You know who we don’t hear enough out of these days? John Sculley. Now perhaps best remembered as the man who ousted Steve Jobs from Apple in 1985, Sculley was CEO of Apple from 1983 to 1993, and presided over the inception of products such as the Newton and the port to the PowerPC platform.
Sculley himself was removed in 1993 and replaced by Michael Spindler, who proved that, yes, indeed, things could get worse for Apple. So seeing as how Apple has now reached heights unseen since the early days of Mr. Sculley, who better to question about Apple’s newest iconic product, the iPhone?
“Cool devices like Motorola’s RAZR come and go; Steve Jobs’s creative methodology hasn’t changed since we worked together 25 years ago. It was, and is, all about ‘experience and beautiful design with no compromises’. I don’t see any mobile device company who has figured out how to replicate Steve’s design principles. What iPhone will be in five years only Steve knows, but I’ll bet it’s still the defining platform.”
Thanks for the support, John. Sculley goes on to say that he still misses a physical keyboard on the iPhone, and that the Newton was ahead of its time, but ultimately paid off for Apple. And what would he do if he were CEO of Apple? Well, John’s glad you asked:
“Stay the course and keep building an integrated Apple ecosystem of iPhone + iPod + iMac + iTunes + App Store + Apple TV. No one has yet demonstrated they understand how to create an ‘experience-based ecosystem’ as well as Apple.”
Hey John, don’t get any ideas about sneaking back onto the campus and arranging another removal of Steve Jobs. I don’t think you’ll be welcomed with open arms this time.
I loved my Newton. Even as the years progressed and I graduated to different Palms and Wince devices, I would go through periods of time where I pulled out the MP130 and use it until its bulkiness got to me. I eventually gave it away away to a friend who would actually put it to use.
Maybe firewire lovers will stage a coup and put Scully back in charge.
Microsoft CEO Ballmer will fund the effort.
Plotters will use Vista OS laptops to plan the coup.
Hey, if MS is realistic enough to use Macs to create their advertising, they're smart enough to use Macs for their evil plots.