There are few companies so tied to the personality of its chief executive as Apple is to Steve Jobs. He makes few public appearances, bar those evangelical product launches, but even by the super-slick standards of Apple's marketing regime the opening interview at the D8 conference yesterday was extremely well-timed coming, as it did, six days after Apple's market value drifted past Microsoft to hit £222.1bn.
Here's a summary of the main points, as diligently noted by AllThingsD's John Paczkowski:
On the battle with Adobe
Jobs said Apple has to back the right technological horse, and has made previously gambles by ditching the floppy disk and adopting USB. "We didn't set out to have a war over Flash," he said. "We made a technical decision. And it wasn't until the iPad that Adobe raised a stink... Flash has had its day." He wrote the Thoughts on Flash piece because he was tired of Adobe trashing Apple in the press. What if consumers demand Flash? asked Walt Mossberg. "We're just trying to make great products. We don't think Flash makes a great product, so we're leaving it out." He said consumers simply wouldn't buy Apple products if they didn't like them, and that the iPad is currently selling three every second. Video
The Gizmodo 'lost' iPhone 4.0
Recounting the story, Jobs confirmed that an employee was testing a wireless product. "There's a debate about whether it was left in a bar or stolen... and the person who found it decided to sell it… and it turned out this person plugged it into his roommate's computer and that roommate called the police." Video
The 'sweatshop' factory in China
Jobs said: "Foxconn is not a sweatshop. They've got restaurants and swimming pools… For a factory, it's a pretty nice factory." He acknowledged that 15 suicides at the plant is very troubling and said "we send over our own people and some outside folks as well, to look into the issue".
On the battle with Google
Is Apple now engaged in a platform war with Google? "We never saw ourselves in a platform war with Microsoft, either… Maybe that's why we lost." Mossberg pushed him on how the relationship with Google has changed because of mobile. "Well, they're competing with us. We didn't go into search. They decided to compete with us and got more and more serious." Does he feel betrayed? He cut off the questioning: "My sex life is great - how's yours?" Apple is not moving into search, he emphasised. The acquisition of Siri was about AI, not search. And Apple will not be removing Google from the iPhone and iPad. Video But he did acknowledge Apple's move into advertising with iAds, which he said was to try and improve a format that often takes the user outside the app. "People are using apps way more than they are using search, so if you want to make developers more money, you've got to get the ads into apps." Video
iPad came before iPhone
Jobs said any tablet that used a stylus "is a failure" - he wanted a tablet to be created from scratch using a glass touch screen, and that work happened before the idea of a phone. "It began with the tablet. I had this idea about having a glass display, a multitouch display you could type on with your fingers. I asked our people about it. And six months later, they came back with this amazing display. And I gave it to one of our really brilliant UI guys. He got scrolling working and some other things, and I thought, 'my God, we can build a phone with this!' So we put the tablet aside, and we went to work on the iPhone." Video
What the iPad means for publishing
Jobs stuck up for professional publishers, saying some content providers hadn't priced aggressively enough and that he didn't want "to see us descend into a nation of bloggers". "We need editorial oversight now more than ever. Anything we can do to help newspapers find new ways of expression that will help them get paid, I am all for." The iPad will develop as a tool for content creation, he said, including video editing. He admitted Apple "sometimes makes mistakes" when it comes to the app approval process, but said 95% of apps are approved every week and dismissed some coverage of high-profile app rejections as people seeking their 15 minutes of fame.
Apple's startup culture
Apple has no committees and is structured like a startup, said Jobs. "I have one of the best jobs in the world. I get to hang out with some of the most talented, committed people around and together we get to play in this sandbox and build these cool products... so what I do all day is meet with teams of people and work on ideas and new problems to come up with new products." When asked if his staff will tell him when he's wrong, he replied: "Of course. The best ideas have to win, no matter who has them."
• Also in Apple news...
Apple is reported to be the subject of an investigation by the Texan Attorney General's Office into pricing practices for ebooks, reports the Wall Street Journal, specifically with the April launch in the US of the iPad and related iBookstore. The office has requested documents from HarperCollins, amongst others, as part of an investigation understood to be focused on Apple's 'agency' model now adopted by five of the six biggest publishing houses. On the iBookstore, Apple effectively acts as agency by allowing publishers to set their own prices and take 70% of that rate, while sellers receive the remaining 30%.
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Comments in chronological order (Total 18 comments)
2 June 2010 1:02PM
Foxconn also manufacture Intel-branded motherboards for Intel Corp., Dell and Hewlett-Packard and Zoostorm hardwar; the PlayStation 2 and 3; the Wii for Nintendo; the Xbox 360 for Microsoft, cell phones for Motorola, the Amazon Kindle, and Cisco equipment. So when the other CEOs of those organisations have the guts to also make public comments regarding the company please feel free to post.
