We know how great companies start. You’ve heard testimonials from the entrepreneurs on how they began from  scratch. One common string found in all those testimonials you watched, read, or heard would be “the foresight” they had about what they would deliver to the end user.

Infosys dreamt of a company when all their neighbors where busy with 9.00 to 5.00 jobs. It would have been literally impossible for them to dream about starting their own venture. The fact is “they did”.

Did they follow their ‘gut feeling’, you bet!

Watch want makes this team the billion dollar business owners, Microsoft.

Share your thoughts too.

Negative Space in Logo Design. Menarik.

Hasil uji coba bom hidrogen pertama dengan sukses menghancurkan sebuah pulau.

“Hello” adalah kata yang diciptakan khusus untuk menjawab telepon.

Wawancara dengan Steve Jobs, 1995.

Terakhir, tilt-shift video Magic Kingdom, Walt Disney World:

Per seguire l’Apple Keynote, l’evento attesissimo per gli appassionati di Apple a San Francisco  vi segnaliamo alcune dirette LIVE…da alcuni minuti gli Apple Store di tutto il mondo sono offline pronti attenti ….via

clicca qui per Live Engadget

clicca qui per Live Gizmodo

clicca qui per Live SlashGear

clicca qui per Live Giiks

clicca qui diretta MacRumors Twitter

clicca qui per Live iPhoneItalia

clicca qui per Live Macitynet e via Twitter qui

clicca qui per Live Melamorsicata con Radiopocastlive

Celebrità in arrivo davanti ai cancelli

Mini Video Gizmodo

10 Minuti all’inizio

The music has died down, as have the lights… Steve is out

iPhone Os 3.1 e’ disponibile da oggi gratuitamente per iPhone e iPod Touch

10:28 AM iTunes 9 is available today. That’s iTunes.

10:52AM presentati tre nuove versioni dei nuovi iTouch: 16, 32 e 64 GB. …i prezzi rispettivamente di 199, 299 e 399 dollari

Ed ora si  parla della videocamera dentro l’iPod Nano e del microfono compreso FM Radio

e contapassi

11:14AM An Norah is off   Termina l’evento e riapre AppStore

Foto: Engadget Gizmodo

Another month – another twitter round-up.

Using the new and improved Hootsuite here are the most clicked links from the Trendplanner Twitter account for July. For other useful Twitter links on similar themes, check out Qapture which collects links shared by various people on Twitter (including Trendplanner).


1. Steve Jobs on why Apple doesn’t do market research – http://ow.ly/iyXN

2. Placement is key: Just look at these 15 Unfortunately Placed Ads http://ow.ly/gmbm

3. graffiti archaeology – brilliant. http://ow.ly/hBXu

4. Fast Food: Ads vs. Reality http://ow.ly/h6Uv

5. Mobile Phones let us change our plans – Geo-location could stop us planning altogether: http://ow.ly/i0Kz

6. Top 10 Augmented Reality Adveritising Campaigns so far. #ar #tech http://ow.ly/dsHv

7. Nike LIVESTRONG – Chalkbot. A great idea from nike for the #tdf http://ow.ly/gEQU

8. Freaky AR business card – http://ow.ly/hjiT

9. Lego:Pretty cool for a 50-yr-old. How has Lego succeeded where so many have failed? http://ow.ly/hmc7

10. Spotify iPhone app: 10 things you never knew. http://ow.ly/ihfR

Image: Monstro

Hace un año apple anunciaba el lanzamiento de su appstore, para los que no saben, es la tienda online donde compras todo tipo de aplicaciones para tu iphone o ipod touch. En tan solo un año, apple logro que los usuarios descarguen más de 1500 millones de aplicaciones y este gran éxito se debe a la variedad, cantidad y calidad de las aplicaciones. Además la plataforma de desarrollo de estas aplicaciones es muy simple y tiene en lenguaje rápido de aprender es por esto que la appstore es hoy uno de los negocios más rentables para los desarrolladores de video juegos independientes.

El propio Steve Jobs se sorprende de los logros y afirma que “Nunca antes la industria ha visto algo parecido a la AppStore, tanto en dimensión como en calidad. Con 1.500 millones de aplicaciones descargadas, va a ser muy difícil para los demás alcanzarla”. Y esta en lo cierto ya que varias empresas han lanzado sus propias versiones de la appstore y no han logrado ni un cuarto de lo que logro apple.

