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August 9, 2007

steve_jobs

World exclusive!!! Bob Keefe is not Fake Steve Jobs. But he is the “Intel Sticker Guy.”

Posted Aug. 9, ’07, 12:37 PM PT by Dan Moren
Category | Apple » Steve Jobs

Bob KeefeImagine you have the opportunity to lob a question—any question—at our favorite CEO and cult figure, Steven P. Jobs. Anything you like, about Apple, Macs, the iPod, the iPhone. Okay, got it? You don’t have to say what it is, just have it in your head.

Now. Does it have anything to do with stickers?

Then you, my friend, are not Bob Keefe. We’ve now positively identified Keefe, a reporter for Cox Newspapers, as the infamous and dastardly Intel Sticker Guy from Tuesday’s Mac Event. The man who took the road less traveled by and, in a moment where he had the unprecedented chance to ask Steve Jobs any question ever, asked him about why Apple doesn’t put Intel stickers on Macs. We note that the question and answer did not appear in Keefe’s writeup of the event, yesterday. Presumably, he intended to lay low and let the heat die down.

Oof. Bad move.

Unfortunately, Daring Fireball has already dubbed the then-unidentified Keefe Jackass of the Week. Crazy Apple Rumors, on the other hand, thought the question was bad enough that it might have been asked by Crazytown bus driver Rob Enderle, an aspersion from which Keefe’s character may never recover.

Meanwhile, MacUser has painstakingly compiled an exhaustive list of questions that we believe to be superior to Keefe’s, such as: “What is your favorite color?”; “How was breakfast?”; and “Why doesn’t the new iMac doesn’t come in Blue Dalmatian?”

Why weren’t we invited to the event? It’s a mystery.

In case you want to relive the magic over and over again, we’ve also got exclusive audio of the question, Jobs’s response, and the resultant gales of laughter, which I am currently in the process of converting into my iPhone’s new ringtone.


30 Comments

Cyrus Farivar Author Profile Page said:

It would be easy to write this off as a newbie mistake, but his bio page speaks volumes:

"Prior to starting Cox's West Coast bureau, Keefe was technology editor and deputy business editor at the Austin American-Statesman, which he joined in 1998."

Whoops.

August 9, 2007 12:43 PM
Peter Garner said:

Wow, the question is stupid, but Jobs' (and Shiller's) answer is pretty great.

August 9, 2007 1:00 PM
Fletcher said:

It seems like a reasonable question to me.

Apple's packaging is a big part of the experience. It can actually be fun to open up a new Mac or iPod and discover how the box unfolds, where the accessories are packaged. I don't think questions about the philosophy which drives Apple's packaging decisions are out of place at all.

August 9, 2007 1:11 PM
JD Schroeder said:

Obviously Bob's not much of an Apple aficionado. His article makes numerous references to Apple's "iTV".

August 9, 2007 1:43 PM
Hawkman said:

Fletcher: I see what you're saying, but "Why?" is still the wrong question, cos the answer is simple: those stickers suck. A much better question would be "How did you get out of it?", but I suspect the answer to that one would simply be, "We're Apple, and Intel would have done anything to get associated with us."

August 9, 2007 2:57 PM
Anthony said:

Fletcher, he didn't ask about the packaging experience that Apple provides. That would have been a different question. Try again Bob er, I mean "Fletcher".

August 9, 2007 3:17 PM
Tim said:

I agree with Fletcher. It would be stupid for the reporter to suggest apple doing so, but the wording of the question does not imply that. I would give him the benefit of doubt. Plus, this is a good opportunity to get the CEOs talking about their decisions on packaging.

The labeling of jackass is just way overboard.

August 9, 2007 4:05 PM
DBL said:

Oh, c'mon. Give the guy a break. It was just a friggin' question. This is like a game of high school 'gotcha'. 'Did you hear the goofy way that Billy asked out Suzie?' Biting the bullet and asking girls out is more important than having a perfect opening line. Similarly, asking lots of questions without censoring oneself is way more important than not asking embarrassing questions. This ridicule is undeserved. The man didn't know why. He asked. Now he knows. Does anyone really have a problem with that? You shouldn't. It's how people learn.

August 9, 2007 4:25 PM
Craig McClurg said:

Any idea where one could listen to the audio of that whole Q & A session after the iMac presentation?

August 9, 2007 4:26 PM
Sladuuch said:

@Fletcher:
It's an unreasonable comment because the answer is blatantly obvious. Of course Apple's packaging is part of the experience. Everybody knows that. Everybody also knows that peeling stickers off is no fun. Therefore, Keefe's question is more like this: "Why does Apple--as a design-centric company that cares about their users' experiences--decline to mar those experiences with nuisances and annoyances that must be bypassed first?"

August 9, 2007 4:29 PM
Sebastian Lewis said:

1. You are a god. Thank You.
2. I'm going to listen to this over and over.
3. Enjoy your ringtone.

Sebastian

August 9, 2007 4:54 PM
Loy said:

There are no stupid questions.

August 9, 2007 4:56 PM
David Chartier said:

Awesome work guys, hilarious stuff. See if you can get an interview or a spy shot of his office; find out if Intel Inside and ATI/Nvidia stickers are plastered everywhere (unless he uses a Mac and missed them?).

August 9, 2007 5:05 PM
David Wogan said:

@Fletcher: You make a valid point, but one in favor of never asking why there aren't Intel Inside stickers placed all over the computer case. The packaging and designs of the computers all work together - an Intel sticker does not fit in with the thought process.

Apple strives to take the focus away from whats making the machine run, whats on the inside, to what you can acutally do with the machine.

