Steve Jobs

tores 373 h areas for the PowerMac, iMac, ad begun developing a new con our digital activity. In other words, and pictures from your cameras, ayer and songs, or your books and nstorm was that the stores should e company's four lines of comput might want to do. \"For example, bay where we'd have various Macs and showing how you can import early that Tuesday and told him needed to reconfigure the stores. mperate tongue, but he had not yet . \"Doyou know whata bigchange ass offon this store for six months, ything!\" Jobs suddenly got quiet. gn another store from scratch.\" bs made sure he remained so. On here people had gathered for the not to say a word, either to him m. So the seven-minute drive pro ved, Jobs had finished processing right,\" he recalled. So to Johnson's by saying, \"Ron thinks we've got it rganized not around products but ere was a pause, then Jobs contin e said they would redo the layout, e planned January rollout by three e chance to get it right.\" d he did so to his team that day— done correctiy had required a mo on. In each case he had to rework not perfect. He talked about doing of Woody had evolved into being

374 Walter a jerk, and on a couple of occasio something isn't right, you can't jus he said. \"That's what othercompa When the revised prototype 2001, Jobs allowed the board to se the theories behind the design by loaded board members into a van saw what Jobs and Johnson had going ahead. It would, theboard a retailing and brand image to a new sumers did not see Apple comput like Dell or Compaq. Mostoutside experts disagreed. thinking quite so differently,\" Busi \"Sorry Steve, Here's Why Apple S chieffinancial officer, Joseph Graz problem is it stillbelieves the way that seems pretty content with ch consultant David Goldstein decla they're turning out the lights on a v Wood, Stone, Steel, Glass On May 19, 2001, the first App Virginia, with gleaming white cou huge \"ThinkDifferent\" poster ofJ were wrong. Gateway stores had b By 2004 Apple stores were averag stores had $1.2 billion in revenue, try for reaching the billion-dollar tabulated every four minutes byEll mation on how to integratemanuf As the stores flourished, Jobs s Clow recalled, \"In one of our ma were opening, Steve made us spen

Isaacson ons with the original Macintosh. \"If stignore it and say you'll fix it later,\" anies do.\" was finally completed in January ee it for the first time. He explained ysketching on a whiteboard; then he n for the two-mile trip. When they d built, they unanimously approved agreed, take the relationship between wlevel. It wouldalso ensure that con ters as merely a commodity product . \"Maybe it'stime SteveJobs stopped iness Week wrote in a story headlined Stores Won't Work.\" Apple's former ziano, was quoted as saying, \"Apple's y to grow is serving caviar in a world heese and crackers.\" And the retail ared, \"I give them two years before very painful andexpensive mistake.\" ple store opened in Tyson's Corner, unters, bleached wood floors, and a John and Yoko in bed. The skeptics been averaging 250 visitors a week. ging 5,400 per week. That year the , setting a record in the retail indus milestone. Sales in each store were lison's software, giving instant infor facturing, supply, and sales channels. stayed involved in every aspect. Lee arketing meetings just as the stores nd a half hour deciding what hue of

Apple Sto gray the restroom signs should be.\" T Cywinski Jackson designed the signa the major decisions. Jobs particularly focused onthesta had built at NeXT. When he visited a he invariably suggested changes to th the lead inventor on two patent appli the see-through look that features al melded together with titanium, the o that uses a monolithic unit of glass laminated together for supporting loa In 1985, ashe was being ousted fro visited Italyand been impressed by t walks. In 2002, when he came to the floors in the stores were beginning a concern that it's hard to imagine be CEO Steve Ballmer—Jobs wanted to his colleagues pushed to replicate the whichwould have been ten times che to be authentic. The gray-blue Pietra fine-grained texture, comes from a f in Firenzuola outside of Florence. \"W out of the mountain,because it has to ing and purity,\" said Johnson. \"Steve get the color right and it had to be a designers in Florence picked outjust cutting it into the proper tiles, and with a sticker to ensure that it was lai \"Knowing that it's the same stone th assures you that it can stand the test o Another notable feature of the sto came up with the idea on a two-day asked them all to describe the best se everyone mentioned some nice exper Carlton hotel. SoJohnson sent his fir Ritz-Carlton training program and c