Parte del éxito además se debe al muy aclamado iphone, ese pequeño gadget que todo el mundo quiere tener y que apple ha logrado vender en más de 77 países sumando un total de 60 millones de unidades vendidas. Asique, si te gusta desarrollar aplicaciones pero no logras tener éxito con las ventas, quizás la appstore sea tu diamante en bruto.

No olvides votar en la encuesta:

I began using an Apple computer in 1985.

Do you remember how much data the 3.5″disk held?

Not much.

This is what my first Mac looked like. Circa, 1985.

I’m one of those Apple customers Steve Jobs must enjoy talking about. An early adopter of the first Mac, I believe Apple computers are worth every darn penny.  I use multiple Apple products, never having been tempted into buying a cheaper PC. The adage, “you get what you pay for,” seems appropriate here.

Several months ago, the Mid America Chapter of a national organization serving teenagers who’ve been stricken with a life threatening illness asked if I’d teach a photography workshop to their group.  The answer was an easy yes. Together, we developed a short 3 session workshop for the kids.  The goal of the primer was to provide the participants a creative outlet by teaching basic photography from beginning to end.

During our first session we reviewed very basic camera functions, lighting, composition, attention to background details and the group knocked off a few “learning” frames of one another other.  The second session was a location shoot in an area park.  I asked several professional photographers to join me in donating their time, providing each teen a one on one mentoring experience.  Canon generously chipped in by shipping in complete Rebel camera kits (on their own dime) so each participant could use a DSLR for the day.

Our final session was to have been held several weeks ago at a local Apple retail store.  And this is where Apple let the Kansas City community down.

My initial request of the store manager (in April) was simple. Two hours uninterrupted use of 6 computers.  This would have allowed adequate time to teach a very basic processing of photographs utilizing iPhoto and perhaps even a little Photoshop, time permitting. After two months of unanswered e-mails and calls, I phoned the store one last time.  On this occasion the store manager didn’t come to the phone. Instead, a very friendly associate relayed the message that they wouldn’t be able to help me out on this, but please try them again another time.

No doubt corporations like Apple donate funding and resources to a variety of philanthropic endeavors. But, what about these small events, which offer no tax write-off’s and do not hold the lure of a public relations coup?

Is there a moral imperative for corporations to give back to local communities?  At what point does a brand’s bottom line supersede the real lives of the very consumers it’s marketing to?  Does the current economic turbulence create new charitable responsibilities of the mega corporations dominating today’s marketplace?   And shouldn’t the act of volunteering just for the sake of participating in a good cause provide adequate justification to donate unconditional corporate resources?

We live in a branded world.  It inundates every fiber of our being.  Today, it’s become virtually impossible to avoid the long tentacles of a Royal Dutch Shell, Exxon Mobil, Nestle, Coca Cola, Microsoft, Apple, Philip Morris, Anheuser Busch, Toyota, Wal-Mart, GE, AT+T, Capital One, Travelers, ING Group – to name just a few of today’s wellheeled juggernauts.  A well conceived and dedicated brand is necessary to thrive in the global marketplace. Personally, I search to support companies placing the best interests of it’s employee’s, consumers and environment on an equal footing with their final profit margin.

So what will it take for these economic titans to realize it’s in their own economic interest to be good neighbors wherever they tread throughout the globe?  Offer a useful / valued product, at a fair price, treat people well and do good in the world without asking for a tangible return, feels like a win win business model.

Isn’t that a brand worthy of shaping a more sustainable world?

