in the aftermarket, that many people upgraded and modded it instead of buying a new Apple ... obviously something Jobs didn't like.
Further, it is misleading to techs ... as a tech, I should have a reasonable expectation of how long it should take to fix any given problem. Apple usually compensates 1 hour for repairs under AppleCare if you an authorized, certified tech and repair location ... the iBook, 12" PowerBook take no where NEAR that time if done right and especially if done infrequently.
"I'd get more insight and entertainment off a cereal box!"
Thanks ... that reminds me ... I need to put up my Kellogg's AppleJacks cereal affiliate link.
Your Metric for failure is A Bugs Life, which, despite everything, was still a great financial success for Pixar and Disney.
I suppose you mean measure not metric ... A Bug's Life is Pixar's least successful movie to date ... it wasn't a failure ... but last last can be equated with failure to meet expectations. Expectations for Pixar movies IN THE FUTURE are BUILT IN TO IT'S CURRENT stockmarket value. I expect Cars to be the least successful of all Pixar films to date. I could be wrong. But start reading this BLOG again if I'm right because then you'll know who to get advice from.
"Please also point out where Jobs "mislead" (see definition above) people about SCSI and ADB"
He propogated use of ADB, Apple serial, and SCSI at NeXT and wanted both standards on the original Macs ... they just didn't make the cut and were integrated right after his leaving (the 1st time) These standards, while better, were more expensive and less mainstream. Again, misleading to consumers and enterprise who would have normal expectations of getting parts easily, upgrading with moderate ability, and buying SOME upgrades with no hassle at ANY retail location.
You also failed to see the the other part of the argument ... what about firewire? Firewire on iPods are what made the iPod for me. It was adopted by many PC manufacturers, now it's being axed (it seems) from support ... reminds me a bit of SCSI.
"let me in on your profound wisdom, because my little mind just can't see the logic here at all!"
I'll let your comment speak for you.
Personally, I think Jobs intended to switch to Intel since he came back to Apple. NeXT had already transitioned to Intel. (NeXTSTEP became OPENSTEP.) Apple being virtually (though not actually) the only customer for PowerPC processor didn't feel very stable to him.
He knew, though, that he had to stage the changes he wanted to make at Apple. This one's time has now come. As with most changes, the publicly given reasonings seem weak.
Frankly, I think most cases in which you can clearly accuse him of misleading--such as telling everyone that being Pixar CEO would remain his priority & he'd only be Apple interim CEO until a replacement could be found--are more forgivable than cases in which I merely suspect he was being misleading.
& you know, I don't really have much respect for Jobs as a person, but I've been much happier with Apple as a whole since his return than before.
RF said: "Apple being virtually (though not actually) the only customer for PowerPC processor didn't feel very stable to him."
IBM is the largest customer as far as actual computing goes - for their server lines.
The PowerPC is in literally 1000's of different onboard and specialty computers - including automobiles.
Apple I believe accounted for about 9% of PowerPC production.
RF said: "I don't really have much respect for Jobs as a person, but I've been much happier with Apple as a whole since his return than before."
I have immense respect and admiration for Steve Jobs as a man, a CEO, and a visionary ... I doubt Apple would have survived without him. I think his role at Pixar (and NeXT for that matter) helped change his perspective and humble him into an entirely different leadership role.
My points here indicate that he does screw up and in some cases do damage control to maintain an image in the press (and to Apple fanatics) that is unrealistic. He is human ... not Superman.
Hi!
Overall, an excellent read. Whether some of your facts are right or wrong, you have provoked some great discussion.
From experience, whenever you write anything the least bit negative about Steve Jobs or Apple, the blind, unrealistic fanatics come out in droves.
It takes a lot of guts to write and express your thoughts publicly.
Keep up the good writ
All in all an interesting posting - some misses, quite a few hits.
The thing that drives me nuts about Apple is the lack of consistency - take any issue: serviceability, ports, you name it. One machine from Apple is GREAT, the next is a total DOG! I'd add to Steve's list of mistakes is the "no clones" policy. Yes, I know that issue has been debated until it has been beat to death, but I still believe it was a big mistake.
Moving to the Intel processors might well be one too - only time will tell that story. THE big hardware issue that distingushed Apple from Dell/HP/et all is now gone.
