For those of you who think steve jobs was a man of marketing, come here

[adildacoolset]

- When he introduced the macbook air, he said it's the future. In 2012, the devices that steal publicity are ultra books.

- He said flash is dying. Adobe officially killed it on android and it's a matter of time until it's death all around.

- When he introduced the iPhone, almost all phones then had capacitive touch screens later. If the iPhone was truly a useless phone and marketing brought its success, why are other OEMs following the direction of it?

- He recently claimed that we are transitioning into the post-PC era. With the retina display, and due to pressure, iOS will eventually get some more PC-like features and will also cause the death of netbooks. I still think we'll see high-end laptops and desktops. There still needs to be machines to build for those.

So does it take marketing to realize the future potential of devices? No. He was not an inventor like thomas edison but be sure that he had one heck-of-a brain to realize the potential. He was an expert visionary.

 

[aziatiklover]

He knew what he was talking about most of the time Alpha as fuuuuuuuu!

 

[kdarling]

- When he introduced the iPhone, almost all phones then had capacitive touch screens later.

That was already happening, but not as quickly because many phones had legacy handwriting support to think about and that was easist on resistive screens at the time. Nowadays we're seeing active pens coming back in addition to touch.

So does it take marketing to realize the future potential of devices? No. He was not an inventor like thomas edison but be sure that he had one heck-of-a brain to realize the potential. He was an expert visionary.

Sometimes. What's that saying? "Shoot first. Whatever you hit, claim it was your target!"

"What are tablets good for besides surfing the Web in the bathroom?" - Jobs to staff 2003

"I’m not convinced people want to watch movies on a tiny little screen." - Jobs to Mossberg 2003

"It doesn’t matter how good or bad the product is, the fact is that people don’t read anymore. Forty percent of the people in the U.S. read one book or less last year. The whole conception is flawed at the top because people don’t read any more.” - Jobs dissing the Kindle and any book or magazine apps - Jobs to NYTimes 2008

Third party apps won't benefit iOS and they shouldn't be allowed - Jobs to staff at iPhone launch 2007

 

[LethalWolfe]

So does it take marketing to realize the future potential of devices? No. He was not an inventor like thomas edison but be sure that he had one heck-of-a brain to realize the potential. He was an expert visionary.

Ping.
Cube. (beautiful flop but still a flop)
Firewire. (my preferred I/O but still a loser ultimately)
HD-DVD.
ADC.
3rd Gen iPod.
hockey puck mouse.

It's not always onwards and upwards at Apple (or any place, for that matter).

Jobs' mix of business sense, creative vision and determination is certainly unique but it was his stage presence and salesmanship that put him, and Apple, over the top. I mean, honestly, how many people can introduce an MP3 player or new computer and make it seem as awesome as Jobs did?

 

[rrl]

Too bad he didn't understand styli.

 

[smoledman]

Jobs was a unique visionary in consumer electronics.

 

[entatlrg]

That was already happening, but not as quickly because many phones had legacy handwriting support to think about and that was easist on resistive screens at the time. Nowadays we're seeing active pens coming back in addition to touch.



Sometimes. What's that saying? "Shoot first. Whatever you hit, claim it was your target!"

"What are tablets good for besides surfing the Web in the bathroom?" - Jobs to staff 2003

"I’m not convinced people want to watch movies on a tiny little screen." - Jobs to Mossberg 2003

"It doesn’t matter how good or bad the product is, the fact is that people don’t read anymore. Forty percent of the people in the U.S. read one book or less last year. The whole conception is flawed at the top because people don’t read any more.” - Jobs dissing the Kindle and any book or magazine apps - Jobs to NYTimes 2008

Third party apps won't benefit iOS and they shouldn't be allowed - Jobs to staff at iPhone launch 2007

Good info. It supports the OP's post very well and highlights another great personality trait of Steve. Not only could he see far forward, thinking about what products/features consumers would like as Apple laser beam focused on the end user experience.... Steve could make a mistake, learn from it, keep going and pull out hit products, over and over.