ores 375 The architectural firm of Bohlin ature stores, butJobs made all of aircases, which echoed theone he a store asit was beingconstructed, he staircase. His name is listed as ications on the staircases, one for ll-glass treads and glass supports other for the engineering system containing multiple glass sheets ads. om hisfirst tour at Apple, he had the gray stone of Florence's side e conclusion that the light wood to look somewhat pedestrian— edeviling someone like Microsoft o use that stone instead. Some of e color and texture usingconcrete, eaper, butJobsinsisted that it had a Serena sandstone, which has a family-owned quarry, II Casone, We select only 3% of what comes o have the right shading and vein- felt very strongly that we had to a material with high integrity.\" So t the right quarried stone, oversaw made sure each tile was marked id out next to its companion tiles. hat Florence uses for its sidewalks of time,\"saidJohnson. ores was the Genius Bar. Johnson ay retreat with his team. He had ervice they'd everenjoyed. Almost rience at a Four Seasons or Ritz- rstfive store managers through the came up with the idea of replicat-

376 Walter ing something between a concierg the barwith the smartest Macpe it the Genius Bar.\" Jobs called the idea crazy. H can't call them geniuses,\" he said. people skills to deliver on somet thought hehad lost, butthenext sel, who said, \"By the way, Steve genius bar.'\" Many of Jobs's passions cam Avenue store, which opened in20 and making a maximum stateme ally Steve's store,\" said Johnson. O of finding signature high-traffic sand visitors a week during its fir 250 visitors aweek.) \"This store g store in the world,\" Jobs proudly in total—absolute dollars, notjus NewYork. That includes Saks an Jobs was able to drum up exc same flair he used for product rel openings andspend the nightout in. \"My then 14-year-old son su Alto, andthe experience turned in Gary Allen, who started a website andI have done several overnight and have met so many great peop In July 2011, a decade after 326 Apple stores. The biggest w tallest in Tokyo's Ginza. The av $34 million, and the total net sa But the stores did even more. The Apple's revenue, but by creating b rectly helpedboost everything the Even as he was fighting the e time envisioning future store pro

r Isaacson ge deskand a bar. \"What if we staffed eople,\" he said toJobs. \"We could call He even objected to the name. \"You . \"They're geeks. They don't have the thing called the genius bar.\" Johnson day heran into Apple's general coun e just told me to trademark the name me together for Manhattan's Fifth 006: acube, asignature staircase, glass, ent through minimalism. \"It was re Open 24/7, it vindicated the strategy c locations by attracting fifty thou rst year. (Remember Gateway's draw: grosses more per square foot than any y noted in 2010. \"It also grosses more stper square foot—than any store in nd Bloomingdale's.\" citement for store openings with the leases. People began to travel to store tside so they could be among the first uggested my first overnighter at Palo nto aninteresting social event,\" wrote e that caters to Apple store fans. \"He ters, including five in othercountries, ple.\" r the first ones opened, there were was in London's Covent Garden, the verage annual revenue per store was ales in fiscal 2010 were $9.8 billion. eydirecdy accounted for only 15% of buzz andbrand awareness theyindi e company did. effects of cancer in 2011, Jobs spent ojects, such as the one he wanted to

Apple St build in New York City's Grand Cen showed me a picture of the Fifth A eighteen pieces ofglass on each side. technology at the time,\" he said. \"We to make the glass.\" Then he pulled o teen panes were replaced by four hug to do next, he said. Once again, it w of aesthetics and technology. \"If we technology, we would have to make \"And I didn't want to do that. So we h in China.\" Ron Johnson was not thrilled byt panes actually looked better than fou we have today work magically with ing,\" he said. \"Itglitters like ajewel b transparent, it will almost go away t with Jobs, but to no avail. \"When te hewants to take advantage ofthat,\" is always more, simpler is always be glass box with fewer elements, it's b forefront of technology. That's whe products and his stores.\"

tores 377 ntral Terminal. One afternoon he Avenue store and pointed to the \"This was state ofthe art inglass e had to build our own autoclaves out a drawing in which the eigh ge panes. That is what he wanted was a challenge at the intersection wanted to do it with our current the cube a foot shorter,\" he said. have to build some new autoclaves the idea. He thought the eighteen ur panes would. \"The proportions the colonnade of the GM Build box. I think ifwe get the glass too to a fault.\" He debated the point echnology enables something new, said Johnson. \"Plus, for Steve, less etter. Therefore, if you can build a better, it's simpler, and it's at the ere Steve likes to be, in both his

