Welcome back.
“Steve Jobs is back to work. He is at Apple a few days a week and working from home the other days,” Apple spokesman Steve Dowling said. “We’re glad to have him back.”
[via CNN]
All Articles Tagged Steve Jobs
Apple PR has announced that:
it has sold over one million iPhone™ 3GS models through Sunday, June 21, the third day after its launch. In addition, six million customers have downloaded the new iPhone 3.0 software in the first five days since its release.
That’s a good number of units for the device equivalent of another sequel release, isn’t it? It’s also enough to get Steve Jobs back up in the quoting chair:
“Customers are voting and the iPhone is winning,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “With over 50,000 applications available from Apple’s revolutionary App Store, iPhone momentum is stronger than ever.”
Nice to see that, and congrats to Apple on some impressive numbers.
[Thanks iDavey for the tip!]
UPDATE: Daring Fireball takes apart the Wall Street Journal story about Steve Jobs recovering from a liver transplant, his time table on returning to Apple, and what — if any — changes we may see in his role there. Gruber sifts the sources and ranks the theories. If this interests you, check it out.
ORIGINAL: We’re really not sure how, or even if and when, to cover Steve Jobs anymore. We’d just rather report he’s back at work, personally carving the 4th gen iPhone out of adamantium, and not telling Kevin Rose anything about Video iChat.
Absent information, rumor spreads, however, and given that — we’re not really sure where the Wall Street Journal’s latest piece falls exactly.
If you don’t care about the details, they claim Jobs is recovering from surgery and still expected back at Apple later this month, just like Apple has been saying all along.
If you do want more, check out their article.
Either way, get well soon Steve Jobs.
(Thanks to RascalsBarbers and DigitalLifeDad for the tips)
Short version: When Steve Jobs went on leave of absence before Macworld, Apple said he would return end of June. Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the matter, say Jobs will indeed return.
Longer version: After suffering a protein-digestion problem which rendered Steve Jobs unable to function on a day-to-day basis at Apple, he took time off and corrective measures. Periodic visits back to the HQ not withstanding, and speculation of a surprise cameo at WWDC running ever-rampant, Jobs is still on track to return just precisely when Apple first said he would.
New iPhone good to go:
Apple is ready enough with its latest iPhone to be in a position to unveil it next week, said a person who has seen the new model. The new phone will look similar to last year’s model but has more processing power and some new features like video editing, this person said.
Confirmation all around then, thanks familiar person!
[And digitalrio for the tip]
There was some great news this week on the Steve Jobs front. According to the WSJ his Apple co-founder, Steve Wozniak said Jobs sounded “healthy and energetic” while admitting he’d never asked directly about Jobs’ health.
SetteB.it ran a story saying Jobs had gone into Apple HQ for a meeting.
So, despite Apple consistently stating that Steve Jobs’ leave of absence would run through the “end of June“, despite WWDC running June 8-12, despite Apple announcing Phil Schiller would Keynote this year, rumors, speculation, and simple hope remains for a surprise appearance or cameo of any kind.
Obviously, that’s a tribute to the presence of Steve Jobs.
Could it happen? Never is never an answer. Could Phil Schiller pull out a next-generation iPhone to take a call or play a voice-mail from Jobs, the way Jobs has called Schiller at previous WWDCs? It would certainly give the audience — on location and on the internet — a huge thrill.
But all we know for certain at this point is Steve Jobs is still scheduled to return to Apple at the end of June and given his historical desire for privacy, that might be all we’re going to know.
As covered in the Apple Q2 2009 conference call, Apple Chief Financial Officer, Peter Oppenheimer, repeated the company line that they “looked forward to [Steve Jobs'] return at the end of June”.
Apple’s World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC) — where in 2008 Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone 3G to the world — takes place this year June 8-12, which is decidedly before the end of June, and thus the end of Jobs’ leave of absence.
Does that make it impossible for Steve Jobs to pull out a surprise appearance, iPhone the Third Generation in pocket? No… but it makes it unlikely.
That leaves Apple marketing honcho Phil Schiller, who handled Macworld 2009, or iPhone marketing head Greg “Joz” Joswiak, who handled part of the iPhone 3.0 Sneak Peek as the likely suspects, doesn’t it? (Perhaps with Scott Forstall again on the 3.0 software?)
