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The Double Life of Steve JobsAugust, 2003 Steve Jobs, cofounder of Apple Computer and one of Silicon's Valley's most successful college dropouts, defended his company's risky venture into retailing, and painted an optimistic future for Pixar Animation Studios, which he also runs, during a visit to the Business School in May. The two companies, he said, are an interesting match. "Apple is the most creative of the PC companies; Pixar is the most technologically advanced entertainment company." Apple releases new products every few months; Pixar took four years to produce the hit movie Toy Story, and hopes to make one movie a year by 2005. Pixar won't radically reduce development but expand and multi-task. By 2006, Jobs hopes, the company will be able to finance itself, and retain a much greater share of the profits it now splits with Disney. Apple, Jobs said, will expand its retail chain to about 70 stores by the end of the year. Asked why Apple can succeed where Gateway has struggled, Jobs said his stores have better locations, better-trained staffers, and products that are not simply commodities. "The problem (with staff at most computer retail outlets) is that no one knows anything." That sounds like boasting, but most PC makers spend little on research and development, leaving that to Intel and Microsoft. Consequently, PCs tend to be differentiated much more by price than by technology. Apple, on the other hand, survives because its products are different and therefore needs people who can explain the technology. "We're going after the 95 percent of the population that doesn't own a Mac," Jobs said. Gateway, by contrast choose cheaper locations in strip malls and so on, seeing the stores as more of a conscious destination. Related Article |
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