CHAPTE THE DIG From iTune The original iPody 20 Connecting the Dots Once a year Jobs took his most val he called \"The Top 100.\" They we line: the people you would bring if ple with you on a lifeboat to your retreat, Jobs would stand in front boards because they gave him com engendered focus) and ask, \"Wh doing next?\" People would fight t 3

ER THIRTY GITAL HUB es to the iPod 001 luable employees on a retreat, which ere picked based on a simple guide fyou could take only ahundred peo r next company. At the end of each t of a whiteboard (he loved white mplete control ofa situation and they hat are the ten things we should be to get their suggestions on the list. 378

The Digital Jobs would write them down, and the dumb. After much jockeying, the gro ten.Then Jobs would slash the bottom only do three.\" By 2001 Apple had revived its per now timeto thinkdifferent. A setofne next list on his whiteboard that year. At the time, a pall had descended com bubble had burst, and the NA 50% from its peak. Only three tech January 2001 Super Bowl, compared t the sense of deflation went deeper. Fo and Wozniak had founded Apple, th the centerpiece of the digital revolut ing that its central role was ending. boring,\" wrote the Wall StreetJourna the CEO of Gateway, proclaimed, \"W the PC as the centerpiece.\" It was at that moment that Jobs that would transform Apple—and w dustry. The personal computer, instea would become a \"digital hub\" that c from music players to video recorders allthesedevices with your computer, a pictures, video, text, and all aspects o lifestyle.\" Apple would no longer be ju it would drop that word from its na be reinvigorated bybecoming the hub gadgets, including the iPod andiPhon When he was turning thirty, Jobs ord albums. He was musing about wh thought patterns and tend to be less those patterns, justlike grooves in a r them,\" he said. At age forty-five, Jobs groove.

l Hub 379 en cross offthe ones he decreed oup would come up with a Hst of m seven and announce, \"We can rsonal computer offerings. It was ew possibilities topped thewhat- d on the digital realm. The dot ASDAQ^had fallen more than h companies had ads during the to seventeen the year before. But or the twenty-five years since Jobs he personal computer had been tion. Now experts were predict It had \"matured into something als Walt Mossberg. JeffWeitzen, We're clearly migrating away from s launched a new grand strategy with it the entire technology in ad ofedging toward the sidelines, coordinated a variety of devices, s to cameras. You'd linkand sync and it would manage yourmusic, ofwhat Jobs dubbed your \"digital ust acomputer company—indeed ame—but the Macintosh would b for an astounding array of new ne and iPad. s had used a metaphor about rec hy folks over thirty develop rigid s innovative. \"People get stuck in record, and they never get out of s was now about to get out of his

380 Walter Fire Wire Jobs s vision thatyour computer back to a technology called Fire early 1990s. It was ahigh-speed s as video from one device to anot opted it, and Jobs decided to incl iMac that came outin October 1 could be part of a system that mo puter, where it could be edited an To make this work, the iMac software. So Jobs went to his old ics company, and asked them to Premiere, which was popular onW tives stunned Jobs by flatly turni said, had too few users to make felt betrayed. \"IputAdobe onthe claimed. Adobe made matters ev other popular programs, such as though theMacintosh was popula people who used those application Jobs never forgave Adobe, an war with the company by not pe iPad.He took away a valuable less to-end control of all key elemen when we were screwed by Adob into any business where we didn' software, otherwise we'd get ourh So starting in 1999 Apple be forthe Mac, witha focus on peop nology. These included Final Cut which was a simpler consumer v music onto a disc; iPhoto, to comp Band, for creating and mixing mu and the iTunes Store, forbuying s

r Isaacson could become your digital hub went eWire, which Apple developed in the serial port thatmoved digital files such other. Japanese camcorder makers ad lude it on the updated versions of the 1999. He began to see that FireWire oved video from cameras onto a com nd distributed. c needed to have great video editing d friends atAdobe, the digital graph o make a new Mac version of Adobe Windows computers. Adobe's execu ing him down. The Macintosh, they it worthwhile. Jobs was furious and e map, and they screwed me,\" helater ven worse when it also didn't write its Photoshop, for the Mac OSX, even ar among designers and other creative ons. nd a decade later he got into a public ermitting Adobe Flash to run on the son that reinforced his desire for end- nts of a system: \"My primary insight be in 1999 was that we shouldn't get 't control both the hardware and the head handed to us.\" egan to produce application software ple at the intersection of art andtech tPro, for editing digital video; iMovie, version; iDVD, for burning video or pete with Adobe Photoshop; Garage- usic; iTunes, for managing your songs; songs.

