Jobs Says iPad Idea came before iPhone

Associated Press

 

Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs shared a secret with his audience at a technology conference outside Los Angeles Tuesday: The idea for the iPad came before the iPhone.

The idea to ditch the keyboard for what Jobs calls a multi-touch display came about in the early 2000s, although the company was working on a telephone at the time, he said. That's when a prototype was brought to him that used the device's now-famous scrolling mechanism.

"I thought, 'My God we can build a phone out of this,'" Jobs said at The Wall Street Journal's "D: All Things Digital" conference in Rancho Palos Verdes.

But the tablet product was put on the shelf, the iPhone went into development for several years before making its debut in 2007 and Apple only started selling the iPad tablet computer in April.

Both products have taken on more of the personal computing tasks once handled by computers running Microsoft Corp.'s Windows operating system and other programs.

That's helped Apple surpass Microsoft, its longtime nemesis, as the largest technology company in the world by market capitalization - a milestone achieved last week.

"It's surreal," Jobs said Tuesday.

Jobs was asked why the once close relationship between Google Inc. and Apple has lately turned tense. Google has developed a Web browser and a computer operating system and began selling its own cell phone in January a bid to upstage the iPhone.

"They decided to compete with us, and so they are," Jobs said.

Although he acknowledged the popularity of the iPhone has caused network troubles at carrier AT&T, Jobs said the problems would have happened to any wireless phone company with that many iPhone and iPad users.

He said many places in the U.S. will have much better reception by the end of the summer. He did not rule out having the iPhone operate on other carriers in the future.

Ahead of a major software developers conference scheduled to begin June 7 in San Francisco, Jobs was characteristically tightlipped about what, if any, new features would be on new iPhone models.

As for the iPad's stunning popularity, Jobs said the device was beginning to erode the usefulness of the personal computer.

"We like to talk about the post PC era," he said. "I think we're embarked on that. Is it the iPad? Who knows? Will it happen next year or five years from now or seven years? Who knows?"

Steve Jobs Made Phone Call Seeking Lost iPhone

Associated Press

Brian Hogan's world closed in fast almost as soon as he sold the next-generation iPhone he found in a Silicon Valley bar to a popular technology website for a stack of $100 bills, according to court documents released Friday.

By April 19, Hogan's roommate had tipped off investigators that he was at the center of the drama, Apple's top lawyers were meeting with police to press for criminal charges and Steve Jobs himself was personally demanding the iPhone's return.

The ordeal has set off ethic debates in journalism and law enforcement circles while Hogan and a website editor are now at the center of a criminal investigation that has been rife with speculation but devoid of many facts - until now.

On Friday, San Mateo Superior Court Judge Clifford Cretan ordered unsealed a 10-page sworn statement with details written by San Mateo Sheriff's Detective Matthew Broad to obtain a warrant to search the car and home of Jason Chen, a Gizmodo.com editor. Broad's statement was used to obtain a search warrant for Chen's home and car.

According to the statement, the saga began March 25, when Apple engineer Robert "Gray" Powell left the iPhone prototype in the bar area of Redwood City's Gourmet Haus Staud restaurant.

It said Gizmodo paid Hogan $5,000 for the device, cracked it open and posted images of it on April 20 despite a phone call from Jobs the day before demanding website editors return the gadget. Gizmodo promised Hogan an additional $3,500 bonus if Apple formally unveiled the device by July, according to Broad.

Now, Chen is under investigation for theft, receiving stolen property and damaging property, according to the affidavit. The affidavit also suggests Hogan and a third roommate, Thomas Warner, also may face criminal charges, and alleges the two panicked and attempted to hide evidence when they caught wind of the criminal investigation.

Nobody, including Chen, has been charged with any crime,

"The events have taken on a life of their own," said Jeff Bornstein, Hogan's attorney. "He thought it was dumb luck that he stumbled on to something valuable and he regrets not doing more to return it."

Bornstein said Hogan always intended to return the phone and didn't believe he was breaking the law in dealing with Gizmodo.

Bornstein also denied the affidavit's suggestion that Hogan was trying to get rid of evidence on April 21. That's when, shortly before midnight, Hogan's roommate Katherine Martinson called investigators and told them that Hogan and Warner were removing evidence from their apartment, the document said.

Investigators found Hogan at his father's Redwood City house and he directed them to nearby Sequoia Christian Church, where they recovered Hogan's computer and monitor.

Bornstein said that Hogan was in the process of moving out of the apartment and that Warner ended up with Hogan's computer, panicked and dropped them off at the church.