He was human too, and made numerous mistakes, many more mistakes than your average business person ... Why? Because he kept trying and trying ... The more you try the more mistakes you make, he was brave, determined, focused, unwilling to give up or give in until he was taught or proven otherwise.

The MOST AMAZING thing, from his many mistakes he and the Team he built were able to learn and pull off hit product after hit product. Steve could make a mistake, learn from it, work harder and the result so many times were fantastic, cutting edge, high demand products.

A truly amazing individual who deserves much respect.

RIP Steve

 

[Stella]

Trouble is, some people take whatever SJ said like the word of some god, and suggest everything came from him alone. This wasn't the case.

SJ had his hits and misses. Sure, he was good at what he did, but also he had a lot of people helping him, growing the Apple strategy and coming up with forward thinking visions. New product and designs came from a host of people, as well as SJ too. I don't want to dismiss the fact that he was good at understand the consumer.

Ultimately, when got up on the stage, he was a salesman and acted like one, a pretty good salesman at that.

- When he introduced the macbook air, he said it's the future. In 2012, the devices that steal publicity are ultra books.

- He said flash is dying. Adobe officially killed it on android and it's a matter of time until it's death all around.

- When he introduced the iPhone, almost all phones then had capacitive touch screens later. If the iPhone was truly a useless phone and marketing brought its success, why are other OEMs following the direction of it?

- He recently claimed that we are transitioning into the post-PC era. With the retina display, and due to pressure, iOS will eventually get some more PC-like features and will also cause the death of netbooks. I still think we'll see high-end laptops and desktops. There still needs to be machines to build for those.

So does it take marketing to realize the future potential of devices? No. He was not an inventor like thomas edison but be sure that he had one heck-of-a brain to realize the potential. He was an expert visionary.

 

[Tinmania]

That was already happening, but not as quickly because many phones had legacy handwriting support to think about and that was easist on resistive screens at the time. Nowadays we're seeing active pens coming back in addition to touch.

Already happening in the smart phone arena? I want what you are smoking. It was most certainly not happening in any significant way until the iPhone appeared.



Michael

 

[Jessica Lares]

Already happening in the smart phone arena? I want what you are smoking. It was most certainly not happening in any significant way until the iPhone appeared.



Michael

Windows Mobile had it for YEARS. Note: Mobile, NOT Phone.

 

[boss.king]

Windows Mobile had it for YEARS. Note: Mobile, NOT Phone.

I don't think that's right, WM phones had resistive screens until the HD2. The first capacitive touch phone was the LG Prada I believe.

 

[kdarling]

Already happening in the smart phone arena? I want what you are smoking. It was most certainly not happening in any significant way until the iPhone appeared.

Either you misunderstood me or I didn't write very clearly or both.

As you and I noted, capacitive screens were not being adopted in most cases because of legacy worries. However, they were definitely already on the way.

In fact, 2006 was full of capacitive touch phones being demonstrated or designed. The BenQ Blackbox, the Nokia Aeon, the Synaptics Onyx, the OpenMoko Linux phone, et al were heating up the OEM phone news:



They're all no doubt a major reason why Jobs wanted capacitive on the iPhone, and especially why he felt the need to show off the iPhone a week before the annual huge phone show in Spain. I think we all thought we'd see far more capacitive phones than just the LG Prada.

As it turned out, its adoption was slower than he or we expected. But it was definitely coming even if Apple had never sold the iPhone. That's what I meant.

 

[Tinmania]

Windows Mobile had it for YEARS. Note: Mobile, NOT Phone.

That's utter nonsense. Next time understand the tech before making yourself look bad with caps.

The HTC HD2 was the first Windows Mobile phone to have a capacitive screen, and it was not even announced till over over two "years" after the iPhone was shipping.



Michael

 

[Jessica Lares]

I thought you guys were on about the handwriting support, sorry.

 

[roadbloc]

Ping.
Cube. (beautiful flop but still a flop)
Firewire. (my preferred I/O but still a loser ultimately)
HD-DVD.
ADC.
3rd Gen iPod.
hockey puck mouse.

MobileMe.

 

[AdrianK]

HD-DVD.

When did Apple push HD-DVD?

ADC.