August 9, 2007 5:24 PM
julian said:

Fletcher:

Or we can travel back in time two years to when everyone else was wondering this and find good guesses:

http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/dec2005/tc20051216_504092.htm

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20051220-5806.html

http://macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/5842/

And then we can travel back to January 2006 when the question was answered:

http://news.com.com/New+Macs-Intel+inside%2C+but+not+outside/2100-7354_3-6025423.html

August 9, 2007 5:34 PM
Andy Reitz said:

Thanks for posting this - especially the mp3 from the actual Q&A section. I noticed that Apple's webcast cut out the Q&A portion - do you think you could post audio of the entire Q&A? I would like to hear it.

Thanks.

August 9, 2007 5:37 PM
Anonymous said:

Actually it's not a stupid question. Intel gives a massive discount on their processors to people who stick their stickers on their box. Apple either has negotiated a better deal with Intel than Asus, Lenovo and co, OR they're paying more for their chips.

August 9, 2007 5:40 PM
michaelant said:

Yeah, well, it seems to me that this guy was probably asking the question, even though he knew or could guess the answer, more as a low-ball kind of way to suck up to Jobs than as a serious question. He was giving Jobs an opportunity to answer an easy question, and a chance to talk about Apple's superior design aesthetic.

August 9, 2007 7:09 PM
Moeskido said:

Keefe asked this question because, like many who profess to report about technology, he hadn't done his homework on the company whose turf he was on. At best, he wasted everyone's time asking something that has already been addressed.

Try asking a luxury auto maker why they don't upholster interiors with vinyl. You may get a less diplomatic response than Jobs gave Keefe.

August 9, 2007 9:12 PM
Roberto said:

What's so stupid about the question? Maybe it is pertinent to his audience, who knows?

What IS stupid, though, is making assumptions about why Apple doesn't do this, and then believing that's what Apple is thinking. You won't know why they do what they do unless you hear it from them.

"It's an unreasonable comment because the answer is blatantly obvious. Of course Apple's packaging is part of the experience. Everybody knows that."

Maybe everybody does. But a reporter's job is still to get it from the horse's mouth. He'd be a worse reporter if he were to just write in his article, "Apple doesn't put stickers on their productsfor obvious reasons and everybody knows what those reasons are. Moving along..."

August 9, 2007 11:06 PM
John Laur said:

I understand why they aren't on the computers, but they could certainly be on the box -- if it helps me get a few bucks off the computer, I don't mind it much really. The packaging is top notch though. Have you opened a Dell laptop recently? The first thing you are greeted with is an icon of a choking baby.

August 10, 2007 6:05 AM
DBL said:

"It's an unreasonable comment because the answer is blatantly obvious."

Your mistake in the above quote is very telling as to the way the Mac clique is twisting this for cheap laughs. Because of course, it wasn't a comment at all.

August 10, 2007 9:23 AM
Pecos Bill said:

What he should have asked is if Apple still gets the same price break without having the FUGLY stickers. I bet they do. I think Intel wanted APPLE BAD over losing to AMD. Jobs couldn't answer that without raising ire of the other vendors.

August 10, 2007 12:02 PM
Steve said:

I think that's a good question. It gives Jobs et al a chance to put voice their conscious choices based on their philosophy. Way to go Bob. There are no stupid questions. I enjoyed the answers too.

August 10, 2007 12:09 PM
zahadum said:

i am famously intolerant of stupidity ...

upon consideration, i have decided that mr. keefe should not be pilloried.

yes, his question was off the mark: the proper context should have been the sole-sourcing from intel (vs dual-sourcing with AMD), and the consequent issue of the volume vs promotional pricing. THAT info would have generated interest on wall street.

but no, the question did not fail to produce something useful, nonetheless.

namely - jobs' response was a case in point about the macintosh brand (apple does the system inregration, not the end-user); it was a microcosm of the apple gestalt.

This one short exchange captured how Job's approaches hundreds of other details ... you can immediately, viscerally sense how he interacts with core ideas.

Most of his responses are so considered & scripted that they seem stale. But this was fresh & authentic - not to mention very funny!

That's why it is called a vignette.

So, Mr. Keefe, if you can be absolved by the me, near the harshest critic of pc blockheads, then u dont have much too worry about.


August 10, 2007 1:15 PM
yonsito said:

Calling him "Jackass of the Week" is too harsh. His writeup is informative and balanced and the question was bloody funny.

August 10, 2007 1:53 PM
Rob said:

It was a good question, and it was NOT about the Intel Inside sticker, he asked about the Intel Inside Program, huge difference and a very good question about why Apple isn't in the same program as most PC producers.

This also makes me feel sick, I am a proud Mac user and developer, but this article was so negative and showed how dumb Mac fanatics has become to show their hate against one single poor person.

August 11, 2007 4:23 AM
R Bell said:

Stupid question huh. Jobs repsonse was pretty lame. "Eveyone knows intel is inside." Everyone knows intel is inside of DELL, IBM, COMPAQ, SONY, etc. etc. They all have "Intel Inside"

August 14, 2007 5:41 AM
NtNoJ said:

this article is so ludicrous in driving to its own conclusion about the intent of the said Bob Keefe. Have any of you Apple fanboys read the article corresponding to Keefe's question?

http://www.coxwashington.com/hp/content/reporters/stories/2007/08/12/BC_INTEL_INSIDE_ADV12_COX.html

You might understand why he asked such a question by now, rather than making up your conclusions that he just blurted out a query that made no sense. Sheesh.

August 16, 2007 4:25 AM

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