The investigation has prompted debate over whether he should be shielded from prosecution by California's so-called shield law, which protects journalists from having to turn over to police unpublished notes and the names of anonymous sources. But the shield law doesn't immunize journalists from breaking the law.

The investigators themselves have come under fire as well for apparently launching the investigation at Apple's behest. Detective Broad belongs to a special high technology task force called the Rapid Enforcement Allied Computer Team, which is comprised of investigators from several jurisdictions and investigates crimes against technology companies.

According to Broad, task force investigators met with two high-ranking Apple executives and outside lawyer George Riley on April 20, the day Gizmodo published the images. Riley told the task force that Gizmodo's action were "immensely damaging to Apple," because consumers would hold off buying iPhones until the new version was released. Riley didn't estimate a dollar figure, but said losses were "huge," according to the affidavit.

Apple is a member of the technology crime task force's board, but the company said it didn't use its influence to pressure law enforcement to investigate.

"We reported what we believe was a crime, and the D.A. of San Mateo county is taking it from there," said Apple spokeswoman Katie Cotton.

San Mateo County prosecutors had argued to keep the affidavit under seal to protect the identities of witnesses and the ongoing investigation. But The Associated Press and several other media companies convinced a San Mateo County superior court judge to make the document public, arguing disclosure was necessary to ensure that the raid of a journalist's home was proper.

Apple Gives Chief Operating Officer $5M Bonus

FILE - In this June 8, 2009 file photo, Apple interim CEO and Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook smiles before the start of the the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco. Apple Inc. is giving its chief operating officer a $5 million bonus for "outstanding performance" running the company while CEO Steve Jobs was on medical leave. Timothy Cook will also receive 75,000 restricted stock units scheduled to vest in 2011 and 2012. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma, File)

SEATTLE (AP) - Apple Inc. is giving its chief operating officer a $5 million bonus for "outstanding performance" running the company while CEO Steve Jobs was on medical leave.

Timothy Cook, 49, will also receive 75,000 restricted stock units scheduled to vest in 2011 and 2012, Apple said in a regulatory filing Friday.

Jobs, 55, famously limits his salary to $1 per year, which leaves Cook the company's highest-paid executive. In 2009, Cook received an $800,400 salary; $800,000 in nonstock incentive compensation; and about $40,900 in company matches to his retirement account, life insurance premiums and cash for unused vacation days.

The COO also holds 13,741 shares of Apple stock and 500,000 additional restricted stock options that have not yet vested, according to a January filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Cook took the company reins when Jobs, a pancreatic cancer survivor, went on medical leave from January through June 2009.

It was Cook's second stint leading Apple. Cook, who joined Apple in 1998, ran the Cupertino, Calif.-based company for two months in 2004 while Jobs recovered from surgery for pancreatic cancer. His performance then won him the promotion to chief operating officer in 2005.

Analysts credit Cook with solving problems that Apple was having with inventory management. That has been key to Apple's ability to amass $25 billion in cash and short-term investments. Many people consider Cook as Jobs' logical successor.

In the months leading up to Jobs' medical leave, rumors about his health could send Apple's stock soaring and sinking as investors worried that Apple would be lost without his vision.

But under Cook's direction in 2009, the company kept cranking out well-received products including updated laptops with lower entry-level prices and a faster iPhone with many longed-for features. Apple sold more than a million of the new iPhone 3GS during its first three days on the market.

Investors seemed confident in Cook's abilities. Apple's shares rose 67 percent to close at $142.44 the Friday before Jobs returned to work last June. Since then, the stock has added another 59 percent to close Friday at $226.60.

Sex Trumps Jobs, as in Steve, in Apps Flap

Business Week

Is the iPhone bigger than sex? Not likely, but we may be about to find out.

Last week, Apple Inc., whose iTunes App Store is the sole official source of programs for the iPhone and iPod Touch, removed access to thousands of sexually suggestive apps. Among the casualties: Wobble iBoobs, which allows users to, er, animate specific portions of photographs, and Private Dancer, which promises, “Our girls have some serious moves guaranteed to put you in that special mood.”

In an interview with the New York Times this week, Apple executive Phil Schiller explained, “It came to the point where we were getting customer complaints from women who found the content getting too degrading and objectionable, as well as parents who were upset with what their kids were able to see.”

A noble sentiment, to be sure. But at the same time Apple was saying buh-bye to some racy apps, it left untouched others from the likes of Playboy Enterprises Inc. and Time Warner Inc., which offers an app built around Sports Illustrated’s swimsuit issue -- you can upgrade it to get “Soccer Stars’ Wives & Girlfriends in Bodypaint” -- and another called the SI Swimsuit Challenge Game.