]]> http://passionemobile.wordpress.com/2009/06/07/domani-al-wwdc-2009-il-nuovo-iphone-video/ Sun, 07 Jun 2009 15:59:50 +0000 MobileMan http://passionemobile.wordpress.com/2009/06/07/domani-al-wwdc-2009-il-nuovo-iphone-video/

Mancano poche ore alla conferenza annuale del WWDC 2009….Domani 8 Giugno 2009 dalle ore 18.00 (ora italiana) a San Francisco saranno svelate le  caratteristiche del nuovo iPhone…che secondo i rumors degli ultimi giorni dovrebbe chiamarsi iPhone Video….nella foto un riassunto delle novità?  speriamo MOLTE o TUTTE

clicca qui o su immagine  per ingrandire foto

Fonte:MobiFrance

In an abandoned corner deep within the Cheyenne Mountain Operations Center , Skynet’s prototype T-400 (half an 800) goes online. Wearing titanium weaved blue jeans, a bulletproof black turtleneck, and rocket blast sneakers, the ‘Steve’ model makes his first tentative steps and immediately begins yelling at the researchers about how “insanely great” the mind download process was. After collecting his thoughts, padding himself down, and gawking in a mirror, Steve shouts for Ive–”why do I still look like a skinny white guy? I specifically said that I wanted to look like Eve from Wall-E and have a laser blaster in my arm. Goddamnit.” We all knew that the Steve-inator would be back.

More (less accurate than my reporting above) details about the return of Steve Jobs here.  Thanks Chris for the link!

Since the birth of its existence, journalism has always had to respond and adapt to industrial and social changes. In the past decade, with the dawn of the Information Age and the World Wide Web, journalism has undergone a fairly significant revolution with the arrival of user-generated content, message boards and blogs, broadly defined as citizen media. It has been forgotten that not too long ago, the “partition between reporters and readers was more solid” (Rodriguez 2008).

Bowman and Willis (2003) define citizen journalism as “the act of a citizen, or group of citizens, playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analysing and disseminating news and information. The intent of this participation is to provide independent, reliable, accurate, wide-ranging and relevant information that a democracy requires.” Adding to this, Rosen (2008) theorised that citizen journalism occurs “when the people formerly known as the audience employ the press tools they have in their possession to inform one another.”

As a typical teenager who spends hours trawling the Internet when I should be studying (I call this “procrastinetting), I have come across many types of citizen journalism inluding audience participation, independent news websites, full-fledged participatory news sites, collaborative and contributory media sites, e-mail newsletters, podcasts and other personal broadcast sites. I have also noticed that terms such as grassroots journalism, networked journalism, open-source journalism, participatory journalism and bottom-up journalism are also used interchangeably with citizen journalism.

With today’s technology the citizen journalist phenomenon has found a new momentum, as the average person can capture news and distribute it across the globe in a matter on seconds. Reader-generated photos, video and audio fill the gaps where reporters couldn’t get to quickly or safely enough (Internetrix 2006). Despite the backlash, citizen journalists have proven their worth more than a few times over the last few years. In 1999, one of the first examples of audience-generated material contributing fundamentally to a mainstream news report was during the Columbine High School Massacre, when a student trapped and hiding in the school called CNN to give details of the situation as it unfolded.

Since then, citizen journalism has been a crucial addition to the reporting of global news including the tragic Sichuan earthquake in China, the Missouri bridge collapse, the September 11 terrorist attacks, the Virginia Tech Massacre and hurricanes Rita and Katrina in the U.S.

Perhaps the most powerful example of citizen journalism in practice was seen during the London bombings on July 7 2005, where mainstream media received major contributions from regular people who were on the scene faster than trained reporters (Catone 2008).  Sambrook (2005) explained that the public became an integral part of how the BBC reported the day’s events, because “within six hours, they received more than 1000 photographs, 20 pieces of amateur video, 4000 text messages and 20000 e-mails.” The sheer volume of material produced by citizen journalists in this instance demonstrates the power of this movement, and just how much, in recent times, mainstream media has come to rely on external sources to complete and flesh-out their coverage, but has it affected how they do business? Ultimately no.

While citizen journalism in the past has been applauded for providing mainstream media with the use of resources they otherwise wouldn’t have access to, there have incidents which have brought into the spotlight the sometimes flawed aspects of citizen journalism and the fragile relationship between traditional and new media. In October 2008, a false internet report posted on the front page of CNN’s iReport, claimed that Apple CEO, Steve Jobs, had suffered a heart attack, causing Apple’s stock to temporarily plummet (Brisbane Times 2008).

This incident exemplified just how powerful citizen journalism can be, confirmed the need for a mainstream filter and demonstrated that the internet is just as fast at spreading mistruths as it is at spreading the truth. According to a news article (Brisbane Times 2008) “the incident highlighted the risks involved with mainstream media organisations tapping into…the unedited and unfiltered presentation of news by non-professionals.”

