SeekerBlog

Fraser Speirs wrote:

This is why I get up in the morning. I have nothing to add.

“Right now, if you buy a computer system and you want to solve one of your problems, we immediately throw a big problem right in the middle of you and your problem which is learning how to use the computer. A substantial problem to overcome. Once you overcome that, it’s a phenomenal tool. But there is a barrier of having to overcome that problem.

What we’re trying to do … is to remove that barrier so that someone can buy a computer system who knows nothing about it and directly attack their problem without learning how to program their computer.

Our whole company, our whole philosophical base, is founded on one principle. That principle is that there is something very special and very historically different that takes place when you have one computer and one person. Very different than if you have ten people and one computer.”

Steve Jobs, 1980

Very interesting speculation in Ars Technical. Tomorrow (19th in California) we should find out what is true. Even if this turns out not to be exactly correct, there is useful perspective. Here’s a small excerpt:

(…)

Technology-in-education expert Dr. William Rankin also believes digital books will expand with tools that will enable social interactions among textbook users. Rankin, who serves as Director of Educational Innovation of Abilene Christian University and has extensively researched the use of mobile devices in the classroom, was one of three authors of a white paper on the effects of digital convergence on learning titled “Code/X,” published in 2009.

In that document, Rankin and his colleagues laid out their vision for the future of learning, which included an always-on, always-networked digital device called a “Talos.” That device turned out to be very similar to the iPad that Apple announced just six months later.

“What we saw coming was a change in the kinds of places that learning would happen,” Rankin told Ars. Since the device would always be with the student, it would give her access to information anytime and anywhere. “For that, you need a different kind of book.”

Such digital texts would let students interact with information in visual ways, such as 3D models, graphs, and videos. They would also allow students to create links to additional texts, audio, and other supporting materials. Furthermore, students could share those connections with classmates and colleagues.

(…) Steve Jobs’ pet project

We know that former Apple CEO Steve Jobs was working on addressing learning and digital textbooks for some time, according to Walter Issacson’s biography. Jobs believed that textbook publishing was an “$8 billion a year industry ripe for digital destruction.”

UPDATE: The speculation was correct. See iBooks textbooks for iPad . There is an Apple Keynote podcast of the NYC special event. The free iBooks Author app (Mac only) is described here. iBooks Author generates the HTML5 so you can yourself publish directly to the iBookstore – or anywhere so long as you don’t profit from the sale of content produced by the app.

(…) Before he went back to Apple, we were on Charlie Rose together. Charlie asked him about Apple on the air, and Steve didn’t really answer. But after the cameras were off, he turned to Charlie and said, “I know how to save Apple. But they’re just not listening to me yet.” I thought, “Huh. That’s interesting.” A few months later, Apple bought NeXT, and Steve sat me down at Pixar and asked my permission to go back to Apple. He didn’t want to do it without our blessing. He said he wanted to go back because the world would be a better place with Apple in it. That was incredibly touching to me, and it showed that Steve cared about people. He knew that his products and technology could improve people’s lives.

Read the whole thing »

John Gruber links to a very cool panoramic photo of the new store. On the last photo in the gallery you can use your iOS gyroscope to navigate the panorama:

The store is just awesome – I think it is half space of the Grand Central mezzanine!

Ron Johnson has a new article up at Harvard Business Review.

(…) People come to the Apple Store for the experience — and they’re willing to pay a premium for that. There are lots of components to that experience, but maybe the most important — and this is something that can translate to any retailer — is that the staff isn’t focused on selling stuff, it’s focused on building relationships and trying to make people’s lives better. That may sound hokey, but it’s true. The staff is exceptionally well trained, and they’re not on commission, so it makes no difference to them if they sell you an expensive new computer or help you make your old one run better so you’re happy with it. Their job is to figure out what you need and help you get it, even if it’s a product Apple doesn’t carry. Compare that with other retailers where the emphasis is on cross-selling and upselling and, basically, encouraging customers to buy more, even if they don’t want or need it. That doesn’t enrich their lives, and it doesn’t deepen the retailer’s relationship with them. It just makes their wallets lighter.

Read the whole thing »

Ron has recently accepted the offer as CEO of J.C. Penney.

A fascinating post by Horace Dediu today. Apple Computer has been consistently hitting innovative new products out of the park. Does the stock market care? Evidently not – Horace’s analysis shows that investors seem to value the company as though it will never innovate again. Just look at one of Horace’s graphics:

(…) It may not appear to be the case, but throughout this volatile period, the investment thesis remained fairly constant: Apple is a rather small collection of product bets. Owning Apple meant riding the iPod or the iPhone or the iPad as waves of growth. As soon as one growth wave was seen to start to fade, investors would say the same thing: Apple is done.

The chart below shows just what that looks like in terms of product contribution to gross margin.

Given that performance, what should the stock price chart look like?

Read the whole thing »

Mona Simpson delivered this eulogy for her brother on Oct. 16 at the Memorial Church of Stanford University. Recommended.

The Onion:

CUPERTINO, CA—Steve Jobs, the visionary co-founder of Apple Computers and the only American in the country who had any clue what the fuck he was doing, died Wednesday at the age of 56. “We haven’t just lost a great innovator, leader, and businessman, we’ve literally lost the only person in this country who actually had his shit together and knew what the hell was going on,” a statement from President Barack Obama read in part …

Read the whole thing »

In June 2005 Steve Jobs delivered the Stanford commencement address. Steve told three wonderful stories from his experiences. The third story begins with this:

My third story is about death.

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.” It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.