Back in January of 2008, Apple CEO Steve Jobs took the stage at Macworld and unveiled new products such as the Macbook Air, Time Capsule, Apple TV movie rentals and some snazzy iPhone and iPod touch software updates. During, and after the keynote (in exclusive interviews) Jobs made it a point to say that “there are 50 weeks left in 2008″ and that it would be a “great year” for Apple.
At the end of the Macworld ‘09 keynote, Jobs enthusiastically rattled off all of the products Apple had released in the first two weeks of 2008. He mentions the Mac Pro, Macbook Air, Apple TV/iPhone/iPod touch updates, and Time Capsule. “All of this in just the first two weeks!” he explained, “…and we’ve got 50 more weeks to go.” As Jobs concluded, the crowd at Macworld erupted, and surely everyone was convinced that Apple would be bringing the goods this year.
Cut to November 2008. While the past 10 months have been sprinkled with Apple goodness here and there, the company has had an extremely rough year. Even Apple, who is known for having tremendous foresight, didn’t have the clairvoyance to see what 2008 had in store for the industry. The truth is, this year has delivered several major blows to both Apple’s bottom line, stock price, and major sectors of their business. While the iPhone grew and greatly surpassed expectations, the road to its global dominance has been shaky and horribly littered with potholes.
From the disastrous first launch day in July, to the complete Mobile Mess Meltdown, many people hadn’t seen this side of Apple in a few years. Since launching the original iPhone in 2007, Apple has attracted so many new users, so many switchers and new enthusiasts that hadn’t seen Apple suffer in the past. They were so aww-stricken and woo’d by Steve’s magical iPhone potion, they failed to see that at its heart, Apple is a technology company. And no technology company is perfect, no matter how deep the passion lies with its leadership.
When Apple got over eager and decided to launch three too many products on July 11th, the industry couldn’t wait to jump down the company’s throat. Jobs and Apple had been on such a magical whirlwind of success, this was finally everyone else’s chances to say “Ha! We told you so!” — And they did. Every blog and website covering the meltdown that day, and for the following weeks, was overtaken with comments from users who were simply stunned. People couldn’t believe what was happening. Apple’s servers were going down, people couldn’t activate their iPhones, iTunes servers were malfunctioning, Mobile Me wasn’t working. It was a classified meltdown. So much so, that people lost their jobs. On this level, at that scale, that is serious. Eddy Cue was brought into to take over Mobile Me, and for the better half of 2008, the services have been running semi-smoothly.
Yes, Apple eventually cleared everything up after a slew of emails, apologies and some free Mobile Me extensions. But that fateful day in July set the tone for the months to come, and they were not very bright for Cupertino.
At the beginning of 2008, nobody could have predicted that July, August and September would be devastating for Apple. The weeks after the Mobile Meltdown were very difficult for the company, and as CEO Steve Jobs said, “it was not our [Apple's] finest hour.” The “sting” didn’t fade away by any means until new rumors starting propping up about Apple’s then upcoming iPod lineup overhaul. Speculation grew as rumors regarding multi-colored nanos and GPS in the iPod touch trickled in. By the time we had seen our 6th spy shot of the new iPod nano, and some bare-bones specs courtesy of iLounge, Apple had the boat pointed in the right direction again. People were waiting with baited breath to catch a glimpse of the new iPods. And Apple delivered.
Renting out the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, Apple made a big deal of the iPod “Let’s Rock” event. Apparently, they had PR representatives calling other media-types specifically telling them to come to the event, saying it would be a big deal. Not to discredit any of Apple’s wonderful PR tactics, but the event was relatively standard. The new products were gorgeous and Apple had done it again with their iPods. But nothing out of the ordinary. Apple has always been good at listening its customers, and these new iPods were a prime example of that. Alongside the new iPods, Apple released four new iPod shuffle colors, and iTunes 8, with Genius Playlists baked in.
At this point in the year, Apple’s dark cloud had seemed to fade away. CEO Steve Jobs had successfully wow’d the media at another event, and Apple was on the right track to have a spectacular holiday line-up.
Roughly 4 weeks after inviting the media to California for the iPod Let’s Rock event, Apple scheduled another event titled “The Spotlight Turns to Notebooks,” which was held on October 14th. Announced only 4 days prior, Apple gave travelers and the media covering the event, only a few days to make travel arrangements. This notebook event was perhaps the most anticipated Apple event, since the first unveiling of the iPhone at Macworld 2007. The premise was that Apple would be overhauling its most essential products… its notebooks. The design and form factor of Apple’s older Macbook and Macbook Pro have become so iconic, so synonymous with the brand. Changing these notebooks wasn’t only a big deal for Apple, it was enormous! The new design methods and manufacturing techniques Apple was introducing required a 15 minute video walk through by Apple’s Senior VP of Industrial Design, Jonathan Ive.
At the notebook event, Apple unveiled a new manufacturing process for the Macbook and Macbook Pro, where they take a single piece of high grade aluminum, and cut out a ‘unibody’ frame for the shell. As Apple put it, this was so revolutionary, nobody in the industry had ever seen anything like it before. Once again, Apple had listened to most of its customers and incorporated major design influences from the Macbook Air into the rest of their notebook line. This is exactly what most people were asking for.