When asked about the apparent contradiction, Schiller, who’s head of worldwide product marketing, said of SI: “The difference is this is a well-known company with previously published material available broadly in a well-accepted format.”

In other words: Double standard? There’s an app for that.

Whiff of Hypocrisy

One doesn’t have to take a position pro or con on the merits of sexy apps to get a whiff of hypocrisy here. Apple, after all, is about to launch its much-touted iPad media device, and Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs needs big publishers like Time Warner to produce compelling content for his new baby. This would be a particularly inconvenient time to pick a fight with them.

All this wouldn’t matter so much if it weren’t for the near-iron-clad control Jobs and Apple exercise over software for the iPhone and iPod touch.

It’s possible -- in fact, fairly easy -- to “jailbreak” the devices, which allows users to download apps from sources other than Apple’s iTunes App Store. (Jailbroken iPhones and iPods are also a major factor in the growing problem of app piracy.) For the vast majority of users, though, the App Store is the only source of software.

Developers must submit their applications to Apple, which has the sole power to decide whether they gain access to users of the 75 million or so iPhone OS devices out there. It’s a power Apple has on occasion shown itself willing to use selectively for corporate purposes.

No App for You

For instance, at the behest of its U.S. telecommunications partner AT&T Inc., Apple last year refused to allow EchoStar Corp. to release an app letting users of its SlingBox device access video content from their home televisions over the AT&T 3G data network. Apple accepted the app only after Sling Media agreed to disable the 3G aspect and make it usable only over a Wi-Fi connection. (Earlier this month, AT&T and Sling Media settled their differences, and the app has finally been cleared for 3G use.)

If another company -- say, Microsoft Corp. -- had similarly flexed its muscle, the cries of “antitrust violation” would have been deafening. Apple gets away with it because … now why does Apple get away with it again?

When it comes to sex and the iPhone, though, Jobs just might have met his match. Technology and porn go together like, well, let’s just say it’s no accident that the annual Adult Entertainment Expo trade show runs in Las Vegas at the same time as, and virtually alongside, the Consumer Electronics Show.

Sex-Driven Innovation

In fact, it’s hard to think of a video-related consumer technology whose rise wasn’t accompanied by, indeed fueled by, sexual content. Cable television, the video cassette recorder -- you name it. The New York musical “Avenue Q” includes a ditty entitled, “The Internet Is for Porn.”

There’s no reason to think smartphones will be any different. So maybe, rather than trying to ban such content, it would be better to regulate it. Segregate adult apps in their own section of the App Store, strengthen parental controls, perhaps require a user to re-enter the account’s credit-card information before downloading anything naughty.

Whatever the approach, at least apply it evenly.

Steve Jobs' Six Sneakiest Statements

Wired

Steve Jobs was reportedly wearing a top hat when he visited New York publishers last week. It's a fitting lid for the Apple CEO, who can be as tricky as a magician.

Jobs has a knack for throwing off Apple watchers with his masterful misdirections.

Ever wonder why analysts and journalists grossly overestimated the price of the Apple tablet prior to its official announcement? Part of the reason is that Jobs had said during a 2008 earnings call that Apple could not make a $500 computer that was not a "piece of junk."

That assertion lent credence to rumors that the tablet would cost $1,000.

Oops. The entry-level iPad announced in January will cost $500, at least at the low end of scale. Presumably, Jobs doesn't consider it a piece of junk.

Nice one, Steve. You got us there.

Actually, you've fooled us not once or twice, but at least six times, by our count. What follows is a list of five more famously misleading quotes that Jobs pulled from his bag of tricks.

No Plans to Make a Tablet

There were plenty of naysayers who, for the longest time, thought the Apple tablet was a pure myth. Jobs did, after all, tell Walt Mossberg during a 2003 All Things Digital conference that Apple was not working on a tablet -- because the keyboardless form factor was a recipe for failure, according to a second-hand account.

"There are no plans to make a tablet," Jobs was quoted saying to Mossberg. "It turns out people want keyboards. ... We look at the tablet, and we think it is going to fail."

That was seven years ago. And a lot can change in seven years.

But there's plenty of evidence Apple has been mulling over tablets for a while. The New York Times' Nick Bilton reported the Apple tablet was in development for at least five years, and that it was actually a precursor to the keyboardless iPhone.

And Apple filed a patent for a touch tablet device in 2004. To rewind even further, Apple was working with Frog Design on tablet prototypes as early as 1983. Those ancient tablets included keyboards, but Jobs has clearly had tablets on his mind for a very long time.

Not Interested in the Cellphone Business

In that same interview with Mossberg, Jobs said he didn't feel Apple would fare well in the cellphone business.

