On April 1, 1976, Jobs, Woz, and Wayne founded Apple Computer. Yes, Apple was originally a computer company, not a consumer electronics technology company as it is now recognized by the public.
After the company was established, the first product released was Apple I. This is not a complete personal computer, because it does not have a monitor, needs to be connected to a TV, and users must provide their own keyboard and chassis.
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The appearance of Apple I feels more like a typewriter. The wooden casing and exposed motherboard don't look very refined.
One year later, Apple Computer released its second product, the Apple II, which was a true personal computer. It is no exaggeration to say that the Apple II was the most successful and earliest personal computer at the time.
According to statistics at the time, Apple II sales reached 279,000 units, surpassing the then computer giant IMB (240,000 units of competing personal computer products were sold). At the same time, the birth of Apple II accelerated the popularity of personal computers and laid the foundation for the subsequent form of personal computers.
In 1984, Apple Computer released the Macintosh, the predecessor of the current Mac. The Macintosh was the world's first personal computer equipped with a graphical user interface and defined the paradigm of personal computers for the next 40 years.
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However, sales of this historic personal computer were not optimistic. One year after the product was released, actual sales were only 10% of the company's internal expectations.
Because of its 128KB RAM, it became very slow. Coupled with the price of US$2,495 at the time (it is almost US$7,300 now, equivalent to about 53,000 yuan), this product that should have been successful finally became a Apple Computer's failure.
It is worth mentioning that the release of the Macintosh actually became the trigger for Jobs to be kicked out of Apple Computer. In September 1985, Apple Computer's board of directors unanimously decided to remove Jobs.
After Jobs left Apple Computer, he took several Apple employees to form Next. The World Wide Web (www.) we use now was developed using computers owned by NeXT.
Apple Computer Company without Jobs was on the way to decline. Due to the company's senior management's mistakes in market judgment and decision-making, as well as the lack of competitiveness of subsequent computer products, Apple Computer Company was on the verge of bankruptcy.
In order to resolve the company's bankruptcy problem, Apple's board of directors invited Jobs back to the company as a consultant (February 1997). Jobs' return did save Apple Computer, which was about to go bankrupt at the time.
Since the market has already been captured by Microsoft and other PC manufacturers,Therefore, the sales volume of Apple computers released subsequently were very average, and they were considered niche products in the entire PC market.
Even now, Macs powered by Apple's self-developed M series chips still don't have much share in the PC market. According to statistics from market research organization Canalys,In 2023, Apple computer shipments will be 23.203 million units, accounting for 9.4% of the market.
Although Apple computers have brought many groundbreaking designs and features to the entire PC industry, their high prices and design flaws in each generation of products have dissuaded many consumers.
Fortunately, however, the digital audio player iPod launched by Apple Computer Company was a great success. This is also the most successful product since Steve Jobs returned to Apple Computer.
In October 2001, the first-generation iPod was unveiled and officially launched in November of the same year. Once this product was released, it was loved and sought after by many consumers. Data at the time showed that within six years of the launch of the iPod, sales exceeded 100 million units.
Between 2005 and 2007, Jobs made drastic adjustments to Apple's computer product line, abandoning PowerPC processors. Macs would embrace Intel processors and launch MacPro, MacBook and other products.
After Jobs' reforms, Apple Computer Company regained a new lease of life. Between 2003 and 2006, Apple Computer Company's stock price rose from 6 yuan per share to more than 80 yuan per share, and the stock price increased more than 10 times. It was during this period that Apple Computer's market value surpassed that of Dell.
In 2007, Apple Computer Inc. officially changed its name to Apple Inc.. At this point, Apple is no longer a technology company with computers as its main business, but has transformed into a consumer electronics technology company.
It was also in this year that the first-generation iPhone came out. Apple opened the door to the mobile Internet, ended the era of feature phones, and led the entire mobile phone industry into the era of smartphones.
There may be friends here who tie their iPhones to Steve Jobs. Indeed, without Steve Jobs, there would be no current iPhone. But before the release of the original iPhone, Jobs was opposed to Apple making mobile phones.
