[PatNY]

Originally Posted by Andrew H.

You have a fundamental misunderstanding of Jobs. Jobs changed his mind *all the time*. Even after making public comments. The video iPod is the most analogous situation to this one (a year after saying video didn't make sense on an iPod, Apple came out with the video iPod), but there are many others (no third party apps on the iPhone; upside down apple logo, etc.) There's no face-saving necessary; he just came out with the new product if he thought it made sense at the time. I'm sure he would point out that this wasn't a 7" screen and was 35% larger, of course.

As for crucifying, he made a disparaging comment during a phone call a couple of years ago. I'm sure he wouldn't feel bound by that now.

I know that Jobs said/did a lot of inconsistent, haphazard things. But his crucifixion of the 7” tablet was different. Simply a “disparaging comment?” Hardly. Engadget (often accused of Apple idolatry) called it a “rant” and “CEO outburst.” The attack went on for 4 minutes, was unprovoked, and came within a larger 20 minute talk in which he took every opportunity to bash Google and Android.

In comparison, the other things you mentioned were casual answers to questions posed by journalists -- short and simply dismissive in nature, without the same amount of venom or effort he used to bash the 7” tablet.

At the time of the comments, Apple was also feeling threatened by the 7” tablets which had started to encroach on their iPad market share. So this was part of Jobs’ personal fatwa. At the time Jobs dismissed video on the ipod or 3rd party apps, there were no threatening competing products at the time.

So I think the circumstances were different. Of course no one will ever know for sure, but I believe we would not have a Mini today if jobs were still actively heading Apple. There would be too many venomous words to eat here – and too public and adamant a position to reconcile if he had changed course.

Antennagate? Mobile Me? Cut and paste in iOS?
There were a lot of imperfections under Jobs.

Sure, Apple has made mistakes in the past. But can any of them really compare with mapgate? Here’s why I think mapgate is different:

1) Apple prides itself on its software. They claim that’s what differentiates themselves from the others. And the half-baked maps app was a pure software mistake – unlike the antenna issue which was a hardware design problem, or MobileMe which entailed the uncertainties of home computing environments for both Windows and Mac users. So one can excuse or at least understand the sync and antenna issues, which were hard to anticipate. Mapgate was completely foreseeable and inexcusable.

2) This was a problem that Apple anticipated and essentially ignored initially. Developers reportedly WARNED Apple about the deficiencies in the app and claim Apple was internally well aware of the problems. Developers even complained that the “broken” map app “broke” their own apps which relied on accurate map imagery.

Never has an Apple software introduction been the butt of so many jokes. That tells you all you need to know how different this misstep was.

What major problems did Apple have with their iOS cut-and-paste? I am not aware of any.

Or maybe they can find some use for the extra billion from Samsung. Its not like paying lawyers is particularly expensive given their revenue - the one thing apple is not short of is money.

Or maybe the verdict will fall apart due to 1) the alleged improprieties of the jury foreman which are now being looked into or 2) an appeals court review or 3) an appeal to the Supreme Court … in which case Apple will never see a cent.

People who are critical of Apple tend to not know much about Jobs and thus completely mischaracterize him as someone who never changed his mind ... But of course this is ridiculous because, as mentioned above, he changed his mind all the time.

No one is saying Jobs never changed his mind. We all change our minds at one time or another. The point is, Jobs was on a personal crusade against Android/Google. As part of this crusade, he put himself out there very publicly on the record, at length, as being strongly against a specific product … in a way he had never done before with any other product/feature. For him to then do a 180 on that would likely have been excruciating for him.

On the specific iPad mini issue, it's pretty hard to argue on the merits that it's going to hurt Apple.

Who’s saying it’s going to hurt them? Better late than never – even if what they put out ironically offers “less for more” (how Jobs described what competing tablet-makers were doomed to put out). I suspect Apple will improve the screen in the near future, but the first iteration of the Mini is a disappointment, spec-wise.

--Pat