steve jobs

Jeff Bezos tried to be like Steve Jobs and failed

Fast Company has a fascinating article on Jeff Bezos and the Amazon Fire. It’s a great piece and worth the long length. Check it out and then come back here.

For those who don’t need the nuance, here’s the story’s bottom line: the Amazon Fire was Jeff Bezos’ baby. He micromanaged it like Steve Jobs, and made decisions unpopular with his team but which he pushed through anyway. One example is Dynamic Perspective, the feature that enabled the phone’s 3D effect, came at great cost and which customers didn’t end up appreciating.

The story is fascinating because it gets to the heart of intuition vs. data. Are great products born out of intuition and personal genius? Or out of market research, data analysis and testing? Microsoft is traditionally about the latter, and the one time they tried the former — Steven Sinofsky and Windows 8 — it wasn’t successful.

It appears that Amazon too tried to make that leap.

Read Full Article

HP Sprout a great example of the post-PC world

When Steve Jobs coined the “post-PC” term, it was to indicate that general purpose PCs would decline as certain functions become replaced by devices that do those things better. Jobs was thinking about mobile phones and tablets, but the HP Sprout is another fantastic example of the post-PC world.

A quick primer for those unaware — the HP Sprout is a desktop that eschews the traditional keyboard and mouse for a camera and mat. The camera projects to the mat to form an interactive display. The camera can also be used to scan 2D and 3D objects into digital copies, which you can manipulate and insert into images and documents. While elements of the Sprout have existed before, HP brought everything together into something new and innovative.

HP deserves kudos for the Sprout. I’m writing in large part because these types of risks should be rewarded; and also because I can actually see a market for the Sprout.

Read Full Article

Sundar Pichai is the 2nd most important person at Google

Maybe even the most important. Re/code is reporting that Larry Paige is handing off the day-to-day management of Google’s major products:

It’s a very big portfolio for one of Page’s senior product lieutenants and a fast-rising company executive. The highly respected Pichai will now have purview over research, search, maps, Google+, commerce and ad products and infrastructure. And he will continue to keep his existing responsibility for Android, Chrome and Google Apps. The six executives in charge of newly added product areas, all of whom previously reported directly to Page, will now report to Pichai.

What a bold, audacious move. First, acknowledgement is required for Pichai’s rocket ship rise to the top. This guy is only 8 years older than me and is now the point person for much of $370 billion company. Absolutely amazing. Getting recognition as the leader in a sprawling organization like Google couldn’t have been easy.

Read Full Article

Great design doesn’t differentiate Apple

Didn’t know what to write today, and then @nilanp came to save the day:

My answer to that is great design is everywhere. Lots of tech companies have great design. The problem is not everyone cares.

Read Full Article

Under Steve’s watch: Fewer customizations

This is the final post of a three part series on why the Apple Watch revealed earlier this week wouldn’t have been the one Steve Jobs made. Jobs would disapprove two buttons on the Apple Watch and he certainly would have made the software beautiful and cohesive.

Fortunately, it’s not all negative. Tim Cook and Jony Ive did do something right that Jobs probably wouldn’t have done: the seemingly endless amount of customization possible for the Apple Watch.

In this case, going against a Jobsian philosophy is a good thing.

Read Full Article

Under Steve’s watch: Beautiful, cohesive design

This is the second post in a three part series on what Steve Jobs would have done differently with the Apple Watch. Yesterday, we talked about why he wouldn’t have designed two buttons for it. The digital crown is smart, but Jobs would have eliminated the personal messaging button.

He would have more to disagree with Tim Cook and Jony Ive unfortunately. As I sat through the keynote and various demos for the Apple Watch, I found myself with an unfamiliar feeling regarding Apple’s mobile products: confusion.

I was confused by Apple Watch’s software, and I know why. There’s no consistent design language. Also, it’s kinda ugly.

This would’ve never happened under Steve’s watch.

Read Full Article

Under Steve’s watch: One button

This is the first post in a three part series about the Apple Watch, and why Steve Jobs would have done it differently.

The Apple Watch is something I’ve been anticipating — Apple is the undisputed opinion leader of the gadget industry and their entry legitimizes this nascent category. So I want to give it proper time and context, even if the first smartwatch I buy will probably be the Moto 360.

And yes, I do believe this is not the watch Steve Jobs would have designed – that’s not necessarily a bad thing. I’ll begin with something neutral Steve Jobs would have disapproved for his Apple Watch: two buttons.

The digital crown is smart. But the personal messaging button is not.

Read Full Article