• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

By Root 243 0

a memorial service there after he died. Steve, a college dropout, told the Computerworld Honors Program in 1995 that “school was pretty hard for me” because “I encountered authority of a different kind than I had ever encountered before, and I did not like it. And they really almost got me. They came close to really beating any curiosity out of me.” For a role model to express such an opinion publicly requires a sort of different thinking. The reaction to that type of outburst wasn’t always positive, even given Steve’s eccentric status, and he dealt with the reactions in unusual ways.

The “think different” mentality, as it was dubbed in a blockbuster advertising slogan endorsed by Steve Jobs after his return to Apple in the late-1990s, is a competitive advantage, as Steve had said on several occasions. His antics of skewering rivals during earnings calls or at conferences (he compared iTunes for Windows to “giving a glass of ice water to someone in Hell” in an interview just before he was set to appear onstage with Microsoft’s Bill Gates) also extended to e-mail.

Years after he made the “ice water” comment, at the same series of conventions put on by Wall Street Journal staffers, Steve did not get worked up in his evaluation of how Apple’s relationship with Google had begun to break down. “They decided to compete with us,” he summarized in 2010. “Just because we’re competing with somebody doesn’t mean we have to be rude.” But in e-mails, he was more candid. He embraced a fan named Bryan Webster who wrote Steve with a question about Apple’s future plans for the iPhone that concluded, “Fuck the google android team.” Steve replied, “You won’t be disappointed.” The next day, tech enthusiast Brian Kelleher wrote Steve challenging him on whether Android was leapfrogging the iPhone. “Not a chance,” Steve wrote back. When a British customer contacted Steve to ask whether iTunes and the iPhone would support the facial recognition and location tagging tools implemented in Google’s Picasa photo organizer software, Steve wrote, “No, but iPhoto on the Mac has much better Faces and Places features.”

New challengers to Apple ebbed and flowed, but the rivalry with Microsoft persisted. Ben Rosen, the former Compaq chief, had a long friendship with Steve, but the two fell out of touch for many years. Ben wrote Steve a friendly note in 2007, and shortly after reemerging as CEO following a medical leave, Steve took one of his signature digs at Microsoft.

From: Benjamin M. Rosen

Subject: 30 years later -- from Ben Rosen

Date: June 4, 2007 9:06 a.m.

To: Steve Jobs

Hi Steve,

When you created and then showed me the Apple II in late 1977, little did I know how much it would change my life -- to a much more exciting one.

Well, after a 20-plus year interlude with that other OS (necessitated by my Compaq involvement), I thought you'd be pleased to know that for the last few years I've returned to my roots. I'm once again an avid Apple user and evangelist.

Imagine, Ben Rosen, former Compaq Chairman, now a Mac enthusiast!

Warm regards,

Ben

From: Steve Jobs

Subject: Re: 30 years later -- from Ben Rosen

Date: August 1, 2007 7:58 p.m.

To: Benjamin M. Rosen

Ben,

Sorry for my delayed reply - I was on a much needed family vacation for the past three weeks.

Wow - this news makes my day! I'm glad to hear it. I hope you like what we've done with the Mac. I'm biased, of course, but I think its light years ahead of Windows.

How are you doing? We haven't seen each other in years, but I remember the times we spent together very fondly.

All the best,

Steve

Steve Jobs spurned manufactured outrage. When an irate Swiss man named Paul Shadwell fumed over Apple delaying the release of the iPad internationally and claimed that Steve was “deliberately pulling the wool over the rest of the worlds eyes,” Steve retorted: “Are you nuts? We are doing the best we can. We need enough units to have a responsible and great launch.” Steve seemed to believe that most conspiracies were perpetuated