The book “Such a Device: The Secret History of the iPhone” mentions that Brian Merchant, senior editor of the technology website Motherboard, recalled the conversation during the interview with Jobs. He said that Jobs initially opposed Apple's entry into the mobile phone industry. It was an experimental project within the company, without Jobs' knowledge at the time, and it became a formal project under the supervision of Jobs' managers.
Merchant also said that the iPhone's multi-touch technology was completed through experiments within Apple. Merchant quoted senior iPhone engineer Andy Grignon as saying, “They tried to convince Jobs that the phone could bring huge benefits to the company, but Jobs didn't feel that the phone could bring success to the company.”
In other words, Jobs almost destroyed a profitable project like the iPhone at that time. Therefore, the success of the iPhone is mainly attributed to Apple's internal iPhone R&D team. Jobs was just the one who was later persuaded to bring the iPhone to the stage.
Jobs himself did have many innovative ideas, but after all, he was not a god. He also had times when he was confused. The iPhone is a good example.
In fact, after Jobs returned, the reason why he was able to pull back Apple Computer Company, which was about to enter the abyss, was that in addition to his own deletion of the complicated product line, there were also outstanding designers like Jonathan Ive who designed subversive products. sexual products.
Jonathan's design can be said to run through the entire Apple product line, from Mac to iPod to iPhone, as well as iPad and Apple Watch. Jonathan's amazing design talent also gave the design team he led the highest say in Apple.
At Apple in the Steve Jobs era, product design had the highest priority, and both software and hardware served design. Because Jobs likes to use technology to create art.
He believes that good design comes from the pursuit of beauty, using technology to ensure product quality and using art to enhance taste. Jobs's ideas and Jonathan's ideas hit it off, so Apple of that era launched many “flashy” products.
For example, the 12-inch MacBook was definitely a failed product in 2015, mainly because the hardware performance at the time could not support such an advanced thin and light design. If the 12-inch MacBook's chip is replaced by Apple's self-developed M series chip, then it will definitely be a shockingly successful product.
Although the official list of designers related to the 12-inch MacBook has not been announced, considering Jonathan's influence on Apple's design team, he may have participated in the design of this project.
Looking back at Apple in the Steve Jobs era, it is not difficult to find that under the leadership of Steve Jobs, Apple did launch many groundbreaking products, such as iPad, MacBook Air, iPhone, etc. However, such radical innovations will not bring much to the company. income.
Doesn’t the iPhone bring huge benefits to Apple?
In fact, the original iPhone was not recognized by the market because the product was too advanced and the software ecosystem was not mature enough, so not all consumers were willing to pay for it. According to the statistics,The original iPhone sold only 1.3 million units. At that time, Nokia's global sales of mobile phones were 437 million.
It is easy to see from the data chart below that starting from the iPhone 3G, Apple’s mobile phone sales exceeded 10 million, and with each subsequent generation of iPhone, sales doubled.
In other words, Apple’s mobile phones really started to make profits with the iPhone 3GS, not the original iPhone. This is enough to prove that innovative products have low market acceptance and cannot bring huge benefits to Apple.
In addition, Jobs was loyal to product design, and he believed in compromising software and hardware for design. Products often had many flaws, just like the Apple logo that was bitten by someone.
Take, for example, the iPhone 4’s “antennagate”. The cause of this incident is that the iPhone 4 itself has a design flaw. When the user's hands block the signal bars on both sides of the phone, the iPhone 4 will immediately lose signal.
Isn't Apple aware of this problem during the product development stage? So, this is a compromise that Jobs made for product design.
Consumers do not understand overly radical innovations, and Apple has to bear a lot of risks, including investing a lot of R&D funds, facing consumer doubts, and not being able to recover costs due to poor product sales.
Therefore, this is why many manufacturers would rather choose market-proven solutions than take risks and create original ones.
Cook has become the “big grievance” and the scapegoat for Apple's lack of innovation.
Therefore, there is a reason why Jobs chose Cook as his successor after he retired due to cancer. Because Jobs knew very well that choosing a successor like him would very likely send Apple into the abyss again. Therefore, the best solution is to find a successor who can enable Apple to develop stably and continue to generate revenue for Apple.
As we all know, Cook comes from a supply chain background, and everyone must have seen how strong his ability to control the supply chain is. Coupled with Cook's product strategy, Apple has directly become the world's most valuable technology company, which is an ability that Jobs does not possess.
