Drop the word "Apple" into any discussion with any company and the effect is nothing short of remarkable.
This innocuous logo can evoke fear
Over the last year, I have talked to middle-level and high-ranking executives at enough companies to know exactly what to expect when the topic of Apple is broached: fear.
A recent interview with a fairly big company provides an example as good as any. (But I could cite a much bigger company too, it's doesn't seem to matter.)
The way this interview proceeded was typical. Most of it was devoted to questions about the company's product plans (unrelated to Apple)--and the interviewee divulged plenty of information. A smaller slice of the interview was about customers or companies related to the interviewee (again, unrelated to Apple). Here, queries were answered with differing levels of transparency. Though less was revealed, nothing was a conversation stopper.
Then, toward the end, the conversation turned to Apple--which is not unusual as Apple's tentacles are everywhere, particularly in the case of hardware. My question began something like: "So, I understand Apple is..." The response was remarkably consistent with past interviews. I quote from the mid-level manager: "I don't want to lose my job." I've heard variations on this job security (I-have-absolutely-nothing-to-say) theme related to Apple during the last 12 months or so.
The angst is always palpable. When the interviewees clam up, then quip something like "I like getting a paycheck every month," with a wry smile, they aren't joking. And these people don't even work for Apple.
I haven't written about the Apple gag-order syndrome until now because it hadn't struck me as that surprising, i.e., the stock phrase "I can't comment on another company's product plans" is used often--not to mention the legal weight of nondisclosure agreements.
But this changed a few months ago when I realized how the Apple question consistently evokes fear (or call it distinct unease) in many interviewees.
A sensational claim? Maybe it sounds that way. But I'm calling it as I see it.
Why Apple? It's not a stretch to say that Apple is probably one of the most secretive companies in Silicon Valley. But it's also one of the most influential and, consequently, most powerful. How do I know this? This middle-level manager at this fairly big, independent, and successful company felt compelled to comment on his job security twice. And the second time he said it, the smile had clearly left his face.
Steve Jobs, who has been on medical leave from Apple for the past six months, received a liver transplant at a hospital in Memphis, Tenn., two months ago. Earlier this year, Apple's CEO was reported to be relocating from California to Tennessee, which has a shorter waiting list for patients seeking organs.
Jobs, 54, has been the subject of heated speculation regarding his health since last June's Worldwide Developers Conference, when he appeared to have lost a great deal of weight. At the time, Apple insisted that Jobs' health was a private matter but revealed in early January that its chief executive was suffering from a hormone imbalance that was impeding his body's ability to absorb certain proteins.
The surgery, which was first reported by The Wall Street Journal, was confirmed with Jobs' approval by the hospital where the procedure occurred. Methodist University Hospital added that Jobs received the liver because he was "the sickest patient on the waiting list at the time a donor organ became available."
Although Apple has chosen to remain quiet about the health of CEO Steve Jobs, a prominent investor criticized the handling of the situation. In an interview on CNBC, Berkshire Hathaway CEO and iconic investor Warren Buffett said Apple should have disclosed the seriousness of Jobs' illness, describing it as a "material fact" for shareholders of the company.
Buffett's criticism--which joins a growing chorus--resonates more than others perhaps since he has dual roles as the face of his company as well as an investor in others. In this case, he's clearly taking the side of the investors. A material fact, as he references, is information necessary to make an informed decision.
• Apple iPhone 3GS: The sum ($) of its parts
In his first public statement since early this year, Apple's CEO said more than 1 million iPhone 3GS smartphones were sold in the three days since the new model hit the stores last week. In addition, 6 million people have downloaded the new iPhone OS 3.0 update in the five days since its release.