It still amazes me that this was ever released.

 

[LethalWolfe]

When did Apple push HD-DVD?

When DVD Studio Pro 4 came out Apple touted its first-to-market ability to burn HD-DVDs even though compatibility was extremely limited (G5 w/SuperDrive running up-to-date OS & DVD Player app and yet-to-be-released Toshiba brand HD-DVD players).

Press release:

DVD Studio Pro 4, Final Cut Studio’s professional DVD authoring program, is the first commercially available DVD authoring software that lets users burn their HD projects to high definition DVDs based on the latest HD DVD specification. DVD Studio Pro 4 will be demonstrated at NAB with a prototype consumer HD DVD player from Toshiba set to debut later this year.

 

[roadbloc]

- He said flash is dying. Adobe officially killed it on android and it's a matter of time until it's death all around.

In all fairness he helped kill flash. He was just lucky google made a compatible App YouTube. If not, the iPhone would probably be a lot less popular.

 

[Renzatic]

So does it take marketing to realize the future potential of devices? No. He was not an inventor like thomas edison but be sure that he had one heck-of-a brain to realize the potential. He was an expert visionary.

Thomas Edison wasn't even an inventor like Thomas Edison. History should (and has done a good job of showing) him as the man who screwed over Tesla.

And ole Steve? I do think he gets way too much credit at times, but the guy was willing to take big risks, knew what worked, and had a knack at predicting the future of the industry. Props where props are deserved.

..and as a marketer, he was the best that ever lived.

 

[kdarling]

Yes, he was amazing at salesmanship and was a master of word manipulation.

It also hit me today what a mean marketer Jobs was.

He was rarely content to promote his own products just on their own merits, but seemingly had to first put down his competitors' in order to make his own sound better.

I'm trying to think of a major product intro where he didn't do that.

Dissing was also something he commonly did in interviews. He wouldn't talk about what Apple would do in the future. Instead, he talked a lot about what they wouldn't do, and why their competitors were wrong. E.g. 7" tablets, which frankly, a lot of us think he was mistaken about. It's a useful size.

 

[Renzatic]

Yes, he was amazing at salesmanship and was a master of word manipulation.

It also hit me today what a mean marketer Jobs was.

That was his shtick, and he did it better than anyone else. He could make you hate a feature Apple didn't provide, and make those who did offer it look like they were wasting their times on fluff features no one would want to use.

It's what makes him such a brilliant marketer. He isn't just bashing and badmouthing the competition, he's specific about it. Measured. Whether it's true or not, he'll make it seem like something is not only useless, but actually detrimental to the integrity of whatever he's selling.

But not only that, he knew how to present his products and ideas. Just watch the guy. He's the master of subtle hype and crowd control. If anyone else where to introduce the iPad, it would've come across as a big iPhone. With him, you were well convinced it was The Future of PCs. A machine that's an almost magical combination of ease of use, design, and function.

Like I said a few threads and a few days back, he could sell computers to the Amish. If I were ever to go into marketing, I'd study Steve Jobs.

He was the best.

Dissing was also something he commonly did in interviews. He wouldn't talk about what Apple would do in the future. Instead, he talked a lot about what they wouldn't do, and why their competitors were wrong. E.g. 7" tablets, which frankly, a lot of us think he was mistaken about. It's a useful size.

Yup. And I'm sure Apple intends on adding a 7" tablet and digitizer support to their iPad line sometime soon. He only talked down them because Apple didn't have a current product offering them. Why should he talk about features they're lacking? They're crap. Why would we want those? Why not just...focus on...THIS. It's magical. You've never seen anything like it. And we've patented it.

 

[LethalWolfe]

Given Jobs' typical style I was surprised when during the original iPad keynote he gave props to Amazon & Kindle (especially since in '08 he said the whole eReader concept was flawed because no one reads anymore).

 

[vvswarup]

Yes, he was amazing at salesmanship and was a master of word manipulation.

It also hit me today what a mean marketer Jobs was.

He was rarely content to promote his own products just on their own merits, but seemingly had to first put down his competitors' in order to make his own sound better.

I'm trying to think of a major product intro where he didn't do that.