Citizen journalism, although still in its infancy, “might be a train coming down the media industry tracks, but it is not on a collision course…mainstream media organisations and journalists just need to jump on board” (Outing 2005).

References:

Bowman, S. and C. Willis. 2003. We media: How audiences are shaping the future of news and information. Virginia: The Media Center at The American Press Institute.

Brisbane Times. 2008. ‘Citizen journalism’ under fire. Brisbane Times Online. October 5. http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/news/technology/citizen-journalism-under-fire/2008/10/05/1223145221139.html?page=2 (accessed April 20, 2009).

Catone, J. 2008. Citizen Journalism. October 10. http://www.smartcompany.com.au/Blog/Josh-Catone/20081010-Citizen-journalism.html?source=RSS (accessed April17, 2009).

Internetrix. 2006. Citizen Journalism & the Internet Revolution. http://www.internetrix.net/page/articles/ newsletters/2006/august/citizen-journalism/ (accessed  April 15, 2009).

Outing, S. 2005. Managing the army of temporary journalists. Nieman Reports. 59 (1) : 79-81.

Rodriguez, N. 2008. Citizen journalism fills in the gaps. Vail Trail Weekly Online. October 8. http://www.vailtrail.com/article/20081008/COVERSTORY/810089987 (accessed April15, 2009).

I can only hope the administration let Rick Wagoner go at GM to buy themselves cover for future management shakeups at the banks.

As Clayton Christensen of HBS details at HuffPo Wagoner was a great manager who was well on his way to fixing the decades of mistakes made by previous chiefs.

Actually, my wildest wishes would be that Rick is hiding in some warehouse right now explaining to Steve Jobs how cars are built so he can take over and bring GM back.  One can dream.

• Sexism in geekdom
  Paul Robinson calls for change in the tech sector. Interesting read.
  (tags: blogging blogosphere stevejobs marissamayer tech IT geek sexism)
• FREE multimedia training for journalists
  As part of the Meld initiative UCLAN is working on a project called InFuze. It is offering freelance journalists and content producers looking to update their skills for a multiplatform world a FREE six week course. Pass it on.
  (tags: blogging blogs blog bloggers journalist journalism training freelance multimedia)
• Skittles home page takeover – great viral or social media spam?
  I’m not impressed with this skittles do dah but this post takes a less dismissive look at whether the campaign achieves it goals.
  (tags: blogging skittles socialmedia)

ich vermute mal, dass man für Bill Gates sowas nicht machen würde

Update 09.04.09

Leider hat das Kommentar-Spammer-Pack die Seite entdeckt und man findet statt Glückwünschen nur noch Infos über irgendwelche nackten Mädels.

Herzlichen Dank auch.

No one disputes Steve Jobs’ talent for conveying information to an audience. His understanding/prediction of Apple’s customer base and business environment is legendary.

He’s a public relations wizard. He communicates brilliantly with his audience. (and please note that Pundits are just not his audience.)

Consider: The next person to lead Apple will be Steve Jobs’ final product rollout.

Steve Jobs’ Final Product Rollout.

Do people really think he hasn’t thought about that? Do people really think he would be ok with, “Yes, Steve was great, but he really borked that succession thing.”

Be serious now.

I hope Steve Jobs has a chance to relax and recover on his sabbatical, and comes back healthy, happy, and brimming with new energy and new ideas. But when he is ready to retire, or is hit by a truck, I fully expect that a detailed set of plans, scripts, and storyboards will magically appear on the iPhones of Apple Board Members. I expect his final show for Apple to be expertly produced.

“Go Thee Forth and Spread The Word.”

(Use Thee Only Fonts From The List On Page 57)

Ένα από τα μεγάλα θέματα στην λίστα NewtonTalk της προάλλες είναι το πρόβλημα Y2K10 στο οποίο έχω αναφερθεί και φυσικά αν το Newton υπήρχε ακόμα το πρόβλημα θα είχε λυθεί εδώ και αρκετά χρόνια.