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Just a reminder that you only have until August 15 to download the free release candidate version. Also, life is going to start getting annoying for those still using the Windows 7 beta.• Windows 7 pricing, upgrade programs set
• More on Windows 7 upgrades
Facebook wants you to do it live
Site adds new bells and whistles into the "stream"--extra privacy controls and embeddable streaming status-update widgets for developers and site owners.• Facebook's load-balancing act by the numbers
• New Facebook blog: We can hack into your profile
• Facebook, Twitter coming to Vizio TVs
• Facebook movie pinning down director, cast
U.S. asks China to drop censoring-software requirement for PCs
Trade representative, Commerce Sec. in a letter to Chinese Ministry of Commerce say the requirement may violate World Trade Organization rules.• Green Dam exploit in the wild
• Expert: China's Green Dam software is unsafe
Tech giants deny helping Iran eavesdrop
A Nokia-Siemens joint venture denies allegations that it provided Internet wiretapping gear to Iran, leaving many to wonder who's aiding the Internet snoops. Or are their Net restrictions entirely homemade?
Survey: Teens 'sext' and post personal info
A new study finds that nearly two-thirds of teens post personal information online, a third are "engaged" in cyberbullying, and 20 percent admit to sexting.• Road test shows texting slows reaction time
• Kids cheating with tech, but are schools cheating kids?
Also of note
• Microsoft dials Hohm to cut home energy use
• Will more competition finally mean better TV?
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Updated at 3:45 p.m. PST with correction of Motorola, IBM executives' names.
Even the biggest chip companies churn out their share of flops. But the hype that surrounds these chips is more fascinating than the failures.
It's been almost a year since I posted A brief history of chip hype--and flops (part 1). Consider this Part 2.
Itanium
First, I have to revisit Intel's Itanium. Simply because it's still around and still missing production target dates.
Intel's Itanium has been relegated to obscurity if not practical oblivion
(Credit: Intel)The hype: "This design philosophy will one day replace RISC and CISC. It is a gateway into the 64-bit future." This copy was, at one time, posted on Hewlett-Packard's Web site. And analysts were drinking the Kool-Aid too. "I expect Itanium to replace Xeon, but not until 2003," one analyst said back in 2001. (Xeon is Intel's successful, lucrative line of server processors that doesn't include Itanium.)
The reality: Yes, Itanium is still warm, still breathing in the rarefied very-high-end server market--where it does have a limited role. But its architecture will never live in a desktop or laptop or even 99 percent of the servers as once thought. And it certainly hasn't remade the computer industry. And it is still chronically late. This time it's Tukwila that's tardy. The quad-core version of Itanium is late because Intel had to make "some engineering enhancements to the Tukwila platform," according to an Intel statement earlier this month. I can only guess that one day Intel will finally let this failed research project go cold and die quietly.
PowerPC
IBM's original PowerPC platform never lived up to the hype. Even when Motorola and IBM processors populated Apple computers.
The hype: "The PowerPC G5 changes all the rules. This 64-bit race car is the heart of our new Power Mac G5, now the world's fastest desktop computer," said Apple CEO Steve Jobs back in 2003. Jobs, a master of hype (also referred to as a Svengali-like reality-distortion field), continued with this precious quote. "IBM offers the most advanced processor design...and this is just the beginning of a long and productive relationship." (Emphasis added.)
The reality: Apple dumped IBM, Motorola, and the PowerPC in 2005 and it was revealed later that the Mac operating system had been leading "a secret double life" for about five years. But the PowerPC platform had really failed long before 2005. Look no further than these comments from an IBM marketing manager in this 1997 Electronic News article: "Many business school case histories will be written about this failure," Jesse Parker, marketing manager at IBM Micro, said at that time. "No one of the three companies involved in PowerPC executed on their plans. IBM didn't. Motorola didn't. And Apple didn't," he said.
The original PowerPC project was conceived by John Sculley, president and CEO of Apple, and Jack Kuehler, vice chairman of IBM. Phil Hester, an IBM manager at the time, and David Mothersole, a Motorola executive, where also instrumental in starting the project, known initially as "Somerset." But as the PowerPC came to market, Mr. Sculley was pushed out of Apple (and) Mr. Kuehler retired. Their replacements did not have the same enthusiasm for the PowerPC alliance, dooming the project.
In short, the PowerPC failed to challenge Intel in the PC market in a big way. (Though it has been reincarnated as IBM's Cell processor that powers Sony's PlayStation and the architecture still powers IBM servers.)
