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Article looks at Apple's "corporate lunacy"

updated 05:10 pm EDT, Mon May 9, 2005

Apple \"lunacy\"

"You've really got to hand it to Apple," writes Graeme Philipson for the Sydney Morning Herald, "it's a good thing its products are so good, or the company would have disappeared long ago, such is its ." Philipson points to Apple's latest act of "corporate lunacy" is to pull all books published by Wiley from sale in its Apple Stores. Wiley, one of the world's leading scientific publishing houses, is being "punished for the sin of releasing a unauthorised biography of Apple boss Steve Jobs." Another "giant mistake" Apple made, this time in the '90s, was scrapping its Mac OS port for Intel, code-named "Star Trek," Philipson says. "And a dozen years ago, Apple also walked away, at the 11th hour, from discussions with IBM about merging. It would have created a PC powerhouse, and the deal was all but done."

by MacNN Staff

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eround
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Joined: May 2003

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05/09, 05:20pm | report spam | close Reply |
Yawn

Another gloom and doom. Boy if I had a nickel...

njfuzzy
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Joined: Apr 2001

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05/09, 05:31pm | report spam | close Reply |
IBM Merger

An IBM merger for Apple in 1993 would have been insane.

That was pre-iMac, pre Steve Jobs, pre iPod. Since then, Apple has become a great success, and IBM has sold off its PC division in favor of vague "services" offerings.

Imagine where Apple would be now, if that had happened. Another Lenovo brand? Eek.

alex627
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05/09, 05:33pm | report spam | close Reply |
Wow

So why isn't he the CEO of Apple? Is journalism dead or am I over-reacting? With all these brainiacs writing tech columns why are we still using point and click interfaces? Why are we stuck with 2-dimensional GUIs and decades old file-systems? Employ the journalists to engineer and market the way to the future and lead Apple to a Microsoft merger! end epiphany.

slider
Mac Elite

Joined: Oct 1999

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05/09, 05:42pm | report spam | close Reply |
Literate Lunacy

Equating Jobs eccentric responds regarding the auto as a "giant mistake", immediately qualifies this journalist to be disregarded. Yep, Apple has made some Big Ones, but the Wiley thing is not one of them.

Makosuke
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05/09, 05:47pm | report spam | close Reply |
Only One Good Point

Most of the things listed are of debatable, at best, "lunacy" value--I don't know that they would have done Apple any good in the long run.

The Wiley thing, however, is flat-out stupid, and childish. That doesn't indicate a history of "serial lunacy", but it does indicate a pretty stupid way of doing retail business, and not one I'm very comfortable with.

It's in the same category, albeit with a whole lot less effectiveness (basically just hurts Apple, not the company they're punitatively trying to punish), as Wal-Mart telling manufacturers "give us the product we want or we pull ALL your products".

Dumb, and dumber.

jhorvatic
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05/09, 06:15pm | report spam | close Reply |
Apple made intelligent

Apple make intelligent decisions. Why would Apple sell out to IBM. Look what happened to IBM's PC business. GONE! OSX port to PC's would ruin Apple's hardware business. That would be a big mistake. Mac clones caused all kinds of compatability problems. Look at what Microsoft is having to deal with. Everything this guy says is lunacy. It's a good thing Apple didn't make those moves. That's what the story should be about. I think Apple made the intelligent brave decision to get there house in order and do some incredible R&D and now are reaping the rewards.

climacs
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05/09, 06:17pm | report spam | close Reply |
wiley and sons

yes, pulling the wiley books was truly a stunningly stupid move. Why, Apple was making more money on Wiley titles than the iPod! Surely their stock will crater and millions will abandon Apple platform for a virus-ridden Dell PC!

sheesh. What's Aussie for "f****** wanker"?

climacs
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05/09, 06:48pm | report spam | close Reply |
huh?

"it's a good thing its products are so good, or the company would have disappeared long ago"

It's a good thing the Sun is so warm, or we would have frozen to death long ago.

adamschneider
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05/09, 06:51pm | report spam | close Reply |
it WAS stupid

Pulling all of a publisher's books because the CEO didn't like one title really is stupid, no matter how you slice it. It's bad PR, it's bad business sense, and it'll make more people want to read the offending book. I think it's quite a bit more troubling than the rumor site lawsuits.

Gabriel Morales

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05/09, 08:47pm | report spam | close Reply | delete
Lunacy, maybe...

But an IBM merger or even an Intel port at that time? No, thank you. Maybe it would have been the best financial choice, but it would have gone completely against what Apple is and stands for. An intel port at some point? Maybe, someday, when the time and atmosphere is right. But not then and not now.

kaleberg
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05/09, 10:01pm | report spam | close Reply |
not insane

An Intel port would have been Apple suicide. Merging with IBM as it was struggling to become a services company would have brought down both companies.

