Sunday, October 24, 2004

The New York Times > Business > Your Money > Digital Domain: Pixar's Mr. Incredible May Yet Rewrite the Apple Story

The New York Times > Business > Your Money > Digital Domain: Pixar's Mr. Incredible May Yet Rewrite the Apple Story: "Even his biggest fans might see Steven P. Jobs, Apple Computer's chief executive, as a brilliant dunce. He has the absolutely best software to run a personal computer but can't figure out how to convert technical superiority into the industry standard. He has the absolutely best portable player for tunes but can't figure out how to convert market dominance on the music side into increased market share on the computer side.
...
At Pixar, one of Mr. Jobs's masterstrokes has been to emphasize the old-fashioned virtue of compelling storytelling. He wrote to Pixar shareholders in 1997: "It is chiseled in stone at our studio that no amount of technology can ever turn a bad story into a good one." One could add that the same maxim applies to Apple."

Interesting perspectives from Randall Stross, who published Steve Jobs and the Next Big Thing in 1993. The book was one of the harshest Jobs profiles I've come across, although it seemed relatively objective and well-written at the time. Despite all of the rosy press for Jobs, Apple, and Pixar lately, a Bill Gates quote from a recent interview --
"It's great for Apple to get attention. I was there when the Macintosh was launched in 1984 creating the template for graphical user interface. We believe in the PC. We actually agree with Apple that the PC in its general-purpose richness will play a strong role in the home vision. Now we're doing more with that than they are, but that's actually a common view. The more attention that's paid to this digital-media space, the better it is."
... is a timely reminder that this race is far from over.

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