Steve Jobs
Woz is living his own life now. He hasn't been around Apple for about five years. But what he did will go down in history.
The reason we wouldn't make a seven-inch tablet isn't because we don't want to hit a price point, it's because we don't think you can make a great tablet with a seven-inch screen.
It's hard to tell with these Internet startups if they're really interested in building companies or if they're just interested in the money. I can tell you, though: If they don't really want to build a company, they won't luck into it. That's because it's so hard that if you don't have a passion, you'll give up.
Now, we are selling over 5 million songs a day now. Isn't that unbelievable? That's 58 songs every second of every minute of every hour of every day.
So when these people sell out, even though they get fabulously rich, they're gypping themselves out of one of the potentially most rewarding experiences of their unfolding lives. Without it, they may never know their values or how to keep their newfound wealth in perspective.
Pretty much, Apple and Dell are the only ones in this industry making money. They make it by being Wal-Mart. We make it by innovation.
The seven-inch tablets are tweeners: too big to compete with a smartphone, and too small to compete with an iPad.
But Apple really beats to a different drummer. I used to say that Apple should be the Sony of this business, but in reality, I think Apple should be the Apple of this business.
It takes these very simple-minded instructions - 'Go fetch a number, add it to this number, put the result there, perceive if it's greater than this other number' - but executes them at a rate of, let's say, 1,000,000 per second. At 1,000,000 per second, the results appear to be magic.
The desktop metaphor was invented because one, you were a stand-alone device, and two, you had to manage your own storage. That's a very big thing in a desktop world. And that may go away. You may not have to manage your own storage. You may not store much before too long.
I think right now it's a battle for the mindshare of developers and for the mindshare of customers, and right now iPhone and Android are winning that battle.
Pointing is a metaphor we all know. We've done a lot of studies and tests on that, and it's much faster to do all kinds of functions, such as cutting and pasting, with a mouse, so it's not only easier to use but more efficient.
And it comes from saying no to 1,000 things to make sure we don't get on the wrong track or try to do too much. We're always thinking about new markets we could enter, but it's only by saying no that you can concentrate on the things that are really important.
We think the Mac will sell zillions, but we didn't build the Mac for anybody else. We built it for ourselves. We were the group of people who were going to judge whether it was great or not. We weren't going to go out and do market research. We just wanted to build the best thing we could build.
We think Android is very, very fragmented, and becoming more fragmented by the day. And as you know, Apple strives for the integrated model so that the user isn't forced to be the systems integrator.
Microsoft has had two goals in the last 10 years. One was to copy the Mac, and the other was to copy Lotus' success in the spreadsheet - basically, the applications business. And over the course of the last 10 years, Microsoft accomplished both of those goals. And now they are completely lost.
You'll see more and more perfection of that - computer as servant. But the next thing is going to be computer as a guide or agent.
We've demonstrated a strong track record of being very disciplined with the use of our cash. We don't let it burn a hole in our pocket, we don't allow it to motivate us to do stupid acquisitions. And so I think that we'd like to continue to keep our powder dry, because we do feel that there are one or more strategic opportunities in the future.
I don't think I've ever worked so hard on something, but working on Macintosh was the neatest experience of my life. Almost everyone who worked on it will say that. None of us wanted to release it at the end. It was as though we knew that once it was out of our hands, it wouldn't be ours anymore.
Great things in business are never done by one person, they're done by a team of people.Collection: Teamwork
Do not try to do everything. Do one thing well.Collection: Trying
It doesn’t make sense to hire smart people and tell them what to do; we hire smart people so they can tell us what to do.Collection: Smart
If you define the problem correctly, you almost have the solution.Collection: Problem
It takes a lot of hard work to make something simple.Collection: Hard Work
Management is about persuading people to do things they do not want to do, while leadership is about inspiring people to do things they never thought they could.Collection: People
Innovation is the ability to see change as an opportunity - not a threatCollection: Opportunity
Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice.Collection: Love
The most important decisions you make are not the things you do, but the things you decide not to do.Collection: Motivational
Learn continually - there's always "one more thing" to learn!Collection: Learning
We don't settle for anything less than excellence.Collection: Excellence
To go forward you have to leave something behindCollection: Behinds
If you're afraid of failing you won't get very farCollection: Inspirational
Focus and simplicity...once you get there, you can move mountains.Collection: Life Lesson
The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle.Collection: Motivational
Customers don't measure you on how hard you tried, they measure you on what you deliver.Collection: Customers
Start small, think big. Don’t worry about too many things at once. Take a handful of simple things to begin with, and then progress to more complex ones. Think about not just tomorrow, but the future. Put a ding in the universe.Collection: Simple
The only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great workCollection: Work
Strategy is figuring out what not to do.Collection: Strategy
Your customers don't care about you. They don't care about your product or service. They care about themselves, their dreams, their goals. Now, they will care much more if you help them reach their goals, and to do that, you must understand their goals, as well as their needs and deepest desires.Collection: Dream
Everything is based on a simple rule: Quality is the best business plan, period.Collection: Simple
the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.Collection: Inspirational
Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life.Collection: Inspirational
Without passion, any rational person would give up!Collection: Giving Up
What a computer is to me is it's the most remarkable tool that we have ever come up with. It's the equivalent of a bicycle for our minds.Collection: Science
There are sneakers that cost more than an iPod.Collection: Sneakers
I think we need editorial oversight now more than ever. Anything we can do to help newspapers find new ways of expression that will help them get paid, I am all for.Collection: Thinking
Mac OS X Tiger will come out long before Longhorn.Collection: Long
There's a lot of symbolism to your return. Is that going to be enough to reinvigorate the company with a sense of magic?Collection: Business
The problem is I'm older now, I'm 40 years old, and this stuff doesn't change the world. It really doesn't.Collection: Technology