However, at then end of the day you have to admit that, over the last 30 years Apple has had more hits than misses. Steve gets credit (or blame) for all of them, since he is "Numero Uno". But like any human being, he sure as hell isn't perfect (and from what I've heard from people I know who have worked as "direct reports" to him he is a horrible boss as a human being), however he has in total been a positive for the computer industry.
I understand what is being said here and for the most part agree or don't care lol.
I have used Apple since 1984 with a brief period where I had an Amiga during Apple's Yuppie days.
My main issue with Apple is how they feel the need to force their customers into higher price technology that isn't need at the time. which was pointed out in the article and I agree with 100%.
Apple has forgotten the slogan "A computer for the rest of us" I thought the idea was a computer for everyone but not everyone can afford an Apple (I'm not talking about those who can't afford any computer).
I had a bronze powerbook and I feel that was a much better product than my 12" powerbook. I love the look of my 12" pb but the bronze was much more user friendly, better more durable case, ablitity to use 2 batteries, expandable slots.
As for the megahertz myth to the average user like me it really doesn't matter. what matters is when I use the program does it work at a speed that I can work with and am satisfied with using, if the answer is yes than who cares about the rest.
iPod video were we mislead or was Jobs simply misleading the competition?
Cars movie if it is good will do well simply off the strengh of the Pixar name which when A Bug's life came out wasn't nearly as strong and now is a "name brand" that consumers seek out to watch. Also it is unfair to rate a movie simply based off box office take and if it doesn't smash records rate it a failure. Not every Pixar movie will be as big as Toy Story or Finding Nemo. It just can't happen.
sorry for the ramblings.
I liked your blog until the point you claimed iBook as the worst laptop ever released by Apple.
Pardon me, but my first laptop has been an iBook i bought last year and i find the going pretty good. It is solid, feels pretty good, and is snappy.
It is like driving a car. I don;t need to know what a Framistan is to drive the car. Same is with Apple iBook. They delibrately made it easy to use, but difficult to open up, and i like it. It is better not being able to prise open the case and cry than being able to prise open an iBook by mistake and cry.
Why don't you claim a Dell laptop is better than iBook by your standards? Iam sure iBook users will ditch their iBooks and go in droves for Latitudes...
" They delibrately made it easy to use, but difficult to open up, and i like it. It is better not being able to prise open the case and cry than being able to prise open an iBook by mistake and cry."
Really? You like not being able to get to the memory easily? You like not being able to upgrade or repair something easily? Hard disk drives are (1) of the top 3 problems with an iBook.
Here's the situation at my computer repair shop:
Dell laptop customer comes in ...
Customer: How much would it be to put a new 60GB hard drive into my laptop?
PC Fixit guy: About $129.99 if you reload Windows onto it yourself. $200 if you want us to reload Windows for you. We can just mount your drive into an external enclosure.
Apple iBook customer comes in ...
Customer: How much would it be to put a new 60GB hard drive into my laptop?
Me (The Apple fixit guy): well ... it takes between 1 - 1.5 hours to take the iBook apart and reassemble it. I'll try to look to see if I can transfer anything to the new drive and I will reload the MacOS ... that should be about $350.00 all together.
This is misleading ... if I buy something I should have a reasonable expectation that the laptop will cost the same or a slight premium to fix. - Instead -- it's double and subjects ME AS A TECH to a lot of liability due to the complexity of the upgrade.
Apple could make these iBooks look the same and design them with same asthetic ... just make them easier to upgrade. They could put things below the logic board with 4 screws holding them in place. They could could connect more things on the logic board with fasteners rather than micron thin ribbon cables. They could make screws out of metal that doesn't strip and place screws in more obvious places. They could glue the magnetic shield to the bottom and make it where you don't have to remove it.
"They could could connect more things on the logic board with fasteners rather than micron thin ribbon cables. They could make screws out of metal that doesn't strip and place screws in more obvious places."
I think you mean socket connectors where the device plugs directly into the logic board. That's how the DVD drive on the first iMac G5 was installed.
As for screws being in more obvious places, Apple could also make the 12 inch Powerbook keyboard so you didn't have to pull keys off the keyboard in order to remove the keyboard screws.
