Chapter 8: Apple
One fact that I found interesting is that Steve Jobs was fired from the company he created, Apple, in 1985. Now, 12 years later, 1997, he regained control of the company he confounded. He came back because Apple was having a financial crisis. Levy once asked Jobs if he will be CEO of apple. Jobs said no. His stay at Apple was only temporary, to help the company get back on its feet. In fact, Apple has been 90 days away from bankruptcy. Apple's revenues went down from 8 billion to 5 billion. Jobs was CEO of Pixar while he was out Apple. Jobs thought it is time to repair Apple. During that time, Dell computers were on the market. Michael Dell once said, if he was in Job's shoes, he would close down apple. In 1998, the iMac was released. This was the first project, Jobs worked on after his second coming to Apple. The original iMac was egg-shaped and was blue. The iMac was a big hit. Then after the iMac, there was the iBook (an iMac to go). Then, Apple was building wireless internet standard (Wi-Fi) into its computers. By 2000, Jobs does not consider himself an interim. the one thing that Apple always does is prefixing its products with "i", like iPod, iMac, iPad, iBook. Before the iPod came out, the iPod team was thinking about letting the PC people be able to buy iPods that is compatible with windows. The plan was realized. Jobs made a deal with MusicMatch to provide software for the iPod to work on Windows platform. There were disadvantages because Windows had to buy extra hardware like FireWire to put on their computer.Apple also needed to write iTunes for Windows. In 2003, Apple created a Windows version of iTunes. iPods cannot be downloaded from any other music sites besides, iTunes. After that, Jobs was think on how to make the iPod mini better and thus came the new iPod nano with a color screen, click wheel, built in games and other features. Apple has improved itself.
Chapter 9: Podcast (Last Chapter)
Adam Curry was trying to figure out how to merge radio and internet together. Working with Dave Winter, a software designer, they developed Really Simple Syndication (RSS). It allows people to subscribe to "feeds
or digital file deliveries. Blogging and iPod goes well together, so audio files should also be with the iPod. The name is of having unstreamed audio or video is called podcast. The name Podcast was created in September 2004. So the first version of iTunes that included podcasting was released in June 28, 2005. When you subscribe to a podcast, the next time you open up iTunes, new episodes would be downloaded. By the first of July, a million podcasts were downloaded. There would be podcasts about sports, news, and every other subject. Also, even Universities and college professors upload their lectures on iTunes as podcasts. Then, Apple distributed music videos for $1.99.
Quote:
"These people don't love what they create. And people here do" (Levy 225).Reaction:
This quote was said by Steve Jobs, referring to the people running PC companies not liking their own products. I can tell that Apple loves what they create because if they love what they create, then customers around the world will love what was created. For instance, 55 million iPods were sold by mid-2006. That is a lot of iPods sold. If that many people buy iPods, then the iPod is certainly a likable product. I agree with Job's opinion. If there is no inspiration in the product, then it will not sell as much as a company might have hoped. I think that inspiration is key to successful sales.
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