
How Steve Jobs Fleeced Carly Fiorina with HP iPod - steven
https://medium.com/backchannel/how-steve-jobs-fleeced-carly-fiorina-79d1380663de
======
lisper
A lot of negative comments on the grounds that this story is political and
hence unsuitable for HN. I disagree. It's only the context (Fiorina is running
for President) that makes it political. The story itself is mainly a post-
mortem of a bad business decision, and is therefore IMHO entirely appropriate
for HN, and would be even if Fiorina were not running for President.

~~~
wdr1
The general story of HP, iPods & her role may be apolitical, but this specific
article about it definitely wasn't.

It clearly was written with a political axe to grind.

------
rabino
Oh my god the tone of the article is exasperating. We get it, you think she'd
dumb or something, but you need to relax a bit.

~~~
cylinder
Dumb, maybe, or maybe not, but she's definitely a lying sociopath, no history
of successful leadership, doesn't answer questions, and yet thinks she can be
President. I saw her on Meet the Press last week and I was genuinely afraid,
creeped out even.

~~~
iak8god
> a lying sociopath, no history of successful leadership, doesn't answer
> questions, and yet thinks she can be President

1\. Not everyone currently running for president is doing so because they
believe they actually have a chance of becoming president.

2\. I wonder what percentage of people in the US believe that they personally
would be a capable president? It's got to be 90%+

~~~
Someone1234
> Not everyone currently running for president is doing so because they
> believe they actually have a chance of becoming president.

A lot of people seem to miss this key detail.

These people have advisors, analysts, and so on. They know that their chance
of winning is extremely slim. However they don't care because the entire point
may be:

\- VP slot.

\- Increase public image in general (for future runs for house seats, book
deals, TV appearances, speaking opportunities, etc).

\- Pushing a specific political agenda into the debates.

~~~
cylinder
And that's okay? They make a mockery of the Office when they treat candidacy
as a PR platform. We shouldn't just accept that.

------
hapless
Yes, this is incidentally a hit piece on Carly Fiorina, but the business
analysis is quite entertaining

Apple really took HP for a ride on the HP+iPod debacle. I didn't realize how
badly. It's funny to look back.

------
guelo
This is an interesting anecdote from the Steve Jobs era. HN normally eats this
stuff up. No need to flag it just because it concerns a current Republican
candidate.

~~~
aetherson
My problem with it is that the author so clearly has an axe to grind about
Fiorina that it makes me wonder whether the business analysis (which I agree
is interesting) is the result of objective analysis or whether he went in
looking to slam Fiorina as an idiot.

~~~
wl
People have had axes to grind against Fiorina because of her tenure at HP long
before she decided to get into politics.

------
captn3m0
The only reason I read through this piece was because its by Steven Levy. Not
going to flag it, even though its highly political, because I'd never heard or
known of the Apple/HP deal and it was still an interesting read.

------
Shivetya
this week's political activity, discrediting Carly. Brought to you by all left
leaning news sites, blogs, and now, Hacker's News.

Really guys, the first three sentences should have made this tripe obvious.
Expect submission after submission that are purely political hidden under
techy click bait titles. We need a new flag, "political"

~~~
bitwize
Rational people tend to be progressive and "left leaning" (by American
standards; by world standards this country is a right-wing powder keg). The
sheer idiocy of the American right is certainly relevant to hackers as an
interesting and difficult problem, just like the housing situation in San
Francisco or that malaria and Alzheimer's continue to exist.

~~~
pauleastlund
I rarely take the time to comment on HN or submit content but I'm occasionally
really tempted to earn enough karma that I can down-vote arrogant,
condescending, asinine posts like this one. Neither side of the political
spectrum has anything like a monopoly on "rational people" and "the sheer
idiocy of [people who disagree with bitwize]" is not "relevant to hackers as
an interesting and difficult problem."

~~~
hfourm
Well... I am not agreeing that his comment was a bit cray. But isn't it common
knowledge that generally more educated areas of the country are also more
"progressive/left leaning"? Obviously there are exceptions, but even an
intelligent man can cling to the wrong idea ;)

------
maephet
More importantly than 'crushing their innovation brand' (which seems like a
small consequence), he headed off a potential competitor who might enter the
personal device ring. Well done.

------
socrates1998
The more I read about this woman, the worse it gets.

She is sales. Not an engineer. Not a designer. Not even a good leader.

The world needs salespeople for sure, but they are mostly sizzle and little
steak.

She will get shredded on the national stage, I think she is worse than Palin.
At least Palin was a governor.

~~~
JoeAltmaier
No, Palin was a beauty contest winner that got elected Governor. She read
People magazine when flying between political meetings. She had zero
education/competence in the political arena. No policy education and no desire
to learn. She was a zero with a big mouth.

~~~
ansible
I'd take Carly over Palin any day, though I dislike both. Carly would blunder
around and be an ineffective president, but I was afraid Palin would start a
war with Russia or something worse.

------
joezydeco
I still maintain the theory that iTunes for Windows enabled the explosive
sales of the iPod and, by extension, the funds and momentum to develop the
iPhone.

So continuing with that logic, Fiorina can claim that the iPhone was the
result of her deal with Apple.

~~~
mrebus
Wasn't this by design. They always wanted the ipod to be cross platform. The
ipod then became advertisement for Apple's laptops and pc's. I'd argue
ipod/itunes drove mac sells and by the time the iphone came around Apple was
respected by consumers as a legitimate consumer electronics company.

I know I read or heard this from an apple source but I can't remember where.

------
dandare
I understand that foreseeing who will be a successful CEO is kind of holly
grail of management theory, but how come so many incompetent managers keep
ruining their companies for so long only to leave with golden parachutes?

------
Someone1234
> This was a highly strategic move to block HP/Compaq from installing Windows
> Media Store on their PCs.

Uhh what? I can understand them wanting to get iTunes on OEM PCs, but I don't
recall there ever being a standalone "Windows Media Store," and at the time
Microsoft was already bundling Windows Media Player (which did contain a link
to a store via the in-built browser) with Windows that this deal didn't do
anything to stop...

PS - That is a quote, but cannot source the quote, and no author is given
either. May be fictional.

------
tdkl
Wouldn't even know who she is weren't for this article :
[http://motherboard.vice.com/read/carly-fiorina-i-supplied-
hp...](http://motherboard.vice.com/read/carly-fiorina-i-supplied-hp-servers-
for-nsa-snooping)

And a presidential candidate ? Wow.