As for pulling the Wiley books. How many people buy books at the Apple Store? Maybe a handful of people do. Amazon, BN and your local book store have better deals. You might even argue the small drop in profit is more than made up with by the PR value.

Rock bands would often arrange to have the band trash a hotel room so they'd get press as wild and crazy guys. Apple is Jobs' baby. Let him play with it.

bigpoppa206
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05/09, 10:52pm | report spam | close Reply |
RE: it WAS stupid

"Pulling all of a publisher's books because the CEO didn't like one title really is stupid, no matter how you slice it. It's bad PR, it's bad business sense, and it'll make more people want to read the offending book. I think it's quite a bit more troubling than the rumor site lawsuits."

You ARE kidding, right? Corporate America has done this for generations. If you're going to point fingers, then expose ALL of them.

ret
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Joined: Oct 2000

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05/10, 01:45am | report spam | close Reply |
Philipson

Philipson is our Antipodean Dvorak. Sometimes he writes insightful articles, and sometimes he just incites. He's been predicting Apple's demise for years (and I disagree with most of what he's written here). To be fair though he does actually own and use some Apple gear, so he's not completely bigoted.

cheers RET

eldarkus
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05/10, 07:42am | report spam | close Reply |
it WAS stupid - NOT

Come on.. if someone wrote a bio on you, and you didnt agree with it... would you have a copy at your house? Would you give a copy to friends? would you sell it for the author? I sure as f*** wouldnt!

Jonathan-Tanya
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05/10, 09:03am | report spam | close Reply |
good grief

apple has made a lot of mistakes, and lets just remember folks...mistakes are the bad things, you know, hopefully you are trying to avoid.

just because you can point to a mistake and say, that didn't kill all sales and profits for apple immediately...doesn't mean it wasn't a mistake.

Apples lawsuits against teenagers, pulling books from shelves...are all acts of the ego maniac Jobs...and while apple is making a profit on their two percent marketshare...some of the things they have done haven't helped their cause, and its a true statement to say, they could have been further along, than they are now.

but its not all bad for Jobs, he has some good points too.

Jonathan-Tanya
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05/10, 09:05am | report spam | close Reply |
@big poppa

"You ARE kidding, right? Corporate America has done this for generations. If you're going to point fingers, then expose ALL of them."

Your reasoning has is invalid. You don't have to expose everyone who has made a mistake, to point out a mistake.

If you think the Man is kidding, why didn't you mentioned everyone who has ever kidded someone since the beginning of time? (thats your logic right?)

marcelol
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05/10, 09:40am | report spam | close Reply |
No...it's sheer genius

HELLO ! Are you guys nimnuls or something ? You think all these rappers really sell albums because their music is so funktastic that kids line up to pick it up at the store ? GMAB. They suck it up because of the "personalities" in front of the fascade. Seeing Jobs act "eccentric" in and of itself is part of the PR. Negative PR can and DOES serve a purpose. Like the old "You don't need more than 640K on a PC" story attributed to Gates. No one KNOWS EXACTLY when or where he said it, but because it was so bombastic, everyone still remembers it, and it cemented people's idea of him, in their minds. Same holds true for Stevie Boy. MORE PR has come from him pulling the books, than from if he'd quietly just let it go.

Notice that NO ONE in the media is really TALKING about the book itself, or what tripe it says, but they ARE talking about Steve, and the decision to pull the other books. Now THAT is not eccentricity, or stupidity. THAT is marketing GENIUS.

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Article looks at Apple's "corporate lunacy"

updated 05:10 pm EDT, Mon May 9, 2005

Apple \"lunacy\"

Yawn

IBM Merger

Wow

Literate Lunacy

Only One Good Point

Apple made intelligent

wiley and sons

huh?

it WAS stupid

Lunacy, maybe...

not insane

RE: it WAS stupid

Philipson

it WAS stupid - NOT

good grief

@big poppa

No...it's sheer genius

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Article looks at Apple's "corporate lunacy"

updated 05:10 pm EDT, Mon May 9, 2005

Apple \"lunacy\"

Related Articles

Recent Articles

Yawn

IBM Merger

Wow

Literate Lunacy

Only One Good Point

Apple made intelligent

wiley and sons

huh?

it WAS stupid

Lunacy, maybe...

not insane

RE: it WAS stupid

Philipson

it WAS stupid - NOT

good grief

@big poppa

No...it's sheer genius

Login Here

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