“Cook doesn't understand technology, so Apple doesn't innovate enough.” This may be a view that everyone agrees with. In fact, this is not the case. Jobs is not a technology guru. In the early days of Apple's founding, his partner Woz was responsible for all Apple computer technology development work.
Information shows that Cook has helped launch several commemorative products, including iMac G3, PowerMacintosh, iBook, etc. So, does Cook really not understand technology?
“If Steve Jobs were still here, Apple would be very innovative today.” If that’s what you think, then congratulations on your answer.
The era of Steve Jobs was a period of development where various industries were not saturated. This is like the 1960s and 1970s, when computers were mainly targeted at corporate users, and there were no personal home computers on the market.
As the saying goes, “Forefathers planted trees and others will enjoy the shade.” Jobs discovered that no one had set foot in the personal home computer market, which might become the next hot spot. Therefore, Jobs embarked on the journey of entrepreneurship with his good friend Woz, who was a computer enthusiast. road.
Another example is the iPhone. Apple was not the first manufacturer to launch a touch-screen mobile phone, but Apple has established its own kingdom on this track, leading the entire mobile phone industry to transition from the era of feature phones to the era of smartphones.
In the Cook era, all walks of life have become saturated, and it is extremely difficult to innovate on products that have already been innovated once. This is just like today's flagship mobile phones, which are basically volume parameters.
“Isn't folding screen mobile phone an innovation? Apple has not launched a folding screen mobile phone so far.” Strictly speaking, the folding screen mobile phone is not an innovation, because it does not break out of the limitations of a smartphone, but only changes the product form, which is a bit similar to a feature phone with a hundred flowers blooming.
Real innovation can subvert an entire industry, be recognized by the market, and become a product that consumers use every day. TrendForce’s latest report shows that global shipments of foldable screen mobile phones in 2023 will be only 15.9 million units. Obviously, folding screen mobile phones do not have the ability to change the world like iPhone4.
Another typical example is Apple's visionPro. Before the release of this product, the AR/VR/MR industry has been developing for many years. There are already many head-mounted display devices on the market, such as Pico, Meta, Microsoft's Hololens, and Google Glass et al.
VisionPro only integrates existing technologies according to Apple's approach, but it also does not break out of the limitations of the head-mounted display. It is even inferior to other low-priced competing products in some aspects, such as wearing comfort, product weight, etc.
Even if Apple now makes a visionPro that is no different from ordinary glasses, it will be difficult to become a smart product that consumers wear every day, because there are already many smart glasses on the market, and consumers already think it is very common, and it will be difficult to expose them. Surprised expression.
Therefore, Steve Jobs’ old-era methodology is not applicable to today’s era. Cook and Apple also wanted to create a product that would change the world again. Originally, Apple Car was a potential stock, but after ten years of research and development, Apple Car was ultimately stillborn.
The car Apple wants to build is an L5-level smart car without a steering wheel or pedals. However, due to existing technology, it is difficult for this concept car to be mass-produced.
Rather than making an L2-level smart car that is similar to what is on the market, it is better to give up directly. After all, the smart car market is now occupied by Tesla and Chinese new energy vehicles.
Cook and Jobs, two completely different ideas of innovation
As the successor of Steve Jobs, it is difficult not to be compared to Cook. Looking at the development history of the two generations of Apple leaders, it is not difficult to see that Jobs is a radical and innovative person, while Cook is a stable and innovative person.
Under the leadership of Steve Jobs, Apple would ignore the interests of the board of directors and the suggestions of users, and focus on product design. The software and hardware teams served the design team, and would rather accept product design flaws than compromise on product innovation ideas.
On the contrary, Cook will give priority to ensuring the interests of the board of directors, put aside product design and return to pragmatism. Whatever the market needs, he will make corresponding adjustments to the product, such as the body thickness and interface of the new MacBook, and the large-size screen of the iPhone 6 series. , these practices run counter to Jobs.
Precisely because the two people had different ideas about product innovation, they produced two completely different results. Apple in the Steve Jobs era had its ups and downs, but Apple's profits in the Cook era have been steadily doubling every year. So, is Apple really not innovating now? Presumably everyone already has the answer in mind.