2 June 2010 1:40PM
I don't understand this urgency to defend apple, FKafka. They're just a corporation. They make stuff. They''re not your family, or friends, or real people you should care about. They're just a corporation that makes stuff that's sometimes sexy.
Personally. Ip'm torn between loving their stuff, and hating the fact that they make such closed systems that don't allow the consumer the choice of what software to use, and they don't even use things like USB / mini USB on the ipad and iphone. They are creating their own monopoly in a lot of ways, and thats' why the bigger they get, the more of a backlash there is against them. They're slowly turning into the man.
2 June 2010 2:05PM
If he thinks the iPad will kill Flash then I guess he's only about a billion iPad sales short of his dream.
2 June 2010 2:07PM
Which makes it kind of astounding that all of those are so much better value than Apple products. Do Foxconn charge Apple a premium just like Apple charge their customers.
2 June 2010 2:10PM
@FKafka: you do make a good point about the CEOs of Dell, HP, etc. At the same time, when Jobs says
I have to wonder, given reports of the employees working 12-hour days and 6-day weeks, when they have the time or the energy to use those swimming pools.
I like and use Apple products, but they're a corporation like any other, and no less inclined to use cheap labour provided in a less regulated environment than we are used to in the west. I'm sure everything looks rosy when Apple's (and Dell's and HP's and the rest) auditors are visiting; it's what it looks like the rest of the time that matters.
2 June 2010 3:34PM
Lets get it straight, it's all about profit and giving the consumer partially what they want. As the old saying goes 'always leave them wanting more', and that goes for all companies.
The iPad is closed because it is not a computer, but Apple's version of how its customers can choose to consume media. If you don't like it don't buy it. You can buy it and jailbreak it, but I guess the majority of purchasers are happy with the so called walled garden that Apple have created.
2 June 2010 3:48PM
The Dell Streak's coming out this week.
£429. No USB. Screen's half the size of the iPad, same memory and processor speed. I imagine there will be a huge backlash against this device too?
No?
Funny old world.
2 June 2010 4:04PM
Probably not, but then again it won't be treated as the Second Coming and there'll be no fawning over Michael Dell by fanboys either.
2 June 2010 4:06PM
GOSH! What an ego he is carrying man...gosh! gosh! gosh!...He thinks he is some sort of distinguished member of the society..Let me tell He is not so humble for a person who claims to be following the very humble asian philosophies....
Also, about Foxconn....It is suprising how close his comments are to Obama's where he almost backed up Isreal by saying "We deeply regret the deaths but we will need the facts to comment further...".....
2 June 2010 4:19PM
Defending the conditions at that factory..ok...nice to show the real face of Apple and Jobs to the world! AT LAST! THANKS MR. Jobs, thanks for backing me up!
2 June 2010 6:47PM
@FKafka
You do realise that Sony, Dell, HP and Nokia have all released statements about Foxconn and their concerns over working conditions?
I'm sure if Uncle Walt invites them onto the next issue of All Things D they'd be delighted to comment on it.
2 June 2010 7:25PM
Doesn't the Dell Streak run on Android and can be used as a phone. It has a MicroSD card slot, a 5mp camera and can use flash as well. Its smaller for a reason, so you can pocket it.
The iPad is very nice looking though and after all its made by Apple [shivers]
3 June 2010 7:04AM
Error in the article. At the end Apple takes 30%, not a 70% cut of the books sold in the store.
3 June 2010 9:19PM
The whole thing is half the size of the iPad, so that's pretty logical.
What's your point?
5 June 2010 9:57AM
The Android is for pr0n
5 June 2010 10:28AM
"they make such closed systems that don't allow the consumer the choice of what software to use"
Just loading up the App Store here on my iPad and... yup, got a pretty awesome choice of software to use.
Let's see, shall I stream all sorts of non-Apple-standard videos to my iPad from my iMac over WiFi or 3G, completely bypassing iTunes? I'll just buy Air Video then.
Shall I log into my iMac desktop from my iPad? I'll fire up LogMeIn Ignition.
Shall I use my iPad as extra screen 'real estate' for my laptop or iMac? I'll just tap Air Screen.
Honestly, so many empty complaints about this device. Just leave it alone and let the developers make cool stuff for it. It's not hurting you.
6 June 2010 3:38AM
Shall I pay for an online newspaper app when I can read it for free on a computer?
Shall I make a video call or take a picture using my Ipad?
It's nice to be one-sided. In truth the iPad is ok, could be better.
It would be nice to chose any software and for those to be largely free.
6 June 2010 10:10AM
But what did Steve Jobs say about tablets in 2003? Check out the video on this page (from 7:50 to 10:00). Funny how times change.