Derik has already wished you a Happy New Year, but while he looks forward, I’d like to go in the other direction. Take a moment with me to step a mere ten years back in time. Bill Clinton has been re-elected, the Faustian New York Yankees have won their 23rd world series, and bird expert Tony Silva had recently been sentenced to seven years in prison for running an illegal parrot-smuggling operation. Oh, those innocent carefree days.
And a scant two weeks prior, Apple CEO Gil Amelio had announced that the company had acquired NeXT Computer for $400 million. The deal resulted in two key acquisitions: NeXT’s NeXTSTEP OS, one of the foundations today’s Mac OS X, and—more importantly—NeXT founder Steve Jobs who would, inside of a year, take on the mantle of “iCEO” from Amelio. It would be the first glimmer of light for Mac users, who for several years prior had been described as clinging to a “beleaguered” company and platform.
The turnaround wouldn’t be immediate. It would be a year before the first of two revolutionary Apple products, the iMac, would appear, followed three years later by the iPod. But as we enter the year 10 J2, questions swirl around Apple’s leader and chief visionary: he’s been cleared of wrongdoing by Apple’s board, but the government may still have their say.
Still, the Apple of today is Steve Jobs’s Apple; of that there’s no question. So raise your glass to the man and we hope to see you in 20 J2.
