BarkerLetter


Tech¬

Where the eBooks are!
C/net has the skinny on where to get a free read.

Miss the action?
Get the highlights from this year's CES

Google +
Critics call it a time waster like FaceBook. Don't believe them!

The mobile job finder
Find jobs and do them from the beach, or your perch at Starbucks.

Your own Cloud
Virtual servers are making hardware into junk. Great for building your own home cloud network - cheap.

Social issues
Is your social network pulling its weight?

Why it's cool to hate Steve Jobs

By Kevin Barker

My sister got her iPhone swiped the other day from a restaurant table during the scant few moments it took to wash her hands in the ladies room. There was no one in the place, just staff, none of whom would own up to the deed. She was devastated. That phone was her whole life.

What motivates otherwise honest folks to commit such a heinous crime? Tech obsession, that's what. Obsessive compulsive behaviour with personal devices, call it Apple OCD.

It's one reason why I hate Steve Jobs. Yes, only one of them.

Sure it's great to be an innovator, and a successful one at that, but at what price? In the third world people are committing extemporaneous acts of violence, muggings, stabbings, etc., just to get someone's piece. The iPhone is the most coveted object in the world.

I have a few other reasons too. Sorry Steve, I hate to speak ill of you now that you've passed on but let's face it, you and the human race weren't allthatclose during the brief time you were casting those giant strides on the earth anyway.

It wasn't always thus. I used to hate Bill Gates, along with everyone else. That has always been in fashion. His control issues, his company's lack of innovation, his copying and imitating and what some would call outright theft of others' ideas, the spectacular and endlessly irritating software flops. Microsoft was called a postal box for royalty cheques. And he looked hateable too, like Nixon.

Steve, on the other hand was always viewed as the antithesis of business blue Bill. A cultural creative and an orphan, with a messed up personal life, he was a blueprint for the tortured genius. For years, guessing Steve's genetic origins was a Silicon Valley parlour game. And he was a rebel to boot. Remember Apple's famed Orwellian television ad in 1984 showing the robot slaves of Microsoft paying homage to a nondescript black box, until one breaks ranks and throws a spear through it, freeing them all? Investors mothered him.

But then something changed. After Job's caprices at Apple got him bounced from the board and the fortunes of the company turned sideways, it was Bill Gates of all people who rode to the rescue, providing a much needed cash infusion in a late night phone call to Jobs, who was later quoted as having said, "Thanks Bill. It's a better world."

I'm not sure if that conversation really happened or not, I merely remember reading about it in the newspaper. But I did notice that Apple seemed to grow more litigious after Jobs was anointed CEO in the late 1990s. Suddenly there were stories about lawyers in black suits with briefcases showing up at high schools to threaten kids with lawsuits over copyright infringement.

Nevertheless, over the following decade Apple reached that golden intersection of narcissism and creativity that makes for business success on a huge scale. And if some like myself became increasingly irritated by Apple's attempts to control the mobile world, even to the extent of forcing users of the '...USB and card-slot free...' iPad to purchase adapters, well there's that Bill/Steve configuration at work I suppose.

Alright, so Apple's Samsung Galaxy rival hasn't 3G or Skypeability.  Touche!  But I thought Apple was supposed to be, well - different - in that 'Peter O'Toole as-Lawrence- of- Arabia'  kind of way.

However, I think Apple shareholders are in a complete state of denial with respect to the future of a Job less company. Apple stock was little changed after the news of Jobs departure and subsequent death, events which I believe have been grossly underestimated. And it's been on a tear this earnings season.

I suppose with millions of iPhones and iPads rolling down the chutes investors think there is no need for for a creative genius at the helm in the foreseeable future. I think there is greater need for Jobs going forward than ever before, which is why I didn't run out and buy Apple stock, even on the occasional dip.

Because the million dollar question now is whether Apple's heavily proscribed product universe and pricing will survive a serious economic depression. Creativity is nice, but it's usually optional -- and in the case of Apple products it's not cheap. The strategic blend of mobile business tool and toy, the sexy branding and sleek unisex designs are pretty compelling in a status conscious market. But what's staring us in the face is a potential race to the bottom to capture a bigger share of dwindling sales. That's not exactly Apple's tasse de thé.

Even though I hate Steve Jobs, and as stink-eyed as I am over the company's near term future, I still want them to win. I'm still rooting for them, because everyone loves a winner. Apple now has a place in the pantheon of American business innovation, along with Ford and GE. It's simply too famous to fail. We won't let it.

But it's sure going to get bumpy ..

Careful out there.