Apple authorized repair centers have the option to ship laptops out to Apple for repair. Apple technicians should send a message to Apple by refusing to service Apple laptops in the repair shop. Instead, they should just mail out all Apple laptops to Apple. If Apple won't make laptops easier for technicians to repair, then Apple can fix the laptops themselves. Hopefully this will backlog the system so heavily that customers everywhere will start to complain to Apple about having to wait several weeks for their laptop repair. And hopefully Apple's own technicians will start complaining too at having to deal with so many mail-in repairs for laptops that are difficult to service.
I'll have to disagree with the previous comment ...
If you tell a customer you can't fix something they consider you incompetent. Are you or aren't you THE APPLE GUY?
And what about the new iMacs? They are almost as difficult to take apart.
"If you tell a customer you can't fix something they consider you incompetent."
The technician should just be upfront and tell the customer that Apple makes their laptops too difficult to service on site, and the repair shop doesn't have time for it. Lay it all Apple's doorstep and let the customer get pissed at Apple instead of the technician. I don't think Apple technicians should just blindly accept whatever Apple throws at them. Something has to be done. And despite all the letters written to Apple and all the complaints on various Mac web sites, Apple has yet to publicly comment on whether they care about serviceability for Apple technicians.
One Apple technician also commented that Apple only reimburses for 1 hour of labor on warranty repairs, regardless of how long the repair actually takes. This also includes putting the computer back together. So Mac repair shops lose money when doing warranty repairs, especially for those iBooks and 12 inch Powerbooks. So Apple needs to either make all their computers a lot easier for technicians to service, or make their reimbursements more in line with the time that technicians actually spend on repairs.
When the original Powerbook G4 first came out, Apple authorized service centers could only order basic parts such as memory, Airport card, battery, power adapter and keyboard. Everything else required mailing the unit out to Apple. Same with the G4 Cube.
And how many Apple Geniuses at Apple retail stores actually take the time to totally disassemble a Powerbook or iBook in order to replace the logic board, hard drive or LCD screen?
"If you tell a customer you can't fix something they consider you incompetent. Are you or aren't you THE APPLE GUY?"
But the technician is fixing it. Just not directly. Do you have a better suggestion for getting Apple to address the concerns of technicians?
Apple has a feedback web site
http://www.apple.com/feedback
where you can send your comments regarding Apple hardware. Apple certified technicians can also send comments directly to AppleCare support. Better yet, call Apple support on the phone and start complaining.
So start sending your comments to Apple regarding serviceability of their hardware. And let's see if Apple really is interested in listening.
They know their hardware is hard to service ... i was quite serious in the article ... Steve Jobs HATES people inside computers ... he sees it as one of the reasons Apple Computers don't need as much servicing ... in some ways I agree.
And, in actuality ... I think websites such as this are more effective than filling out generic complaint reports. This article alone has seen over 1 million hits and has reached Digg.
I know that a few higher ups in Apple read this BLOG anyway ... I would imagine if Steve hasn't read it ... it was at least brought to his attention.
Steve Jobs is one of the most innovative people along with those who work with him in creating new computers and the iPod!
Where have you been? Women don't like cars? Cars I'm a 66 year-old real woman who has always liked cars and have had a turbo Celica GTS for the last 7 years! My daughters and granddaughters all love cars!
Get you head out of the sand!
"Steve Jobs is one of the most innovative people along with those who work with him in creating new computers and the iPod!"
In case you didn't read .. I said that ... in fact I prefaced the whole article with praise.
"...have had a turbo Celica GTS for the last 7 years! My daughters and granddaughters all love cars!"
Having a Toyota Celica makes you a car lover? Having anything Toyota makes anyone a car lover? Having daughters who drive cars makes one a car lover and statistic worth measuring?
You have bugs in your home ... how many of the females in your family like bugs?
If your husband works for pest control company ... does that make YOU like bugs?
You make a lot of good points. But regardless of the hype, the products pretty much exceed consumer expectations. The iPhone for example is simply not like any other cell phone. I sure like the way Apple does it vs. the others.
Kathy,
The main point here is that Steve Jobs is actually a miracle ... but he has his flaws. A lot of people (and press) treat him like a God ... so much so that when he steps down or one day passes away, the stock and company may tumble unless he starts to temper it.
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