In good old Apple fashion, compromises had to be made. For the internals of the new Macbooks to be positioned correctly and efficiently, all of the ports had to line up one side of the machine, thus giving Apple a hard choice of which ports stay, and which ones go. They got rid of Firewire on the new aluminum Macbook and completely eliminated the option for a matte display. Apple claimed that in their testing, users want the glossy screen most, and CEO Steve Jobs himself explained that people don’t need firewire. Unfortunately, many customers disagreed with Apple and Jobs, and some people have been left outraged and stunned by Apple’s decisions with features and options in the new notebooks. Completely natural.
Apple has officially gone on record saying that no new products will be released for the rest of the year, and speculation has already begun brewing for Macworld ‘09. The bottom line, Apple is not perfect. No company is perfect. All anyone can ever do is give it their best shot and focus on what they think the best work of their lives will be.
For Apple, the three ill fated months towards the end of 2008, are a small price to pay for the devotion and position they have garnered over the last two years. Did Steve Jobs deliver on his promise? Yes. Was Apple perfect? No. But they did their best and will continue to do so. Which is more than we can say for a lot of companies these days.
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8 Comments to “Has 2008 Been The Outstanding Year Steve Jobs Promised?”
Once again, a great article. Thank you for summing up the roller coaster that has been Apple (and their stock price) over the last year. Here’s to a prosperous, and technically advantageous, 2009 for Apple.
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Thanx a lot Steven. Hear hear on 2009 being a great year !
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“But they did their best and will continue to do so. Which is more than we can say for a lot of companies these days.”
Awesome last sentence man. So very true. Nobody’s perfect, but in striving for that seemingly unattainable perfection, Apple tries harder and is more relentless than ANY OTHER COMPANY around. Even Google.
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July and August seemed like the longest months ever. At least out of 2008. They just dragged on and on with SOOOO many posts about Mobile Me being a Mobile Mess. I’v had enough of that for a long, long time.
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I still f’ing have problems with mobile me. it just doesn’t work snappy and responsive like it should, or like i’d like.
And believe it or not, some of the computers I use don’ support the browsers it runs in. my work is old school and just can’t get onto it sometimes.
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No, it has not been a good year. The iMacs now have crappy glossy screens, which are awful to use and try to see what you are doing with. The fact that Apple “claims” users want them is a joke…. what they are doing is saving about $10 per screen due to leaving out the anti-glare coating. Instead of telling people they’re cutting something, they flip it around as a ‘new feature’. Unfortunately, most of the masses are stupid enough to buy it.
Also, the iMac STILL lacks a video input port, despite having a huge screen, optical audio output, remote, and frontrow, it cannot follow through with those other features of being a media center because you cannot hook any videogame system up to it, nor can you hook up cable, etc. There are work arounds, but they all degrade quality and include lag. Trust me, I have an EyeTV Hybrid already.
And, the towers are still way too expensive. WAY too expensive. They need to make a headless iMac that lets up have a video input port, so you can buy a huge whatever screen you want. Something about double or triple the size of a mini, but not nearly as large as the beast of a machine that is the MacPro.
AND, the iPhone received a few new upgrades but the camera is still a complete and total joke. Apple has been making a few great decisions, but a lot of incredibly stupid ones.
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Let me get this straight Rob. You think it hasn’t been a good year because you’re whining over your own personal preference? Do you think Apple is lying to you about something? I’ll bet you MOST people actually prefer the glossy screens. a previous commenter around here mentioned that under controlled lighting, Apple could convince anyone the glossy screen was better.
all i hear in your tone of voice is whining and hoping that apple would just always stay the same. the camera on the iPhone is why it was a joke? what about the advancements in mobile computing the iPhone has brought to you?
the one thing i completely agree with you on… the imac. unreal.. i can’t believe we can’t use the imac as a monitor on its own, or connect a cable box as you mention. i have dreams of wrapping my home theater experience around an imac. i have a small space in crowded NYC and it would be absolutely perfect for my setup. i literally, have dreamt of this.
plus, apple could sell them as external monitors as well, completely double duty. sometimes, the company leaves me baffled… i’ll give you that, but in no way was it a bad year based on a matter of personal preference decisions.
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Apple was on the endangered species list in 1997, and many years before. The first three years of Steve Jobs’ return were fraught with doubt, criticism and continuing floundering with Macs, the Mac OS, and future directions. Only the PowerBook and, later, the iMac, grabbed the attention of the masses. And, even then, to a very limited extent.
When the iPod was first introduced in 2001, sketpics skepted, and comedians laughed. It was joke, right?
Since then, the iMac has blossomed; the PowerBook has become a standard bearer for Apple quality; and the iPod has become, well, the iPod and the iPhone.
Also during this time, AAPL investors had several opportunities to make a fortune, to live the American dream — retiring early. Apple has taken the tech sector by storm, and then some. Everyone wants to be Apple. Everyone wants to be as good as the next Apple product.
Rising expectations always garner rising disappointments. We get spoiled. We want more, and we want more faster. And we want more faster and better.
Apple’s doing fine. Every year that Apple dominates the tech headlines, provokes competitors to work harder, and provides a great place to criticize superior technology is a good year for Apple.
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