Φυσικά πολλοί είναι έτοιμοι και πρόθυμοι να τα ρίξουν όλα στον Στήβ Τζόμπς, και πως σκότωσέ το Newton για λόγους βεντέτας – επειδή και καλά δεν το δημιούργησε αυτός.

Ένας άλλος Έλληνας στην λίστα έδωσε μια καλή (και κατά την γνώμη μου σωστή) απάντηση για τον λόγο που σκότωσαν τον Newton (στα αγγλικά) που αναδημοσιεύω από το Αγγλικό μου μπλογκ

A bit off topic here, still I’ve had a thought I want to share with  
you. Most people attribute the decision to kill the Newton to a  
revenge of Steve Jobs against Sculley.

However “colorful” (to put it mildly) Steve\s character is (from what we read here and there) he is no fool. What I believe happened with the Newton was that when Apple faced bankruptcy and called back Steve Jobs in 1997 as a CEO it needed a few things in order to move on. 1st and foremost to focus on the key areas it was best at which were Creative Pros (DTP, Design. Prepress) and Education. The next important thing it needed was a commitment for the development of one of the most renown application suites, Microsoft Office.

However the deal was something more than that as it included a patent cross licensing plus some serious cash and more stuff.

This brings us to what I think happened with the Newton. Apple agreed with Microsoft to kill the Newton so that they would have the handheld marked to them selves.

In the light of saving the company, killing the Newton was a small price to pay and kept Apple out of the market for a decade until 2007 when they introduced the iPhone…

Of course it is totally possible that all of this exists only in my  
mind as I do not have any connection whatsoever to Apple and I could  
not have any insight on this matter.

Ontem eu assisti a um vídeo do Steve Jobs no YouTube discursando para uma turma de formandos. Fiquei emocionado. Quem não viu deveria ver.

Pra quem tiver preguiça de assistir, aí vai uma versão compacta do discurso. O tema que o Steve Jobs escolheu foi: “Quando a vida nos coloca diante de três pontinhos, é bom a gente ter paciência, porque cedo ou tarde tudo faz sentido”. O discurso, curtinho, discorre sobre três histórias de sua vida. A primeira história é sobre seu nascimento. Filho de mãe solteira e estudante, o Steve teve sua guarda prometida a um casal de advogados, supostamente bem de vida e em condições de lhe proporcionar uma boa educação. Por ocasião da adoção, sua mãe biológica descobriu-se envolvida numa história mentirosa, pois os futuros pais adotivos nem eram formados, nem bem de vida (eram uns durangos, iguais à mãe biológica). Para ter a adoção aceita, os futuros pais tiveram que se comprometer formalmente com a educação do Steve, o que 17 anos depois se concretizou, com sua admisão no Reed College. Conhecendo a história de sacrifícios de seus pais adotivos e consciente de que não estava feliz com o curso que fazia, Steve cancelou sua matrícula e passou a assistir aulas em disciplinas abertas e escolhidas segundo seus interesses. Sim, o Steve Jobs não tem curso superior completo! Dentre as discilpinas escolhidas estava Caligrafia ?! E, diante de sí a primeira série de três pontinhos: o que seria da sua vida sem diploma e o que ele faria com o curso de Caligrafia? Dez anos depois, já como fundador da Apple, Steve idealizou o primeiro Mac com uma bela tipografia, com fontes espaçadas e proporcionais. O Windows em seguida copiaria todos os fontes do Mac, de forma que podemos dizer que toda a tipografia hoje conhecida dos PC’s se deve à desistência de Steve Jobs de sua formação no Reed College e ao curso de Caligrafia. A primeira série de três pontinhos fazia sentido.

A segunda história começa 10 anos depois que os dois Steves, Jobs e Wozniak, juntos fundaram a Apple. Tendo a companhia sido bem sucedida, já com USD 2 Bi de faturamento, seus sócios escolheram alguém de fora para ser o CEO. O gênio forte de Jobs logo conflitou com o novo CEO. Da noite para o dia e para sua surpresa, aos 30 anos, no auge do sucesso, ele foi demitido e teve que se afastar da coisa que mais amava no mundo: a Apple. Novamente os três pontinhos à sua frente: sem a Apple, o que fazer a seguir?

