Steve Jobs Resigns as CEO of Apple

[sadievan]

Originally Posted by RockdaMan

The business community warned him not to open retail stores, and now they can't build them fast enough.

He was right to open retail stores. I have never been in an Apple store when it hasn't been very crowded.

Carol

[Harmon]

Originally Posted by din155

However, I have observed that Apple has become more aggressive (in a wrong way in my opinion) after Jobs left the post due to his illness in January. Since then Apple has been suing other companies for all sorts of reasons. I used to admire Apple (due to Jobs) for changing the mobile computing arena completely. They dazzled the world with their product and one of the best marketing strategies but now they are in news for trying to stop other companies from launching competing products with false allegations. I hope it’s a passing phase and they start focusing again on developing better products and stop this madness.

I think this has more to do with the state of the law concerning patents than it does with a change in Apple. There's a kind of patent arms race going on because of the odd nature of patent law. Basically, just because you acquire a patent doesn't mean that you have established the right to exploit the item you have patented. The only way to find out if a patent is any good is to have a lawsuit about it. Nobody knows if the allegations are false until a court has ruled on whether the patent is actually viable. So we have a legal environment involving bluff, and counter-bluff, that centers around protecting your ability to make new products. In my view, this is another aspect of what I see as the meltdown of the concept of Intellectual Property in the face of technological change.

It's not just Apple.

[stonetools]

Here is a classic Apple design story:

Mike Evangelist (yep, that's his name) still remembers one of his first meetings with Jobs. It took place in the Apple boardroom in early 2000, just a few months after Apple purchased the American division of Astarte, a German software company where Evangelist was an operations manager. Phil Schiller, Apple's longtime head of marketing, put Evangelist on a team charged with coming up with ideas for a DVD-burning program that Apple planned to release on high-end Macs -- an app that would later become iDVD.

"We had about three weeks to prepare," Evangelist says. He and another employee went to work creating beautiful mock-ups depicting the perfect interface for the new program. On the appointed day, Evangelist and the rest of the team gathered in the boardroom. They'd brought page after page of prototype screen shots showing the new program's various windows and menu options, along with paragraphs of documentation describing how the app would work.

"Then Steve comes in," Evangelist recalls. "He doesn't look at any of our work. He picks up a marker and goes over to the whiteboard. He draws a rectangle. 'Here's the new application,' he says. 'It's got one window. You drag your video into the window. Then you click the button that says burn. That's it. That's what we're going to make.' "

"We were dumbfounded," Evangelist says. This wasn't how product decisions were made at his old company. Indeed, this isn't how products are planned anywhere else in the industry

This is part of a great profile of Apple in the magazine FAST COMPANY.


LINK

[RockdaMan]

The NYTimes made a interactive web page of all of the patents with his name on them. What is interesting is that many begin with the words: "CLAIM The ornamental design for:

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2...s-patents.html

[watershawl]

Have you noticed all of the "best moments" news articles. It's like we're treating this as if he died, when he's still alive. I hope he's doing okay though.

[elcreative]

Originally Posted by Harmon

I think this has more to do with the state of the law concerning patents than it does with a change in Apple. There's a kind of patent arms race going on because of the odd nature of patent law. Basically, just because you acquire a patent doesn't mean that you have established the right to exploit the item you have patented. The only way to find out if a patent is any good is to have a lawsuit about it. Nobody knows if the allegations are false until a court has ruled on whether the patent is actually viable. So we have a legal environment involving bluff, and counter-bluff, that centers around protecting your ability to make new products. In my view, this is another aspect of what I see as the meltdown of the concept of Intellectual Property in the face of technological change.

It's not just Apple.

And there is a simple legal fact... if you don't defend it then at some point it is deemed to be undefended and back in the public domain... otherwise known as use it or lose it...

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by MrsJoseph

I would love for Jobs to work in the Auto industry...I just wouldn't be able to afford an Apple car.

The last message on the dashboard of the super secret iCar prototype from the late 1980's:

The application Brakes has unexpectedly quit. OK?

