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Steve Jobs
Posted on 12/31/2010 3:37:27 PM PST by Swordmaker
Apple is the dream company we always wished for when we were children. The messiah of companies that we never thought would come to Earth in our lifetimes.
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Steve Jobs
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When I was a kid the only thing I wanted in life was an Apple II+. When I finally got one, (my dad took one from his work and gave it to me for about six months) I did everything a young boy does with his computer.
I programmed (in BASIC) the computer to type my name over and over again. I then went to the local computer store and shoplifted Ultima III. My friends and I then copied each others games so we had a whole set of games to play with. I then skipped school incessantly in order to play games all day, my friends and I calling each other throughout the day (we all skipped school every day) in order to share the latest secrets we found while hacking our way through Castle Wolfenstein.
Fifteen years later Apple was on the verge of bankruptcy. The company I worked for (HBO) and Philip Morris, the cigarette company, were the only two companies in the city that I knew of that used primarily Macintoshes (except for the legal department, which used all PCs and every document was redlined, outlined, greenlit, in WordPerfect 7.1.1).
Gil Amelio, the CEO of the company for about 3 seconds came to visit HBO. We were all so impressed with him. The CEO of Apple! How much cooler could you get? At the time they were about this close from bankruptcy or being, at the very least, hopelessly inconsequential.
Five years before that was the Apple Newton. The head of Carnegie Mellon’s Art school said to me, “this will change the world.” And five years before that, I wrote my first term paper on this amazing little device, the Mac 512k. I also saw Steve Jobs when he visited Cornell’s Computer Science Department to get them to buy some NEXT machines. They were beautiful. Maybe still the most beautiful desktop machines I’ve ever seen.
Black cubes, super powerful. They were magic to program and experiment with. I wrote a chess program on them. Everyone surrounded Steve Jobs just to see what he looked like. I was jealous. He was young, rich, and had so much charisma you couldn’t even see past the light that shined out of him.
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Now, I’m writing this on my last Windows-based laptop ever. I know what's going to happen. Already in my house there’s one Macbook Air. There are two IPod Touches, one iPhone, two iPads, and four or five iPods. I’ve got 10 authorized computers already for iTunes across two accounts. I download apps at least once per day, much more if you add in songs, TV shows and movies from the iTunes store. Within two weeks, before I leave on a trip for India, I will buy a Macbook Air 13” to travel with, and I know I will never go back to the HP laptops I’ve been using for almost the past 10 years.
Now lets look at the basic numbers.
We can try and model everything: Mac sales, iPod Touch sales, song sales, margins, etc. But even back of the envelope using current growth of the iPad and the app store, we can easily make a rationale for a trillion dollar market cap. The fact that iPad sales, rather than cannibalizing the Mac, has actually increased Mac sales further increases the argument. The day my dad had to take away my Apple II+, I cried. I have a 30 year relationship with Apple. I love it. I don’t think I have a real relationship with any other company on the planet. That’s why its going to be a trillion dollar market cap.
If you want on or off the Mac Ping List, Freepmail me.
Author assumes that everyone is a metrosexual. I won’t buy an apple product cause I don’t wanna look like a stupid, consumerist dork.
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| One Trillion dollars?!? |
Because they sell the BEST computers! We are a 2 iMac household.
This is in contrast with Microsoft.
Most people are buying stuff from them because they ‘have’ to.
Microsoft is just sitting there, waiting to be replaced with something else. Vista shined the light on Microsoft’s shortcomings. They released Win7, which was an updated version of Vista that didn’t suck as bad, but with no real value added. Most all users don’t miss anything just sticking with XP with regard to functionality, and you don’t need 8GB of RAM for it to run well.....
Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.
- Matthew 7:15
First I bought an iPhone, and then because iTunes evolved to require XP or better, I bought a Mac Mini that is currently hooked up to a 52” Sony HDTV that’s streaming Netflix right now. Then they came out with this amazing little device I’m typing on right now, the iPad. After that I ended up replacing a dead desktop with a seriously cool 22” iMac. Boy I don’t miss the rats nest of wires around my desk and floor.
My T60 Leovo laptop still runs Linux, but I hardly use it anymore. Well okay I still use it, but not as much. Windows? I’ve got it on a VM on the Linux laptop. I haven’t had cause nor desire to fire it up in a couple of years. Don’t miss it.
Oddly enough, I still Like girls, and I vote conservative, every time.
and you are friggin jerk!!!
I got an ipod a few months back - and I can feel the same process you speak of starting in me. Their stuff is that good... Tell me about the MacMini - how much - how easy?
It’s just a joke!
The Ipad is a great gadget, but Ipad will be toast once some quality Droid pads come out. Users have to buy an addon application just to be able to print with Ipad.
Well that’s good because I thought your care provider had left you alone...
I could almost be called a Mac nut. I have various machines ranging from the clam-shell iBook G3 to a 24” iMac. Included in the collection is a G4 XServer.
One of my favorites for looks is the iMac G4 with the round base, metal neck and screen ! If you go looking on Youtube, there is an ad where one is behind a window and a guy looking at it. He even sticks out his tongue and it sticks out its tongue (CD-Rom drawer). I am suppose to get a 20” one next week and the memory will get bumped to the max of 2 GB and a 500 GB hard drive will be put in. Be a screaming machine.
Careful,
There are an awful lot of Mac users on this forum
Jim Robinson had to call a truce, the heat got so high
When I was a kid, boys would get into it over a Ford vs. Chevy conflict.
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