

Unanswered Steve Jobs questions - bretthellman
http://www.cringely.com/2011/10/unanswered-steve-jobs-questions/

======
snprbob86
> Maybe he was a closet philanthropist.

Wasn't he a buddhist? My understanding is that buddhism encourages
philanthropy without acknowledgement or attribution.

~~~
37prime
That was the teaching in Buddhism and Steve Jobs was a devout Buddhist. It is
likely that Steve Jobs was a closet philanthropist.

------
meric
Here's some unanswered Steve Jobs questions of mine I haven't be able to stop
thinking about.

Did S.J pick the right successor? S.J built Apple as a machine he controls,
optimised for himself, to build many wonderful products. The co-pilot is now
in charge. Apple will be able to milk the iPhone, just as it was able to milk
the Apple II, but will Apple be able to move on to the next great thing? How
long will Apple's success continues for? Assuming it will continue for the
next half decade, will we keep getting advances in consumer technology in the
10 years after that?

~~~
Jach
I'm cautiously betting that Apple will end up like current Microsoft. They'll
stagnate to some degree, have some more ups and downs, and they'll still be
around for a long while. They've grown to a tremendous height, they have a
long way to fall.

------
jfruh
The question of whether there was a grand plan is certainly an interesting
one, but it seems unlikely that in 1998 there was a big whiteboard in
Cupertino with "iMac -> iTunes -> iPod -> iPhone -> iPad -> profit!" written
on it. But some of those internal steps may have been planned. iTunes came out
about 10 months before the iPod did, but obviously the iPod was in development
for longer than that. I wonder if iTunes was specifically designed to be the
interface between the computer and the iPod? Or if it was just part of a
"digital hub" strategy (this was a term Apple bandied about a lot in the early
'00s) that was envisioned as being focused on the Mac and that only pivoted
when it became clear what a runaway success the iPod was.

------
narag
More than a plan, it seems that there is a _method_. Technical advances and
Moore's law make different kind of devices first possible, later practical for
mass production and finally appealing. Apple seems to be waiting for the last
phase to focus all its forces in the release of one optimal product. So far it
has had a very good eye.