[RockdaMan]

Originally Posted by j.p.s

The last message on the dashboard of the super secret iCar prototype from the late 1980's:

The yorCar would dispense with brakes in exchange for a next-generation electronic magnetic buffering system. This system would require the upgrading of roads and driveways everywhere, limiting yorCar drivers in where they could go...

(I'd finish this post right now, but I'm running off to patent the idea...)

[hidari]

Your bitterness at JSWolf is weak. He brought up some valid points.Saying ebooks are a hobby is quite ironic as you most likely wrote this from a computer that is a luxury item for a good portion of the world's population if they even have electricity.

Stalin killed millions but he helped to transform The Soviet Union to some degree, yet we can't criticize Mr. Stalin? Me thinks your Crapple stock is hurting... Plus JS actually likes Apple products and has a few If I remember rightly.

Originally Posted by MrsJoseph

Well, I hope that others are kinder to you when ill health hits than you are to others. You are complaining about a hobby. A leisure activity. And you're starting to sound like Jeff Bezos.

[din155]

Originally Posted by watershawl

Have you noticed all of the "best moments" news articles. It's like we're treating this as if he died, when he's still alive. I hope he's doing okay though.

Yes, sadly this thread is also becoming an orbituary of Steve jobs.

din

[murraypaul]

Originally Posted by din155

Yes, sadly this thread is also becoming an orbituary of Steve jobs.

Well given the health issues he has gone through without stepping down, I think it is reasonable to sadly assume that he sees the end in sight and is setting up a replacement while there is still time.

[ST-One]

Originally Posted by MrsJoseph

Well, I hope that others are kinder to you when ill health hits than you are to others.

And that has what to do with... anything?

Can't Jobs be criticised because he has health issues?

[JoeD]

Originally Posted by elcreative

And there is a simple legal fact... if you don't defend it then at some point it is deemed to be undefended and back in the public domain... otherwise known as use it or lose it...

Are you sure you're not mixing patent and trademark law up? Trademarks (afaik) have to be defended in order to retain, patents I'm not so sure about.

People have sat on patents for 10-15 years until a sufficient market has built up to allow them to then sell the patent to a company that has no intention of building any products, just suing everyone they can.

I don't think Apple is been more aggressive just to test the validity of their patents. If they are more aggressive, there's likely more to it.

Usually it's the untested nature of patents that is what keeps most companies posturing rather than filing lawsuits. They'd rather use the threat of legal action to ensure other companies license the patent than aggressively peruse everyone (the reason why when legal action does occur, settlements are often sought early by both parties, cost obviously also been an issue) A dodgy patent can be just as profitable as a valid one so long as you only posture/settle and don't actually push for a legal decision.

It's also why companies are buying up batches of patents they don't plan to use and pooling with other companies. It helps prevent another company suing them over a patent as they risk been sued over multiple patents in return. Of course what it doesn't protect against is the trolling companies who have no products, so do not fear others patents.

Been aggressive can result in your patents becoming worthless. As happened to multiple Apple patents against Samsung.

[MrsJoseph]

Originally Posted by hidari

Your bitterness at JSWolf is weak. He brought up some valid points.Saying ebooks are a hobby is quite ironic as you most likely wrote this from a computer that is a luxury item for a good portion of the world's population if they even have electricity.

Stalin killed millions but he helped to transform The Soviet Union to some degree, yet we can't criticize Mr. Stalin? Me thinks your Crapple stock is hurting... Plus JS actually likes Apple products and has a few If I remember rightly.

Bitterness? Do you know me? No? Thought not. Don't put words in my mouth. Thanks.

Originally Posted by ST-One

And that has what to do with... anything?

Can't Jobs be criticised because he has health issues?

Maybe because when I wrote the comment we were discussing his health issues?

[TimW]

Originally Posted by hidari

Your bitterness at JSWolf is weak. He brought up some valid points.Saying ebooks are a hobby is quite ironic as you most likely wrote this from a computer that is a luxury item for a good portion of the world's population if they even have electricity.

Stalin killed millions but he helped to transform The Soviet Union to some degree, yet we can't criticize Mr. Stalin? Me thinks your Crapple stock is hurting... Plus JS actually likes Apple products and has a few If I remember rightly.

A Stalin analogy? I think that could be grounds for invoking Godwin's Law...