Steve decidiu começar de novo, do zero, sem se afastar daquilo que mais ama: a tecnologia. Ele se encontra com David Packard e Bob Noyce e juntos fundam a Next e a Pixar (produtora do Toy Story, a primeira computação animada da história do cinema). A história da Pixar, número um em computação animada, todos conhecem. Quanto à Next, foi comprada em seguida pela Apple, para onde Steve voltou para resgatar a companhia (que a esta altura estava em queda livre) e alça-la novamente até o Olimpo das maiores e mais criativas empresas do mundo. E, novamente, os três pontinhos se explicam.

A terceira história é recente, e fala sobre a morte. No ano passado Steve recebeu um diagnóstico de um câncer de pâncreas incurável, que o mataria entre três e seis meses. Novamente os três pontinhos à frente: será que tudo terminaria por aí? Para surpresa dos médicos, a biopsia revelou um tipo raro de cancer de pâncreas, curável através de cirirgia e foi isso que ocorreu. Durante o período em que Steve esteve diante da morte ele entendeu sua profundidade e sua importância para o crescimento da alma humana. Entendeu que não poderia perder a fé jamais e que a única forma de se manter motivado nos momentos de dificuldade extrema é continuar se dedicando inteiramente àquilo que se ama. A partir dessa experiência transcedental, Steve se pergunta diariamente o que mudaria na sua vida hoje, se este fosse seu último dia? Ele escuta seu coração e muda tudo aquilo que não o satisfaz. Vive cada dia como se fosse o último, até porque cedo ou tarde essa previsão se concretizará. Segundo Steve, a morte o ensinou a viver! Ele aprendeu que a morte é um conceito útil, que renova as pessoas por dentro, que substitui o velho pelo novo, que empurra as mudanças na cabeça de quem parte e de quem fica. E, novamente, os três pontinhos fazem sentido. Talvez sua maior lição de vida tenha sido aprendida com a proximidade da morte.

Esse é o resumo do discurso, aplaudido de pé pelos formandos emocionados. Agora, as notícias recentes dão conta que talvez Steve esteja mesmo diante de sua jornada final. Será que novos três pontinhos se formaram em sua cabeça? Qual será a nova lição a ser aprendida por esse herói do mundo corporativo? Seja qual for, esperamos que ele nos deixe seu aprendizado com a morte, como um legado para a vida…

So, I’ve been trying to post as regularly as possible on this blog and given that I have approximately a 1000 subscribers and I don’t expect much more than 1000 or 1500 pageviews when I actually blog. If I don’t blog, the traffic meanders along 500 pageviews a day.

So, imagine my surprise when on Saturday, I realized my blog #s were inching towards 10,000 pageviews. I soon confirmed the source of the traffic – one of my posts had been sighted on Digg’s homepage.

Anyhow, 24 hours, over 60K pageviews and ~1500 Diggs later, my post had risen to the Most Dugg article for the day before. Here’s a screenshot when it was rising up the charts.

As Jeremiah pointed out in an earlier post. Is Digg traffic sustainable? I’d have to agree with him:

Findings? I don’t believe that Digg traffic provides long-term sustainable traffic for the following reasons: 1) It’s more of ‘viral’ or ’spike’ traffic that hits and moves on 2) I’m not writing about the right content that the Digg audience cares for. I may be wrong, are any of you from the “Digg Army” and have stuck with me?

While Marshall leaves a comment on a potential 2% conversion:

Over at SplashCast we’ve found that a front page Digg hit has had a conversion rate of about 2%. I talked to another company at UTR that’s hit Digg popular in a niche page a number of times and they say they see between 1% and 2% conversion.

It doesn’t matter to me. I found this an interesting social media experience on the virality that a community can drive. Anyways, for those of you wondering what exactly the post was all about – it was “Top 10 Steve Jobs quotes“, which happens to be one of the keywords that brings traffic to my blog (the other 2 being “corporate blogs” and “iphone apps”).

Google “Steve Jobs quotes”

I wrote a slightly different post on this same topic on ReadWriteWeb where I occasionally blog.