The Wall Street Journal reports that while Steve Jobs remains home on leave of absence, with chief operating officer Tim Cook managing the day to day business, Jobs is still keeping active tabs on the greater strategic vision, including iPhone 3.0:
He regularly reviews products and product plans, and was particularly involved in the user interface of the new iPhone operating system that Apple unveiled last month, these people say.
While Jobs is expected back at Apple in June, it’s unknown if it will be in time for the big next generation keynote, and whether or not he and Apple will decide it’s in either of their best interests to put him on up stage and under the spotlight so soon upon his return (especially considering how stock manipulators and blogeratti both have reacted to his health and appearance in the past.)
Of course, that won’t stop many of us, myself included, from creating elaborate, heroic return fantasies for Jobs, live on the WWDC stage, iPhone HD pulled casually from his jean pocket and held up with a trademark “boom!”
[via MacRumors]
Glassdoor collects data on how much employees love their boss and love their products. They also seem to collect data on the wicked obvious, at least where Apple is concerned. Flabbergasting: 91% of employees love Steve Jobs and on a scale of 1 to 5, think Apple’s products rate a 3.8 (we’re guessing MobileMe cost them a full point there).
To give some frame of reference GigaOm provides further details: Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer is loved by 44%, Palm’s Ed Colligan by 36%, and RIM’s co-CEO’s by 70% (does that mean 35% each?). Products vary far less, with almost everyone at the same level as Apple (RIM), a bit below (Microsoft at 3.7) or so (Palm at 3.2)
Biggest loser was Motorola with a whopping 10% and 2.6 rating. Could have been worse, however — they could have been off the list.
So how much do you love Steve Jobs and the iPhone? And how does that compare to your boss and your products/services? Or should we rather rate the raters? Gigaom and Glassdoor, how are they doing?
(Tip o’ the handset to Phil from WMExperts for sending this our way!)
We’ve heard rumors about this before, but now the New York Times (via MacRumors) is pretty much coming right out and saying it. Apple was ready to give up their uniform pricing model ($0.99 per song) over a year ago but they wanted not only DRM-free licensing in return, but over-the-air (cellular) iPhone downloads. It seems many, including Apple and the music industry, think that’s the Next Big Thing.
Still, things were tense down to the last few moments before the big Macworld 2009 announcement:
All the labels agreed except Sony Music. Its chairman, Mr. Schmidt-Holtz, wanted the pricing to go into effect right after the announcement, while Mr. Jobs wanted a longer time horizon. According to a person briefed on the telephone call, Mr. Schmidt-Holtz and Mr. Jobs had a heated exchange by phone on Christmas Eve. Eventually, Sony gave in and agreed to a longer waiting period.
With Steve Jobs (the smartest man in music?) on leave of absence, however, don’t think things will get any easier for the historically out-of-touch music industry. Insiders report that others inside Apple, including iTunes VP Eddy Cue, follow Steve Jobs’ line.
Apple and music aside, what does this mean for — you know — the end users? How important is downloading music over the cell network to you? Will it make you buy more music? And will some songs being cheaper, and others more expensive, change you buying habits as well?
CNet takes a look, 6 years later, at Steve Jobs’ 2003 interview with Rolling Stone Magazine and the checklist of predictions — make that accomplishments — is impressive. Then again, Steve Jobs did make his name, and Apple’s, with just that kind of market savvy:
- iPod (and now iPhone) could be more important to Apple than the Mac
- Big media doesn’t understand technology
- iTunes would be non-trivial for others to copy in 6 months (make that 6 years?)
- Copyright is important. Theft corrodes the soul. Apple will provide a legal alternative
- iTunes could sell 1 billion songs a year (now selling 1 billion in 6 months)
What’s even more interesting is seeing how Steve Jobs’ insight not only helped change the face of computers (Apple, Mac), Music (iPod, iTunes), retail (Apple Store), movies (Pixar) but now also cell phones (iPhone). Mostly linked together (Pixar more tangentially), but with the same focus on premium quality, unsurpassed user experience, and utter simplicity of execution.
Makes me even more eager for the iPhone 2,1 (iPhone HD?) to really bring it all together…
[via Daring Fireball]
