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+--- Thread: Time for Steve Jobs to Retire? (/showthread.php?tid=64345)
Re: Time for Steve Jobs to Retire? - Silencio - 10-18-2008
guitarist wrote:
Nothing like a little false controversy to promote a fictional conversation about an imaginary problem.
MacMagus, didn't you switch to a Wintel laptop already? Disappointed the rest of us didn't come with you?
It's a self-regulating feedback loop with people blindly speculating on Jobs' health, leading others to say "people are talking about Jobs's health". I've said enough about it in other threads lately and am quite frankly sick and tired of the whole subject. Jobs is not going to drop dead next week, and he's not going to retire from Apple when they've achieved so much and are poised to become the dominant player in the next great area of tech growth: handheld computing.
Gee, Steve Jobs is such a lousy CEO, running Apple into the ground without a care in the world. They've only set new sales records quarter after quarter; they've only outpaced the growth rate of the rest of the PC market in the US by at least 3x over the past few years; they're only knocking on the door of 10% marketshare in the US; they've only entered a completely new market with a completely new device/platform and, after less than a year, are now selling the second most popular cell phone (not just smart phone) in the US. Jesus H. Christ, MacMagus! If that's your definition of "oblivion", I would hate to see your definition of success!
Re: Time for Steve Jobs to Retire? - simonm - 10-18-2008
I'd retire right now if I could. ;-)
Re: Time for Steve Jobs to Retire? - MacMagus - 10-19-2008
> Gee, Steve Jobs is such a lousy CEO, running Apple into the ground...
Yeah, because the iPhone is, of course, the triumphant and perfect pinnacle of all creation.
Sir, please put down the kool aid, hold out your hands and slowly step away from the reality distortion field.
...
In addition to his health problems, there've been a whole lot of stupid screwups lately at Apple. Who takes responsibility?
A few things just off the top of my head and in no particular order...
The ENTIRE (ongoing) Mobile-Me fiasco.
The epidemic of motherboard failures in the iBooks and original MacBooks.
The epidemic of video-failures in the iBooks.
The discoloration in MacBook plastics and the months of Apple refusing to acknowledge the problem.
Extraordinarily high manufacturing defects in the aluminum iMacs -- especially in the 20-inch iMacs. Bad speakers, bad RAM slots, defective power supplies that shut off the computer at odd intervals. (As an aside: People tolerate the silliest things. I just had a long conversation with switcher-client trying to get him to take his iMac in to the AppleStore. He had convinced himself that his iMac shut itself off every hour or two as a neat Mac-only power-saving feature.)
Defective keyboards in the MacBooks.
Making the innards of the Intel iMacs a cluttered, overheating mess. Making the innards of the new Intel iMacs a cluttered overheating and nearly inaccessible mess.
Repairing permissions in Leopard. FUBAR.
Removing hierarchical folders from the Dock and implementing the transparent menu bar against almost universally negative feedback from developers... and the kludges that Apple put in place to "fix" them in 10.5.2.
The fragile glass in the first generation of iPhones. The high SIM-slot failure rate in both iPhones. The lack of SMS (a basic cell phone feature these days) in iPhones. The promise of instant calendar-synchronization and instant push email in iPhones, followed by the censoring of all mention of it from the web site when people figured out there was really a 15-minute to 1 hour delay... when it (rarely) works. The confusing licensing of the iPhone developer kit, the over-cautious NDA, refusing to sell any product with any overlapping or similar features with any Apple (or Apple-partner) software.
...
...And yeah, dropping FireWire from the consumer Macs was awe-inspringly dumb because FireWire brings easy pro-quality video and audio to the masses AND because FireWire on Macs is reliable and fast and offers target mode AND because the ease of using and troubleshooting Macs that all of that engendered were the last big distinguishing features of Macs.
What makes it so royally dumb is that now anyone can run the Mac OS on a PC. Without FireWire, nothing of any real importance distinguishes consumer Macs from other PC's anymore. It's just shiny screens and buffed aluminum and Steve Jobs standing on a stage telling you how great they are.
...And what happens when Steve's not there any more? Will shiny screens and buffed aluminum be enough?
Re: Time for Steve Jobs to Retire? - Article Accelerator - 10-19-2008
"Yeah, because the iPhone is, of course, the triumphant and perfect pinnacle of all creation"
Close, or at least, the overall best available now.
"The ENTIRE (ongoing) Mobile-Me fiasco"
I don't think it's "ongoing" anymore. For most people, It Just Works™.
"The epidemic of motherboard failures in the iBooks and original MacBooks. The epidemic of video-failures in the iBooks."
"Epidemic?" Huh?
The rest of your list--really reaching (and unverified/unsubstantiated) to the point of silliness. For example, "the fragile glass in the first generation of iPhones:" Ask Guitarist about that--it took him more than 5 serious tries before he managed to break his.
dropping FireWire from the consumer Macs was awe-inspringly dumb because FireWire brings easy pro-quality video and audio to the masses AND because FireWire on Macs is reliable and fast and offers target mode AND because the ease of using and troubleshooting Macs that all of that engendered were the last big distinguishing features of Macs
Okay, you got me there. That's a boneheaded move for sure.
One out of 30, MacMagus. You're not doing so well...
Re: Time for Steve Jobs to Retire? - MacMagus - 10-19-2008
> at least, the overall best available now.
My 4-year old Nokia does more.
Re: Time for Steve Jobs to Retire? - MacMagus - 10-19-2008
> "The epidemic of motherboard failures ...Huh?
Yes.
Apple even had a couple of recalls. Eventually.
> "The ENTIRE (ongoing) Mobile-Me fiasco"
>
> I don't think it's "ongoing" anymore. For most people, It
> Just Works™.
Your definition of "just works" is pretty broad.
When did it start working? As of the end of August, Apple handed out another 2-month subscription-extension to apologize for their continuing problems.
Here we are in October and I don't know anyone with a MobileMe account who can consistently receive their email in a timely fashion. About half the time, the server refuses connections. One day it all works, the next day, they have to wait 10 hours for email from Yahoo, but Gmail gets through. Or all messages sent to them with file-attachments will disappear into the ether, only to appear in the inbox all at once a few days later.
...And don't even get me started on the sync problems. It could take an hour or two to resolve sync problems with Dot-Mac, but at least it was doable.
...
Another important problem at Apple: Security-updates lag way behind. A great example: Apple was privy to a crucial DNS flaw. Every other party involved got out a patch on the same day. Apple sat on their asses for three weeks with no patch. 'Don't remember that one? http://db.tidbits.com/article/9706 That's a humiliating disgrace.