"I get a lot of pressure to do a PDA. What people really seem to want to do with these is get the data out. We believe cellphones are going to carry this information. We didn't think we'd do well in the cellphone business. What we've done instead is we've written what we think is some of the best software in the world to start syncing information between devices. We believe that mode is what cellphones need to get to. We chose to do the iPod instead of a PDA."

Of course, in hindsight that quote served as a clue that Apple wasn't making a traditional cellphone, but rather a brand new device that fused the characteristics of an iPod, a PDA and a cellphone into one. The result was the iPhone.

Still, a tricky statement nonetheless.

People Don't Read Any More

Jobs made a rather provocative statement in 2008 when he told The New York Times that the Kindle would go nowhere:

"It doesn't matter how good or bad the product is, the fact is that people don't read anymore," he said. "Forty percent of the people in the U.S. read one book or less last year. The whole conception is flawed at the top because people don't read any more."

Of course, the CEO backpedaled on his Kindle-dissing during his iPad keynote when he was introducing the iPad's very own e-book reader and store, iBooks.

"Amazon's done a great job at pioneering this functionality with their Kindle, and we're going to stand on their shoulders and go a bit further," he said during his Jan. 27 keynote this year.

No Movies on a Tiny Little Screen

When Mossberg in 2003 asked Jobs whether he planned to put video in an iPod, the CEO said he was turned off by the idea.

"I'm not convinced people want to watch movies on a tiny little screen," Jobs said. "To paraphrase Bill Clinton, 'It's the music, stupid, it's the music!' Music's been around for a long time, will continue to be, it's huge."

Then two years later, in 2005, Apple released the fifth-generation iPod whose tiny, 2.7-inch screen played video. And then in 2007 Apple released the third-generation iPod Nano with video with an even littler 2-inch screen. But hey, people's minds change, and clearly so does Jobs'.

We Don't Need to Add New Stuff

In a September 2009 interview with Jobs, New York Times columnist David Pogue asked the CEO why Apple crammed a camera into the puny iPod Nano and not the new iPod Touch.

Jobs explained the lack of a camera was to keep the price down, so Apple could market the Touch as an inexpensive gaming device.

"So what we were focused on is just reducing the price to $199," Jobs said. "We don't need to add new stuff. We need to get the price down where everyone can afford it."

But later, teardown company iFixit ripped apart the iPod Touch and found a gap that would fit a camera.

And on top of that, AppleInsider received a tip that cameras were planned for the iPod Touch, but ultimately delayed due to technical problems. We've yet to see if Apple does indeed add a camera to the iPod Touch, but we suspect that's likely to happen eventually.

With Steve Jobs Absent, Now We Know Apple's #2

Story from the Wall Street Journal

Tim Cook, who has run Apple Inc. for five months while Steve Jobs has been on medical leave, has emerged as a star in his own right -- and one that the company needs to make sure stays put.

"At this point, losing Tim Cook would be a bigger deal to investors than if Steve Jobs stepped aside," says Gene Munster, an analyst for Piper Jaffray. "Just that thought makes my stomach tighten up."

Mr. Cook has been the target of overtures from other technology giants in the past: Motorola Inc. tried to hire Mr. Cook last year while Dell Inc. wooed the executive two years ago, according to people familiar with the situation. Apple, Motorola and Dell declined to comment.

The Cupertino, Calif., company's board is "acutely aware that Tim is a very attractive property," says a person familiar with Apple's thinking. As a result, the chief operating officer and 11-year Apple veteran may be invited onto Apple's board. He currently serves on the board of Nike Inc.

Recruiters say Mr. Cook's leadership of Apple over the past five months has solidified his reputation as an attractive candidate for large companies looking for someone to run all or a big piece of their businesses.

Mr. Cook's leadership is notable for how life has continued as normal at Apple without Mr. Jobs. On Monday, Apple reported that it sold more than one million units of its new iPhone 3G S model in its first three days on the market, exceeding analysts' expectations. Apple's press release Monday announcing the milestone included a quote from Mr. Jobs, not Mr. Cook.

Mr. Jobs went on medical leave in mid-January without disclosing the details of his ailment, though he has occasionally been to Apple's headquarters. The 54-year-old had a liver transplant in Tennessee about two months ago.

Mr. Jobs is due back this month, but he could work part-time initially. Mr. Cook, 48, may have a more encompassing role beyond his responsibilities as operating chief.

"Now it's clear that Tim Cook can run any technology-based company," says Stephen Mader, a co-head of the CEO practice at recruiters Korn/Ferry International. "He's a more attractive CEO candidate both inside Apple and outside."