The news of Steve Jobs taking a medical leave of absence has certainly rocked the blogosphere and the stock market.  First, this shouldn’t have come as a surprise to anyone who knows anything about cancer, especially the kind he has.  Second, it highlights the risk of either hiring or developing a rockstar CEO.  Jim Collins talks about this very issue in his book Good to Great, which I recommend reading.  Steve Jobs did a masterful piece of work rescuing Apple from near certain demise and is clearly a driving force behind the company.  However, what he should have done years ago is to begin putting other management team members out there and share more of the credit and media responsibility.  He may have been trying, but didn’t do enough.

I don’t know him, but I’ve heard he is an egotistical person (and has rightly earned the props he gets).  The right thing for the company would have been for him to bury his ego and highlight other people and strengths of Apple as a company to take away some of the personal shine and perceived reliance on him personally.  I predict Apple will do fine without him, and I suspect they have a great team and great business processes to continue executing.  In fact, having Jobs step away may be the best thing for the company long term.  No company can succeed with such a reliance one person.  It will be a very interesting process to watch unfold.  What do you think?

Not to be confused with the McWorld some of us already live in (raises hand), Macworld is the annual Macintosh/Apple computer users convention.

The big news this year is surprisingly enough NOT this new and exciting bit of technology – Apple Introduces Revolutionary New Laptop with No Keyboard – but rather the fact that Steve Jobs isn’t there.  Also, this is the last year that Apple proper won’t be there, leaving the future of the con in doubt.  Not the best way to kick off con season for the year.

For my part, it looks like Apple computers are on my horizon again for the first time since college.  A couple of them have begun to sneak into our largely Microsoft/IBM environment here at the office, and I’m being tapped for my more than decade past knowledge of them.  Wish me luck!

Chuq von Rospach, a former Apple employee, writes of the inner workings of one of my favorite tech companies on the planet and it’s most famous employee – Steve Jobs. What drew my attention however, was his reference to the possibility of Apple entering the corporate blogging arena.

Many readers of this blog will remember the posts I’ve written over the past years on such a feasibility (What would Steve Jobs blog?), as I explained the benefits of such an action, the good and bad of Apple’s earlier attempts, etc.  (see scorecard here). Chuq’s post reaffirmed my belief that Apple has a blogger ethos but also confirmed my suspicion on why Jobs may never blog.

I always lobbied for more discussion, more disclosure, more transparency. That’s not always compatible with Steve’s focus on controlling the message. When Steve was fighting to restructure the company and keep it relevant, that control really was necessary. Today, I believe it hurts more than it helps, but there are signs that Apple is slowly opening up and starting to move in these directions. Don’t expect Steve ever to blog, though. But maybe his successor will.

That said, I believe Jobs “blogs” when he comes up with his famous web memos that are eagerly dissected by the insatiable “media”. By reaching out to his target audience (users, press, etc…) only when necessary (4 times thus far) vs. starting a blog (which would require a minimum weekly post), Jobs has yet again avoided the pitfalls that many CEO blogs fall into – setting high expectations and failing miserably owing to the nature of their CEO position.

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How much is Steve Jobs worth to Apple? That’s the question addressed in an article by Jeff Segal (which I saw thanks to Om).

Jeff estimates the value of Apple’s businesses, subtracts the sum from Apple’s market cap, and attributes the difference to “the Jobs premium.” Now, any such calculation has to be based on some heroic assumptions. I want to quibble about one of them: the assumption that all the difference is due to Jobs.

What about other people, such as the designers? What about the Apple brand, which would still be strong even if Steve stepped down? I believe that there is some worth to those assets.

That’s not to deny that Steve Jobs adds value to Apple (even as he and Apple annoy me with their smugness). It’s to deny that he, or anyone, is alone worth anything like $20 billion to their firm.

史蒂夫·名言机器·乔布斯的经典名句不计其数，下面这一段乔布斯在接受 CBS旗下《60分钟》（60 minutes）节目采访时说的（中文世界好像没怎么看到）：

My model for business is The Beatles: They were four guys that kept each other’s negative tendencies in check; they balanced each other. And the total was greater than the sum of the parts. Great things in business are not done by one person, they are done by a team of people.

大意是：

我的商业模式就像是披头士乐队：他们四个在一起能够控制住彼此的消极倾向，相互平衡好。所以他们四个在一起的价值要超过四个人算数相加。而商业上了不起的东西也不是由一个人来完成的，它们是一个团队努力的结果。