In the post-Jobs era I think we'll see more of this. Jobs was the face of Apple and he can't be replaced in that role. Going forward the best they can do is put other faces out there and let them be authentic and true to themselves in the process. Even when Jobs was being a huge jerk you could at least appreciate he was being authentic. People appreciate authenticity.
I agree. Worryingly, it could be evidence of a move away from traditional Steve values, ie don't back down (straight away), don't apologise, don't explain. Alternatively, it could be Apple realise they made a huge mistake, were about to see immense damage to the brand and/or sales, so have taken the drastic, ajobsian action they think is required.
Am I the only one who thinks that even though it made for a nice source of anecdotes and mystique, this part of Jobs' influence on Apple was actually not particularly relevant to Apple's success? Not everything he did was perfect.
I know some may consider it blasphemy, but I'm hoping certain aspects of Apple will improve now Jobs is gone, especially in the realm of open and honest communication.
Those aren't values, they're PR techniques. This whole non-event is made entirely out of image vapor and really shouldn't be hard to handle.
They've got a top-notch environmental story regardless of what sticker is on what webpage. They're clearly trying in their designs to use less toxic materials. They're clearly working on energy efficiency. They buy back almost any old equipment. They recycle any old equipment for free, including free shipping for chrissakes. And they're swearing up and down they're not just binning their recyclables and washing their hands as it ships off.
I think it is pushing it to say Steve's approach (which would probably have been to say nothing, then back-track 3 weeks later) was a PR technique. Having read the Isaacson biography, it's clear Jobs was 100% sincere in his belief that he knew best and was surrounded by bozos who hadn't earned the right to question his decisions. That's the attitude that made Apple great - twice - and it could now be gone.
If you read the biography and came to that conclusion, then it's incredibly unfortunate because the opposite was true. Jobs surrounded himself with the best engineers and often flipped positions based on their arguments. If you read or hear any of his interviews, he always talks about the team and how foolish it is to think one person could do everything.
I can buy that his convictions informed how and when Apple communicated with both customers and suppliers. His insistence on quality as he defined it certainly showed up in Apple's products and services. But I don't think it's the full story of how Apple achieved greatness, and his Indomitable Will hasn't always helped.
Apple plays business hardball as hard as anyone ever has, but that trait can be found in any b-school. Steve's twist on that is that he truly, personally despised the bozos and he'd freely break decorum to let them know it. His only interest was in Apple and, arguably, Apple's customers. Every other entity lower on the totem pole could expect rock pelting or the silent treatment at any time and for any reason. Antennagate was an example of this: no apologia was ever offered, customer concerns were treated with patronizing kid gloves, and internally the design team for iPhone 4 got their clocks cleaned over the issue.
"Fuck you" is costly, and I'm not sad to see less of it from Apple.
Recognizing a huge mistake is one thing. It was the publicly admitting it that is un-Apple. They could have just silently stayed the course for awhile before announcing they had changed they're mind.
Apple admits they've made mistakes in a number of ways, I'm pretty sure they've verbally said "we've made a mistake, we're doing this instead". The more interesting facet is they admit a mistake whilst sticking to their original notion.
Yup. My first-gen white MacBook back in 2006 was one of the ones afflicted by the random shutdown issue (http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1599). It took over a year iirc of local Apple stores blindly trying heat sink and logic board replacements before central management publicly acknowledged that an issue existed and promptly released a firmware upgrade to turn the fans on. Problem resolved.
I think it may be a shift, but not a worrying one. Those particular traditional Steve values were not the good ones. Until and unless they show a trend away from Steve's good values (e.g. good taste, favoring customer experience in engineering compromises, willingness to compete with their own products when necessary), I think this is a good thing.
I wouldn't worry about it. Actually, I'd worry more if Apple didn't change at all after Steves departure, since that would be a sign that they were afraid of thinking for themselves. I don't think Apples success is dependent on being a dick, and I hope they more towards opening up things (like the Gatekeeper certificates on OSX).
I’m also not sure why you are worried about that. Not everything Steve did was gold. Some of the things he did were pretty toxic, and I think being unable to really admit you were wrong in public is one of those things.
If this is indeed a change in that direction (and I somewhat doubt it is) it is to me unquestionably a positive one.
