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Inside the E-mail Inbox of Apple’s Steve Jobs

Mark Milian

Copyright

© by 2011 Mark Milian

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted or distributed in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written consent of the copyright holder.

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All statements about persons, companies, governments, places and other entities described in this publication are the subjective opinion of the author based on his understanding from personal observation, research and interviews. Others may disagree with these statements. Information in this publication is provided “as is” without warranty of any kind. The author used reasonable efforts to include accurate and up-to-date information herein. The author assumes no liability or responsibility for any errors or omissions in the content of this work.

This is a self-published book.

Cover design by Rudy Milian.

FWD

“Dear Steve” was the standard greeting. It was a boilerplate used in countless e-mails addressed to Steve Jobs, the late co-founder and longtime leader of Apple Inc. An unusual salutation, considering that few Americans in the age of the Internet start off their messages with “dear” and that the senders, almost always strangers, felt comfortable addressing this high-power executive so familiarly: Steve. Often, the letters were to ask for a new toy to replace one that had broken, for idle chitchat regarding topics Steve may have been interested in, or in the hopes of figuring out what he was working on in his workshop. Not saying was, as Steve liked to say, part of the magic, but he would give hints. Which is why the allure of e-mailing him, for many, was so difficult to resist.

The letters usually came from Steve’s fans or from irate Apple customers, who willingly conceded at some point in their missives that they, too, were fans of his. Other themes found in the content of these messages involve a skepticism about whether Steve actually read his e-mail and an even greater sense of doubt about whether he would personally respond to some random guy’s request. (Another man who receives a lot of fan mail, Santa Claus, has a fairly balanced male-to-female ratio, but as it turns out, Steve’s pen pals were invariably men.) More times than fans would expect, Steve did write back. His replies were typically succinct: “Yep,” “Nope,” “I think so.” But that brief confirmation, denial or textual shrug was enough to make the recipient’s day. For someone to open his inbox and find a message sent from the e-mail account of Steve Jobs was a heart-pumping moment. Once regaining composure, the lucky recipient often clicked “forward” and alerted the masses that he was a chosen one.

Then came the difficult task of deciding where the correspondence should be publicized. The blog Mac Rumors had been a top choice because the site and its Web forum are popular among Apple fans, and it’s easy to submit a tip to editors who will readily grant anonymity. For some reason, Steve’s one-time contacts routinely passed along messages under the condition that they not be named. If the purpose of that was to maintain a relationship with the executive, they should have considered that Steve also had a copy of what he wrote and likely had access to the search function in order to help him trace the informant’s identity. In the rush following a Steve chat, rationality often went out the window.

Apple is a company with many admirers. The Apple Stores are like temples, and people come in droves to their sort of mecca. Using MRI brain scans, neurological researchers interviewed by the BBC say that Apple zealots react in the same way to its products as religious believers do to their deities. People who