Dissing was also something he commonly did in interviews. He wouldn't talk about what Apple would do in the future. Instead, he talked a lot about what they wouldn't do, and why their competitors were wrong. E.g. 7" tablets, which frankly, a lot of us think he was mistaken about. It's a useful size.

Who doesn't put down others' products? That's just a part of marketing.

 

[Tinmania]

Who doesn't put down others' products? That's just a part of marketing.

Not always. Putting the competition down has a big risk: it can cause your prospective customers to defend that competition.

But Jobs was much more unique than simply putting the competition down. He had the ability to "forget" what he said in the past whenever needed.

It was not just when speaking for the company either. He could harshly criticize an associate's idea and then come back with the same idea a minute/hour/day/week/month later and act as if it was his own (this was in his biography).




Michael

 

[G51989]

- When he introduced the macbook air, he said it's the future. In 2012, the devices that steal publicity are ultra books.

Sorry. Super thin and light laptops already existed before the Mac Book Air. The thinnest being anything with a Transmeta CPU in it.

Macbook Air, great little Laptop, but it was not the first super light and thin laptop. Laptops have always been getting smaller, lighter, thinner, with better battery life and all that for as long as they have existed.

- He said flash is dying. Adobe officially killed it on android and it's a matter of time until it's death all around.

Not just him, lots of people knew flash would eventually die out. Because it sucks.

- When he introduced the iPhone, almost all phones then had capacitive touch screens later. If the iPhone was truly a useless phone and marketing brought its success, why are other OEMs following the direction of it?

Capacitive touch screens work just as well with the Pen, yeah the iPhone was an awesome phone, and still is.

Marketing played a HUGE part in making the iPhone popular. As well as a massive price drop compared to other smartphones.

In many many ways, the iPhone was an inferior phone compared to BB's and High End WM Phones. But it had a consumer oriented easy to use UI, and a cheap price. Made it super tempting for consumers. And helped push smart phones into the average Joe's hand.

By the way: When I say inferior, I don't mean it was a horrible phone. I mean it lacked a good number of very useful features my WM phone's had. And was a good deal slower. WM and BB was very much for the business market, and never exploded into the consumer market. Probably because the average phone was well over 500 dollars with a contract, plus 200+ ( at least mine was! )a month for early data plans.

- He recently claimed that we are transitioning into the post-PC era. With the retina display, and due to pressure, iOS will eventually get some more PC-like features and will also cause the death of netbooks. I still think we'll see high-end laptops and desktops. There still needs to be machines to build for those.

That post PC area stuff is just marketing garbage, and " retina " is just a marketing term for " dense display running at a high res ", the Retina is awesome but there are better screens out there, though none that I would want to blow 30K on lol.

The iOS devices, like the iPad put a dent in the netbook. But it won't be the iPad that kills the netbook. It will be the Microsoft Surface. Even then, the Netbook Market will just be a small one. There are still people who will want them.

We'll still see tons of PC's for a LONG time, the ' tower ' still has a place in the household, and I think it will for a long time. So far, all these devices just supplement the Personal Computer. None have the ability to totally replace it for MOST people, for some at some point they'll be totally happy with a tablet. Not to mention big business. I don't see them moving to tablets and ditching their extremely reliable desktops.

But really, the whole ' post pc ' thing is just total crap, yeah, Tablets, and phones can do a ton, but they still can't compare to a real desktop or Laptop.

So does it take marketing to realize the future potential of devices? No. He was not an inventor like thomas edison but be sure that he had one heck-of-a brain to realize the potential. He was an expert visionary.

Steve Job's was VERY good at Marketing, if he wasn't. Apple wouldn't be in the position it is now.

Visionary? I would disagree. He was very intelligent. And he had a vision of sorts, one that I would NEVER want to live in lol.

What Steve Jobs was REALLY good at it. Was taking other ideas, then wrapping them into something the average Joe Actually wanted to buy.

Smart Phones: Existed before the iPhone, but were super popular in Business and for power users, the consumer wasn't to interested until the iPhone, because it was nice and easy to use.

Same goes for the Tablet.