The Steve Jobs email that outlined Apple’s strategy a year before his death

Re:The Steve Jobs email that outlined Apple’s strategy a yea... by toyg on Thursday November 03, 2016 @12:30PM (#12865424)

You could look at it in another way though. This is not a will, it's a meeting agenda; Mac didn't need to be discussed at Top100 because Jobs knew the dynamics of that market inside out, there was nothing to discuss.

The overall direction of travel and the emphasis on i-devices were pretty clear, yes, but it was uncharted territory so that's what had to be assessed. The view of the PC as home hub was still there, for example - that's now been ditched in the Apple world, considering Apple TV is an also-ran and iMac / MacMini are effectively dead. Steve might not have done that, not like this anyway.

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Re:The Steve Jobs email that outlined Apple’s strategy a yea... by cptskippy on Thursday November 03, 2016 @01:09PM (#12865842)

> Mac didn't need to be discussed at Top100 because Jobs knew the dynamics of that market inside out, there was nothing to discuss.

Did we read the same email? Half of the "Strategy" bullet points relate direclty to the PC and it's role. He points out that Apple is the inventor of the Digital Hub concept with the PC being the hub. He goes on to say that the concept has since evolved to the Cloud being the hub, not the PC, but Apple hasn't evolved and is in danger of losing out if they do not transition away from the PC to cloud. He specifically says the PC is just another client.

    – Post PC era- Apple is the first company to get here
    – Post PC products now 66% of our revenues
    – iPad outsold Mac within 6 months
    – Post PC era = more mobile (smaller, thinner, lighter) + communications + apps + cloud services
    – we invented Digital Hub concept
    – PC as hub for all your digital assets
    – digital hub (center of our universe) is moving from PC to cloud
    – PC now just another client alongside iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, …
    – Apple is in danger of hanging on to old paradigm too long (innovator’s dilemma)

The bullet points and the fact that Apple dropped "Computer" from it's name to focus on Consumer Electronics should give you an understanding of Apple's strategy and how they see the PC. They're clearly moving away from the Pro Tools segment that supported them for so long and they run the risk of being the next Sony CE when someone else invents the next iPod.

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Re:The Steve Jobs email that outlined Apple’s strategy a yea... by toyg on Thursday November 03, 2016 @01:25PM (#12865996)

I don't disagree, my remark was more shaded by the MBP debacle: there is nothing in that email saying "our pro tools should suck from now on". There is an emphasis on i-devices and cloud (and lock-in...), of course, and on new strategies, which is what has to be hashed out; but there would have been no need to hash out what a great Pro laptop is or what a great desktop is, since Steve would have seen a few in his time. He's had quite a few run-ins with his developer ecosystem throughout the years, so he knew pretty well what you can and cannot sell to that crowd.

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Re:The Steve Jobs email that outlined Apple’s strategy a yea... by cptskippy on Thursday November 03, 2016 @02:32PM (#12866615)

I'm not sure suck is right word, they're just catering to a different market. The new MBPs seem to be targeted at the "prosumer" market and not actual professional market. It's almost as if Apple is abandoning the segment that kept them alive pre-iPod. It makes you wonder if they're going to introduce an actual professional line again.

I mean what do the actual Apple Developer use as their daily drivers?

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Re:The Steve Jobs email that outlined Apple’s strategy a yea... by CamperBob2 on Thursday November 03, 2016 @06:51PM (#12868792)

There won't be a Mac in another five years, Pro or otherwise. Didn't anyone notice that they dropped "Computer" from their company name, concurrently with the release of their iOS product line? They don't want to be in the commodity appliance business, and that's what computers are.

I mean what do the actual Apple Developer use as their daily drivers?

Many people see this as a relevant question for some reason, but I'm not sure why. You don't need a Sony branded PC to develop for the PS4, or a Microsoft branded PC to develop for the Xbox. You still need a Mac to develop for iOS and OSX, but there's no technical reason for that. It's a wholly-artificial constraint imposed by Apple... one that could go away tomorrow with a stroke of Tim Cook's pen.

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Re:The Steve Jobs email that outlined Apple’s strategy a yea... by cptskippy on Friday November 04, 2016 @02:01AM (#12870661)

If that were the case then why continue trying to innovate the computer? If the Post PC Era and their embrace of consumer electronics means they plan to abandon the PC then why bother investing in innovating it? Why not make moves to push users off their hardware? Allow OSX to be virtualized or release XCode for Linux or PC?

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Re:The Steve Jobs email that outlined Apple’s strategy a yea... by CamperBob2 on Saturday November 05, 2016 @05:30PM (#12881999)

If that were the case then why continue trying to innovate the computer?

They don't innovate that much. They just duct-tape reference designs from Intel and other vendors together, like any other PC vendor.

It doesn't take much innovation to select a headphone jack or a USB jack in Altium and hit the Delete key.

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