And I have my own vignette to relate that illustrates one reason why Apple eventually dropped the PowerPC. When Apple first began to crow about the dual-processor Power Mac (circa 2003), a neighbor of mine at the time bought into the hype and purchased an Apple Power Mac tower with two IBM G4 processors (this preceded the dual-processor G5 tower that followed soon after). This thing was a furnace. It quite literally raised the temperature in the room it was in, had about five fans too many, and was deafening, to boot. That was the first time I fully understood the magnitude of Apple's fabrications about IBM's "superior" PowerPC designs. (IBM's less-than-impressive--at that time--chip manufacturing process that was used for PowerPC processors also contributed to the problem.)
AMD Puma
Lastly, turning to Advanced Micro Devices, I'll try to look beyond the botched Barcelona launch in September of 2007 (as I've already covered this in Part 1) and focus instead on AMD's mobile "Puma" platform. Though I can't leave Barcelona entirely out of the discussion because there are some disturbing parallels. (Note: AMD's upcoming Yukon and Congo platforms offer some hope for mobile redemption.)
The hype: Like Barcelona, AMD had too much to say about Puma too long before it was real. AMD started pumping Puma back in April 2007 when the company did one of its many (infamous) soft launches (a PR strategy that it has thankfully ditched). This prompted some editorializing from me as well as other publications. "It is questionable whether...Puma will meet the hype AMD is currently trying to generate though these early announcements," according to a rare editorial from DigiTimes in 2007.
Things got even more dicey at the financial analyst day in December 2007 when AMD said Puma would be delayed until the second quarter of 2008.
It's not so much that Puma (aka Turion X2 Ultra coupled with ATI graphics) is a failure of epic proportions like Itanium, it's that the CPU component (separate from the ATI GPU component) fell so far short of the long, ballyhooed build-up it got.
And it is beaten consistently by Intel in the mobile marketplace. Here's an October 2008 CNET review of laptops with AMD's Turion X2 Ultra. "Turning to AMD's 2.0GHz Turion X2 Dual-Core RM-70 CPU might be an option if you're looking to keep costs down and have only basic computing needs," the review said. "The Acer Aspire 5735-4624 costs only $499 and uses a 2.0GHz Intel Pentium Dual Core T3200; it completed our multitasking benchmark test in one-third the time the HP G60 did. The HP G60 wasn't the last-place performer in our mainstream midprice holiday retail laptop roundup. That dubious distinction goes to the Toshiba Satellite L355D-S7825, also an AMD-powered system."
And there are more unfavorable comparisons. This review at Hexus.net of a Toshiba Satellite 300D with AMD Turion X2 Ultra ZM-80 said the Turion X2 Ultra CPU was "found wanting when compared to Centrino 2." The one bright spot was the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3650 graphics card--but this speaks more about solid ATI technology than AMD's shaky Turion processor.
SAN FRANCISCO--Steve Wozniak got his start as a down-to-earth engineer, but the Apple co-founder made the case for keeping your head in the clouds sometimes.
Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak at the Intel Developer Forum.
(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET News)In an on-stage interview with Tech Nation's Moira Gunn here at the Intel Developer Forum, Wozniak talked about a life driven by his passion for the electronics and computing. And passion can be a more important incentive than money, he said.
"The rewards are in your head. The reward is invisible. It's what you like to do," said Wozniak, who designed the Apple I computer and its commercially successful successor, the Apple II, largely during his spare time.
Wozniak was in the right place at the right time, falling into computer design during an era when electronics were growing more powerful but were still simple enough that designs could be done by a smart human being. And he found a small circle of technophiles who shared similar views and ended up building the first personal computers. They, too, were driven by passion.
"We had dreams that computers would improve education and improve communication and help us achieve a lot of tasks. A lot of us in our group understood it," though their vision didn't extend as far as today's broadband-connected Internet. "What we were doing was not (figuring out) how build a computer, it was how you get a computer that fits into the home. Price, looks--a lot of that stuff. It gave us more passion. We used the word 'revolution' all over the place."
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