Under Mr. Cook's leadership, Apple's stock has risen about 60% since mid-January, compared with an 18% increase in the Nasdaq Composite Index. Shares closed at $137.37, down $2.11, on Monday. In April, Apple also reported a 15% increase in quarterly profit as consumers continued to buy its iPods and iPhones.

Several people who do business with Apple say their dealings with the company have remained unchanged in recent months and that products continue to be developed and released on schedule. One tech-industry recruiter said Mr. Cook has been taking on more CEO responsibilities, such as negotiations with AT&T Inc., the exclusive U.S. carrier for Apple's popular iPhone.

Mr. Cook's title hasn't changed while Mr. Jobs has been out -- he wasn't named interim CEO. Still, the company has now turned twice to Mr. Cook to oversee Apple. Mr. Cook was handed the reins for two months in 2004 when Mr. Jobs was recuperating from surgery to remove a cancerous tumor from his pancreas.

Mr. Cook joined Apple in 1998 from Compaq Computer Corp. to fix Apple's then-troubled supply-chain system. At the time, Apple was dealing with bloated inventory and an annual loss of more than $1 billion. Mr. Cook was instrumental in closing down factories and outsourcing manufacturing to contractors.

"He turned a company that was on the brink of bankruptcy into one that is generating a huge amount of free cash," says Charlie Wolf, an analyst at Needham & Co.

People who know Mr. Cook say his persona sharply contrasts with that of Mr. Jobs. While Mr. Jobs is known for his fiery temper and his showmanship at public events, Mr. Cook is polite, low-key and prefers to stay behind the scenes.

"One of [Mr. Cook's] great strengths is that he's very even tempered and that makes him a great manager," says Avie Tevanian, a former Apple executive.

Despite the tens of millions of dollars that Mr. Cook has received in Apple stock, the Alabama native keeps a humble lifestyle and still rents a house in Palo Alto, Calif. He is a cycling, running and hiking enthusiast and counts Yosemite National Park as one of his favorite destinations.

According to regulatory filings, Mr. Cook received total compensation of $7.4 million last year, including a base salary of $700,000. The company raised his base salary to $800,000 for the current year.

Some people close to Apple worry Mr. Cook lacks Mr. Jobs's overall vision and decisiveness. But Apple watchers believe he is growing into a leader, pointing to an impromptu speech in an earnings conference call in January that painted a particularly vivid picture of the direction that Apple was taking.

In it, Mr. Cook said, "We believe in the simple, not the complex. We believe we need to own and control the primary technologies behind the products that we make...We believe in saying no to thousands of projects so that we can focus on the few that are meaningful to us. Regardless of who is in what job, those values are so embedded in this company that Apple will do extremely well."

Apple CEO Will Skip Macworld Trade Show

As Posted by: Wall Street Journal

Apple Inc. said it will no longer participate in the high-profile Macworld trade show after January, adding that Chief Executive Steve Jobs won't be on hand for its final appearance.

Mr. Jobs's keynote at the annual event in San Francisco has been one of the most anticipated events of the year. In recent years, he has used the forum to unveil major products like the MacBook Air laptop and the iPhone.

Apple, of Cupertino, Calif., said its decision to no longer exhibit or hold keynotes at the Macworld reflects a strategy of pulling away from such events in favor of avenues it controls.

Apple said the keynote presentation at this year's show on Jan. 6 will be given by Phillip Schiller, its marketing chief.

Apple's stock fell as much as 5.5% in after-hours trading after the announcement as investors worried that the move was linked to Mr. Jobs's health. Mr. Jobs, who has been the keynote speaker at Macworld since 1997, is a survivor of pancreatic cancer.

Apple led technology shares lower on Wednesday after the tech industry icon's decision not to continue appearing at the annual MacWorld meeting raised questions about the company. (Dec. 17)

Apple didn't comment on whether the decision was related to Mr. Jobs's health, but Gene Munster, an analyst with Piper Jaffray, said he believes that it's part of Apple's strategy to broaden its leadership beyond Mr. Jobs.

"One thing that is clear is that there's a shift in power going on at Apple," said Mr. Munster.

But it could also raise renewed issues about Apple's obligation to disclose what investors regard as material information. "It begs the question of whether they're being fully transparent to investors," said Toni Sacconaghi, an analyst with Sanford C. Bernstein and Co.

Apple has also been scaling back from industry conferences, preferring to hold its own events instead. This year, Apple held two press events in the fall to announce its new iPod and MacBook products. "We will continue doing those as regularly as we have in the past," Steve Dowling, an Apple spokesman, said.

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