Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Playboy Interview: Steve Jobs (1985)

longform.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 157 posts

Re: Playboy Interview: Steve Jobs (1985)

#11

Post by tdicola »

ddebernardy wrote: post #2

Quite prescient: > Jobs: The most compelling reason for most people to buy a computer for the home will be to link it into a nationwide communications network. We’re just in the beginning stages of what will be a truly remarkable breakthrough for most people—as remarkable as the telephone.

Is it really that prescient? By 1985 there were lots of BBSes you could dial into and connect with people from across the nation. In fact what would become America Online was just starting out as a BBS. The internet was available at most colleges, and tools like email and usenet were in full use. I think his statement is like someone right now saying electric cars will be a huge thing in the future.

Re: Playboy Interview: Steve Jobs (1985)

#12

Post by ihnorton »

tdicola wrote: post #11
ddebernardy wrote: post #2

Quite prescient: > Jobs: The most compelling reason for most people to buy a computer for the home will be to link it into a nationwide communications network. We’re just in the beginning stages of what will be a truly remarkable breakthrough for most people—as remarkable as the telephone.

Is it really that prescient? By 1985 there were lots of BBSes you could dial into and connect with people from across the nation. In fact what would become America Online was just starting out as a BBS. The internet was available at most colleges, and tools like email and usenet were in full use. I think his statement is like someone right now saying electric cars will be a huge thing in the future.

On the other hand, how long did it take Microsoft to figure that out - remember the Windows 95 TCP/IP stack?

edit: note, Windows 95 originally didn't have a TCP/IP stack! The point is, plenty of smart people missed this boat for years, and I don't think it was at all obvious in 1985 that getting on a network would be the driving use case for widespread computer adoption by "non-techie" people.

Re: Playboy Interview: Steve Jobs (1985)

#13

Post by joshmlewis »

> Playboy: Then for now, aren’t you asking home-computer buyers to invest $3000 in what is essentially an act of faith?

I'm sure a lot of people were and still are asking that about Tesla. His response is basically he doesn't know how the future will respond to the computer but he knows it will definitely change the world and before long it won't be an act of faith.

Re: Playboy Interview: Steve Jobs (1985)

#14

Post by urs2102 »

> Jobs: I think that the scale of the business has gotten large enough so that it’s going to be very difficult for anyone to successfully launch anything new.

Playboy: No more billion-dollar companies hatched in garages?

Jobs: No, I’m afraid not in computers. And this puts a responsibility on Apple, because if there’s going to be innovation in this industry, it’ll come from us. It’s the only way we can compete with them. If we go fast enough, they can’t keep up.

I'm not sure I agree, but what kind of hardware company do you guys think could ever reach a near Apple level? I feel that perhaps something in robotics, but was curious what you all thought...

Re: Playboy Interview: Steve Jobs (1985)

#15

Post by edlebert »

All these things show that it really is coming down to just Apple and IBM. If for some reason, we make some giant mistakes and IBM wins, my personal feeling is that we are going to enter sort of a computer Dark Ages for about 20 years. Once IBM gains control of a market sector, they almost always stop innovation. They prevent innovation from happening.

Re: Playboy Interview: Steve Jobs (1985)

#16

Post by hobolord »

urs2102 wrote: post #14

> Jobs: I think that the scale of the business has gotten large enough so that it’s going to be very difficult for anyone to successfully launch anything new. Playboy: No more billion-dollar companies hatched in garages? Jobs: No, I’m afraid not in computers. And this puts a responsibility on Apple, because if there’s going to be innovation in this industry, it’ll come from us. It’s the only way we can compete with t…

perhaps something to do with energy

Re: Playboy Interview: Steve Jobs (1985)

#17

Post by morbius »

urs2102 wrote: post #14

> Jobs: I think that the scale of the business has gotten large enough so that it’s going to be very difficult for anyone to successfully launch anything new. Playboy: No more billion-dollar companies hatched in garages? Jobs: No, I’m afraid not in computers. And this puts a responsibility on Apple, because if there’s going to be innovation in this industry, it’ll come from us. It’s the only way we can compete with t…

CoreOS was hatched in a garage. But I don't see them getting Apple-level anytime soon.

Re: Playboy Interview: Steve Jobs (1985)

#18

Post by AndrewKemendo »

ulyssesgrant wrote: post #3

Great read. Haven't finished it yet, but this answer was really perfect: "Jobs: Let me compare it with IBM. How come the Mac group produced Mac and the people at IBM produced the PCjr? We think the Mac will sell zillions, but we didn’t build Mac for anybody else. We built it for ourselves. We were the group of people who were going to judge whether it was great or not. We weren’t going to go out and do market researc…

We weren’t going to go out and do market research. We just wanted to build the best thing we could build.

So is this only a good response because apple succeeded so well or should they have done market research and done even better? I ask because the logic for every startup is do market research (now called validation) in some fashion - even if it is the landing page approach.

I guess I am asking, prior to the success of the Mac would any business person have gone along with the "no market research" approach?

Re: Playboy Interview: Steve Jobs (1985)

#19

Post by maroonblazer »

ulyssesgrant wrote: post #3

Great read. Haven't finished it yet, but this answer was really perfect: "Jobs: Let me compare it with IBM. How come the Mac group produced Mac and the people at IBM produced the PCjr? We think the Mac will sell zillions, but we didn’t build Mac for anybody else. We built it for ourselves. We were the group of people who were going to judge whether it was great or not. We weren’t going to go out and do market researc…

That approach may have been viable early in the category's life, but seems unsustainable as new entrants drive down prices. I wonder if Cook, being the ops guy he is, would allow the same expenditures.

Also, it would be unfortunate if the takeaway was "market research has no value". Indeed, later in the interview, when discussing "Why the mouse?" he says:

'We’ve done a lot of studies and tests on that, and it’s much faster to do all kinds of functions, such as cutting and pasting, with a mouse, so it’s not only easier to use but more efficient.'

Clearly, in this case, they didn't trust that they could create "the best thing we could build".

Re: Playboy Interview: Steve Jobs (1985)

#20

Post by ivanca »

urs2102 wrote: post #14

> Jobs: I think that the scale of the business has gotten large enough so that it’s going to be very difficult for anyone to successfully launch anything new. Playboy: No more billion-dollar companies hatched in garages? Jobs: No, I’m afraid not in computers. And this puts a responsibility on Apple, because if there’s going to be innovation in this industry, it’ll come from us. It’s the only way we can compete with t…

Tesla. But yeah, your definition of "Hardware" may vary.
Post reply on HN