Apple

Well, just finished an article in the Economist about Apple's history and its launch on iPhone. It's pretty interesting to view the life of Jobs in various perspective where his life is so related to how he succeeded to be one the best digital pioneers of the century. Here's some clips of his history with Apple:

It all started in 1984 when IBM was dominating the computer market as how Henry Ford dominated the car industry. It was then these colourful Apple computers kicked into the picture that claimed the honourable label to "think different". I guess until now, we still have such impression on Apple as, I magined, people would think of Jobs, a Hippie?, working in Apple. Apparently Apple was the first that invented mouse to use in computers which made them so much easier to use at those times. Then, even though he reached his success story in MAC computers, but the page turns out that he was kicked out of the company after his board just voted him out. Unlucky as I comment, with his comment that "What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating".
It was then the next 12 years changed him into an innovator and better businessman. "Best thing happened to me" as he claimed when he recalls it in 2005. "The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life." After he was kicked out, he had invested his time in two companies separately. 1st NEXT and 2nd Pixar. NEXT, the company that he developed a new computer product called "NEXT CUBE". This computer was absudly powerful but expensive box that...nobody bought it!!! Moving over that, NEXT head towards developing state-of-the-art operating systems. As for Pixar, well, who don't know Pixar but that was until Jobs had this company binded with Walt Disney. Before that Pixar attracted Jobs with its splendid graphics before he take over it. With Pixar's creative flair and Disney's marketing and distribution clout that it became success in its 1st blockbuster - "Toy Story".

During these years, he was much of a Californian hippie, "fruitarian" and a Zen Buddhist (the part of Buddhist that emphasizes enlightenment for the student by the most direct possible means, accepting formal studies and observances only when they form part of such means). I didn't really get this part of the article but I guess it meant that he was jus weird in all ways and also it described that he was an idealist in all aspects of his life including his strategies, his marketing skills - those parts of Apple which was non-technological and innovating. Of course, this impacted him to be more realism in terms of business part of him after he was sacked.
Well, tides turn around back to Jobs in 1996 when Apple was losing so much money and it was said to be imploded or be sold that time. It was then Apple's boss, Gil Amelio bought over NEXT which owns the most advance operating systems. And this in turn had Jobs back to the company. Not so much of an idealist, he invited Microsoft to invest in Apple which guaranteed Apple's survival in the market. Then, he used NEXT to develop Mac OS X and its later versions including Cheetah, Puma, Jaguar, Panther, Tiger and now Leopard. Geez, I guess he really liked Cats...can't wait until it counts to Jerry! lol. Then Jobs went on working with a British designer - Jonathan Ive to develop then-now Mac computers designs and concepts - iMac, iLife, iPhoto...etc where "i" just stands for internet.
In 2001, Jobs tranformed Apple into the leader of the music industry in the next coming years by introducing Applie iPod. Wow, this was the booming period for Apple and it was until next year that Jobs released availability of iTunes to PC users that allowed iPod to be used in PCs. EMI, a british label later used iTunes to sell its music without copyright protection. Success with one of his two company invested before, Jobs sold Pixar to Walt Disney and joined its board to secure its presence in Hollywood for things to come. As for the MAC computers, after the release of iPod, MAC computers users increased from a couple of percent in the world market up to 5% and rising. This is called the "HALO effect". Not to mention, with its chipset changed from Motorola and IBM manufacturer to Intel, such "virtualisation" changed MAC's usability to be able to run both Operating Systems in just one unit.
Okay, so now that we've talked about Apple's history. It's now it just released its iPhone product like just now? Wow, impressive. Just to inform if you haven't already know of its features: 1. A "multi touch" screen replacing the mechanical buttons of most phones uses now.
2. It uses Mac OS X and Safari as its operating system and web browser.
3. Automated features such as Sensors rotate the display, turn off display to conserve power when user lifts the phone to his ear and adjust its brightness according to the light.
Cons:
1. battery life just like Nokia N95 where it provides heaps of functionality yet the low battery life makes it meaningless. What's more, iPhone's battery is irreplaceable.
2. Slower data network compared to the current 3rd generation technology.
3. It's price at $499 is not as affordable to most people but only to rich and gadget-fans.

After reading this article, it just amazed me with some advice from Forry's dad yesterday that although there's so much things you can study in this world, but in reality, always take the most powerful career in the society. He mentioned about businessmen and lawyers are the big players in terms of career because these people are those who are controlling the world. Just like how we've seen how Jobs was kicked out from his company, who are those guys? Businessmen... Then, not to mention about it, it also gave him a realism lesson rather than being too idealist in all aspects of life. How do you feel when you're looking at t iPhone's poster? Innovative, Creative and Freedom as I imagined people would described it. But the literature and the comings of these things involved lots of other realism aspects. Turning that into my life itself, as I'm pretty idealist myself. I guess I really have to tone down and think in much realism in life in order to prepare myself to advance to the next step.

(P/S: That's why I don't totally agree with Forry's dad because I believe that everyone should study anything as long as they like because life is the journey that we're going through and we should walk it with preference to our decision and our perspective).

Well, if anyone's interested in looking for more about the new iPhone and what's coming next. This is it: