Wed
8 Dec 2004
4:33 pm
Tech journalists, excited by IBM's sale of its PC division to Chinese computer giant Lenovo, are trying to guess what IBM will do next. This guy thinks they should buy Apple.
It's not an original suggestion, but it is especially hilarious. Apple succeeds in a business that other tech companies fail at, and fail horrendously. What sets it apart is taste. Apple has taste because of egomaniac CEO Steve Jobs. Does IBM have taste? Well, the thinkpad is a nice machine, but it's clear Big Blue has never garnered the same customer devotion as Apple.
The most obvious way to break Apple would be to make its products bland and uncreative. IBM, especially since Lou Gerstner took over, is all about making and marketing products and services at low risk and high scale, milking existing brands for all they're worth. The only IBM product I use on a regular basis is Lotus Notes, and starting that program is like hitting a magical 1992 button on my PC.
An obvious way to achieve blandness and uncreativity is to fire Steve Jobs. As if the theory of this option weren't compelling enough, there is actually historical precedent that Apple sucks without Steve Jobs. And yet, the author of this piece actually contemplates that, in order to make an acquisition by IBM work, Jobs might be fired.
Just ask yourself: when was the last time a bunch of engineers started a site to collect genuinely interesting personal stories about working with John Sculley or Lou Gerstner?
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