After all, Apple was a company that was left for dead in the early ’90′s. It was on the verge of bankruptcy. Jobs had been forced out of the company he co-founded, and it was floundering. Then, in 1996, Apple bought NeXT, a new company Jobs had started. He was back at Apple, and by March 1998, he was CEO. We all know the rest. Apple has since famously released a very long string of hit products.

I think the reason this is such big news is the sheer size of the Jobs’ cult of personality. The man was truly larger than life. Who can forget his introduction of the iPhone in 2007? Not to make him out to be the messiah, but it is remarkable that he was able to accomplish all that he did. After all, when has any cell phone maker been able to dictate terms to a cell phone carrier? That had never been done before.

So, Apple will live on, but the tech-scape will be a bit less interesting. It’s unclear whether we’ll find another tech personality to fill the void. I guess that really is okay. Once a legend retires or fades into the background, there doesn’t have to be an immediate replacement. I know that Tim Cook will do just fine as CEO, but regardless, we should definitely take a minute to marvel at all that Steve Jobs accomplished at Apple.

—– Original Message —–
From: Bill Gates
Sent: Wed 4/30/2003 10:46 PM
To: Amir Majidimehr; Dave Fester
Cc: Will Poole; Christopher Payne; Yusuf Mehdi; David Cole; Hank Vigil

Subject: Apple’s Jobs again.., and time to have a great Windows download service…

Steve Jobs ability to focus in on a few things that count, get people who get user interface right and market things as revolutionary are amazing things. This time somehow he has applied his talents in getting a better Licensing deal than anyone else has gotten for music.

This is very strange to me. The music companies own operations offer a service that is truly unfriendly to the user and has been reviewed that way consistently. Somehow they decide to give Apple the ability to do something pretty good.

I remember discussing EMusic and us saying that model was better than subscription because you would know what you are getting. With the subscription who can promise you that the cool new stuff you want (or old stuff) will be there?

I am not saying this strangeness means we messed up – at least if we did so did Real and Pressplay and Musicnet and basically everyone else.

Now that Jobs has done it we need to move fast to get something where the UI and Rights are as good. I am not sure whether we should do this through one of these JVs or not. I am not sure what the problems are. However I think we need some plan to prove that even though Jobs has us a bit flat footed again we move quick and both match and do stuff better. I’m sure people have a lot of thoughts on this. If the plan is clear no meeting is needed. I want to make sure we are coordinated between Windows DMD, MSN and other groups.

…. Original Message ….
From: Jim Allchin
Sent: Wednesday, April 30, 2003 4:58 PM
To: Amir Majidimehr; Chris Jones (WINDOWS); Will Poole; David Cole

Subject: Apple’s music store

1. How did they get the music companies to go along?
2. We were smoked.

jim