The Digita The idea of the digital hub quick stood this with the camcorder,\" Jobs camcorder ten times more valuable. hours of raw footage you would ne editit on your computer, make eleg credits, listing yourself as executive p creative, to express themselves, to ma when it hit me that the personal co something else.\" Jobs had another insight: If the would allow the portable devices to b tions that the devices tried to do, suc they did poorly because they had sm accommodate menus filled with lot handle that more easily. And one more thing... What Jo best when everything—the device, FireWire—was all tightly integrated liever in providing end-to-end soluti The beauty of this realization w pany thatwas well-positioned to pro Microsoft wrote software, Dell and produced a lot ofdigital devices, Ado But only Apple did all of these thing owns the whole widget—the hardwa system,\" he explained to Time. \"We user experience. We can do things th Apple's first integrated foray into With FireWire, you could get your iMovie you could edit it into a mas to burn some DVDs so you andyou \"So we spent a lot of time working get a consumer drive that could bur first to ever ship that.\" As usual Job as simple as possible for the user, an Mike Evangelist, who worked at A

al Hub 381 kly came into focus. \"I first under s said. \"Using iMovie makes your .\" Instead of having hundreds of ever really sit through, you could gant dissolves, add music, and roll producer. It allowed people to be ake something emotional. \"That's omputer was going to morph into e computer served as the hub, it become simpler. A lot ofthe func ch as editing the video or pictures, mall screens and could not easily ts of functions. Computers could obs also saw was that this worked computer, software, applications, d. \"I became even more of a be ions,\" he recalled. was that there was only one com ovide such anintegrated approach. d Compaq made hardware, Sony obe developed a lot ofapplications. ngs. \"We're the only company that are, the software and the operating can take full responsibility for the hat the other guys can't do.\" thedigital hub strategy was video. r video onto your Mac, and with sterpiece. Then what? You'd want ur friends could watch it on a TV. g with the drive manufacturers to rn a DVD,\" he said. \"Wewere the bs focused on making the product nd this was the key to its success. Apple on software design, recalled

382 Walter demonstrating to Jobs an early ve at a bunch ofscreenshots, Jobs jum a simple rectangle on a whiteboar said. \"It's gotone window. You dra you click the button that says 'Bur to make.\" Evangelist was dumbfou what became iDVD. Jobs even he Jobs knew digital photography developed ways to make the comp the first year at least, he took his HP and a few others were produc butJobs decreed that Apple shoul In addition, his angry insistence t drive and use instead a more ele not include the first CD burners tray format. \"We kind of missed th needed to catch up realfast.\" The mark ofan innovative co with new ideas first, but also tha finds itselfbehind. iTunes It didn't take Jobs long to realize By 2000 people were ripping mus or downloading it from file-shar burning playlists onto their own of blank CDs sold in the United only 281 million people in the were really into burning CDs, an felt like a dope,\" he toldFortune. \" to work hard to catchup.\" Jobs added a CD burner to the goal was to make it simple to trans your computer, and thenburn play

r Isaacson ersion ofthe interface. After looking mped up, grabbed a marker, anddrew ard. \"Here's the new application,\" he ag your video intothewindow. Then rn.'That's it. That's what we're going ounded, but it led to the simplicity of elped design the\"Burn\" button icon. y was also about to explode, so Apple puter the hub ofyour photos. But for s eye off one really big opportunity. cing a drive that burned music CDs, uld focus on video rather than music. that the iMac get rid ofits tray disk egant slot drive meant that it could s, which were initially made for the he boat on that,\" he recalled. \"So we ompany is not only that it comes up at it knows how to leapfrog when it e that music was going to be huge. sic onto their computers from CDs, ring services such as Napster, and blank disks. That year the number States was 320 million. There were country. That meant some people nd Apple wasn't catering to them. \"I \"I thought we had missed it.We had e iMac, but that wasn't enough. His sfer music from a CD,manage it on ylists. Othercompanies were already

The Digita making music-management applicat complex. One ofJobs's talents was s with second-rate products. He look available—including Real Jukebox, W that HP was including withits CD bu \"They were so complicated that only their features.\" That is when Bill Kincaid came in neer, he was driving to a track in Wil mula Ford sports car while (abit inco Public Radio. He heard a report abo the Rio that played a digital song fo when the reporter said something lik because it won't work with Macs.\" K fix that!\" To help himwrite a Rio manager Jeff Robbin and Dave Heller, also f Their product, known as Soundjam for the Rio and software for manag InJuly 2000, when Jobs was pushing management software, Apple swoo bringing its founders back into the A the company, and Robbin continued opment team for the next decade. Jo he once allowed a Time reporter to m promise that the reporter would not Jobs personally worked with them Apple product. It was laden with all s a lot of complex screens. Jobs push more fun. Instead of an interface th were searching for an artist, song, or box where you could type in anythin team adopted the sleek brushed-me dubbed it iTunes. Jobs unveiled iTunes at the Janua digital hub strategy. It would be free

al Hub 383 tions, but they were clunky and spotting markets that were filled ked at the music apps that were Windows Media Player, and one burner—and came to a conclusion: y a genius could figure out halfof n. A former Apple software engi llows, California, to race his For congruously) listening to National out a portable music player called ormat called MP3. He perked up ke, \"Don't get excited, Mac users, Kincaid said to himself, \"Ha! I can r for the Mac, he called his friends former Apple software engineers. m, offered Mac users an interface ging the songs on their computer. g his team to come upwithmusic- oped in and bought Soundjam, Apple fold. (All three stayed with d to run the music software devel obs considered Robbin so valuable meethim onlyafter extracting the printhis last name.) m to transform Soundjam into an sorts offeatures, andconsequently hed them to make it simpler and hat made you specifywhether you r album, Jobs insisted on a simple ng you wanted. From iMovie the etal look and also a name. They ary2001 Macworld as part of the e to allMac users, he announced.

384 Walter \"Join the music revolution with vices ten times more valuable,\" he advertising slogan would later pu That afternoon Jobs happene ofthe New York Times. The interv Jobs sat down at his Mac and sh my youth,\" he said as the psyche That led him to reminisce about of the two or three most importa told Markoff. People who had ne derstand him. The iPod The next step for the digital hub s player. Jobs realized that Apple h a device in tandem with the iTun pler. Complex tasks could be han the device. Thus was born the iP transformation of Apple from b the world's most valuable company Jobs had a special passion for The music players that were alre leagues, \"truly sucked.\" Phil Sch of the team agreed. As they wer with the Rio and other players would sit around and say, These called. \"They held about sixteen how to use them.\" Jobs began pushing for a porta but Rubinstein responded that t available yet. He askedJobs to wait able to score a suitable small LC polymer battery. The tougher cha

r Isaacson h iTunes, and make your music de e concluded to great applause. As his utit: Rip. Mix. Burn. ed to be meeting with John Markoff view was going badly, but at the end howed off iTunes. \"It reminds me of edelic patterns danced on the screen. dropping acid. Taking LSD was one ant things he'd done in his life, Jobs ever taken acid would never fully un strategy was tomake aportable music had the opportunity to design such unes software, allowing it to be sim ndled on the computer, easy ones on Pod, the device thatwould begin the being a computer maker into being y. the project because he loved music. eady on the market, he told his col hiller, Jon Rubinstein, and the rest re building iTunes, they spent time while merrily trashing them. \"We e things really stink,'\" Schiller re n songs, and you couldn't figure out able music player in the fall of 2000, the necessary components were not t.After a fewmonths Rubinsteinwas CD screen and rechargeable lithium- allenge was finding a disk drive that

The Digita was small enough buthad ample mem Then, in February 2001, he took on visit Apple's suppliers. At the end of a routine meeting w tioned a new product they had in the June. It was a tiny, 1.8-inch drive (the hold five gigabytes of storage (about not surewhat to do with it. When th Rubinstein, he knew immediately w sand songs in his pocket! Perfect. Bu also in Japan, giving the keynote spee ference. They met that nightat the H ing. \"I know how to do it now,\" Ru a $10 million check.\" Jobs immediat started negotiating with Toshiba to h of the disks it could make, and he be who could lead the development team Tony Fadell was a brash entrepren punk look and an engaging smile w while still at the University of Michi handheld device maker General Mag Andy Hertzfeld and Bill Atkinson), time at Philips Electronics, where he short bleached hair and rebellious st ideas for creating a betterdigital mu around unsuccessfully to RealNetwor was in Colorado, skiing with an unc he was riding on the chairlift. It wa Apple was looking for someone who device.\" Fadell, not lacking in confide at making such devices. Rubinstein in Fadell assumed that he was being tal assistant, some successor to the Rubinstein, the topic quickly turned three months. \"We've been trying to

alHub 385 mory to make agreat music player. ne of his regular trips to Japan to with Toshiba, the engineers men e lab that would be ready by that e size ofa silver dollar) thatwould a thousand songs), and theywere he Toshiba engineers showed it to what it could be used for. A thou ut he kept a poker face. Jobs was eech at theTokyo Macworld con HotelOkura, where Jobs was stay ubinstein told him. \"All I need is tely authorized it. So Rubinstein have exclusive rights to every one egan to look around for someone m. neurial programmer with a cyber who had started three companies igan. He had gone to workat the gic (where he met Apple refugees ), and then spent some awkward e bucked the staidculture with his tyle. He had come up with some usic player, which he had shopped rks, Sony, and Philips. One dayhe cle, and his cell phone rang while as Rubinstein, who told him that could workon a \"small electronic ence, boastedthat he was a wizard invited him to Cupertino. ghired to work on a personal digi Newton. But when he met with to iTunes, which had beenout for hookup the existing MP3 players

386 Walter to iTunes and they've been horri told him. \"We think we should m Fadell was thrilled. \"I was pas do some ofthat at RealNetworks to Palm.\" He agreed to come abo fewweeks Rubinstein insisted tha to become a full-time Apple empl freedom. Rubinstein was furious a ing. \"This is one of those life dec regret it.\" He decided to force Fadell's h twenty or so people who had b Fadell walked in, Rubinstein tol project unless you sign on full-tim decide right now.\" Fadell looked Rubinstein in t and said, \"Does this always hap under duress to sign anoffer?\" He grudgingly shook Rubinstein's han ing between Jon and me for man agreed: \"I don'tthink he ever forga Fadell and Rubinstein were fate that they had fathered the iPod. given the mission byJobs months and figured out the screen, batter then brought in Fadell to put it to Fadell's visibility began to refer t Fadell's perspective, before he cam withplans for a great MP3 player, to othercompanies before he had of who deserved the most credit Podfather, would be fought over t pages, and even Wikipedia entries. But for the next few months wanted the iPod out by Christma unveil in October. They looked ar

r Isaacson ible, absolutely horrible,\" Rubinstein make our own version.\" ssionate about music. I was trying to s, and I was pitching an MP3 player oard, at least as a consultant. After a at if he was to lead the team, he had loyee. But Fadell resisted; he likedhis at what he considered Fadell's whin cisions,\" he told Fadell. \"You'll never hand. He gathered a roomful of the been assigned to the project. When ld him, \"Tony, we're not doing this me. Are you in or out? You have to the eye, then turned to the audience ppen at Apple, that people are put e paused for a moment, said yes, and nd. \"Itleft some very unsettling feel ny years,\" Fadell recalled. Rubinstein gave me for that.\" ed toclash because they boththought As Rubinstein saw it, he had been searlier, found the Toshibadisk drive, ry, and other key elements. He had ogether. He and others who resented to him as \"Tony Baloney.\" But from me to Apple he had already come up , andhe hadbeen shopping it around d agreed to come to Apple. The issue for the iPod, or should get the title the years in interviews, articles, web . they were too busy to bicker. Jobs as, and this meant having it ready to round for other companies that were

The Digita designing MP3 players that could se work and settled on a small company the team there, \"This is the project th ten years from now, it's going to be a business.\" He convinced them to sig began to modify PortalPlayer's defici faces, shortbatterylife, and inability songs. That's It! There are certain meetings that are mark a historic moment and because operates. Such was the case with the conference room in April 2001, wher tals of the iPod. There to hearFadell Rubinstein, Schiller, Ive, Jeff Robb Ng. Fadell didn't know Jobs, and he \"When he walked into the conferen 'Whoa, there's Steve!' I was really o brutal he could be.\" The meeting started with a pres and what other companies were doin \"Hewon't pay attention to a slide dec said. When a slide showed other po waved it away. \"Don't worry about we're doing, and they don't.\" After th insteadJobs peppered the group wi lesson: \"Steve prefers to be in the mo once told me,If you need slides, it s talking about.'\" InsteadJobs liked to be shown p inspect, and fondle. So Fadell broug conference room; Rubinstein had coa sequentially so that his preferred ch

al Hub 387 erve as the foundation for Apple's y named PortalPlayer. Fadell told hat's going to remold Apple, and a music business, not a computer gn an exclusive deal, and his group iencies, such as its complex inter to make a playlist longer than ten e memorable both because they e they illuminate the way a leader e gathering in Apple's fourth-floor re Jobs decided on the fundamen present his proposals to Jobswere bin, and marketing director Stan e was understandably intimidated. nce room, I sat up and thought, on guard, because I'd heard how sentation of the potential market ng. Jobs, as usual, had no patience. ck for more thana minute,\" Fadell ossible players in the market, he Sony,\" he said. \"We know what hat, they quit showing slides, and ith questions. Fadell took away a oment, talkingthings through. He shows you don't knowwhat you're physical objects that he could feel, ght three different models to the ached him on how to reveal them hoice would be the piece de resis-

388 Walter tance. Theyhidthe mockup oftha center of the table. Fadell began his show-and-te were using out of a box and sprea the 1.8-inch drive, LCD screen, b their cost and weight. As he disp prices or sizes might come down thepieces could beputtogether, li Then Fadell began unveiling Styrofoam with fishing leads inse The first had a slot for a removab missed it as complicated. The se which was cheap butwould lose a Jobs was not pleased. Next Fadell show what a device with the 1.8- seemed intrigued. The show clima revealing a fully assembled model be able to play more with the Le the hard-drive option just the way He was rather stunned by the pro where decisions like this would ta ofPowerPoint presentations and g Next it was Phil Schiller's turn asked. He left the room and retur all of which had the same device o trackwheel. \"I had been thinking he recalled. \"You can't press a bu be great if you could have a whee thumb, you could scroll through s the faster the scrolling got, so you Jobs shouted, \"That's it!\" He go on it. Once the project was launched His main demandwas \"Simplify!\" user interface and apply a rigid tes he should be able to get there in t

r Isaacson atoption under awooden bowl at the ell by taking the various parts they ading them on the table. There were boards, and batteries, all labeled with played them, they discussed how the n over the next year or so. Some of ike Lego blocks, to show theoptions. g his models, which were made of erted togive them the proper weight. ble memory card for music. Jobs dis econd had dynamic RAM memory, all ofthe songs if the battery ran out. l put a few of the pieces together to -inch hard drive would be like. Jobs axed with Fadell lifting thebowl and l ofthatalternative. \"I was hoping to ego parts, but Steve settled right on y wehad modeled it,\"Fadell recalled. ocess. \"Iwas used to being at Philips, ake meeting after meeting, with a lot going back for more study.\" n. \"Can I bring out my idea now?\" he rned with a handful of iPod models, on the front: the soon-to-be-famous g of how you go through a playlist,\" utton hundreds of times. Wouldn't it el?\" By turning the wheel with your songs. The longer you kept turning, u could zip through hundreds easily. ot Fadell and the engineers working d, Jobs immersed himself in it daily. \" He would go over eachscreen of the st: If he wanted a song or a function, three clicks. And the click should be

The Digital intuitive. If he couldn't figure out how took more than three clicks, he would b whenwe'd rackour brains on a user in considered every option, and he wou said Fadell. \"And then we'd all go,'Ho lem or approach, and ourlittle problem Every nightJobs would be on the p others would call each other up, disc conspire on howto nudge himto whe worked about half the time. \"We wo Steve's latest idea, and wewould alltry \"Every day there was something like th or a button color, or a pricing strategy to workwith your peers, watch each o One key insight Jobs had was tha should be performed using iTunes on the iPod. As he later recalled: In order to make the iPod really easy arguing on my part—we needed to lim do. Instead we put that functionality example, wemade it soyou couldn't ma made playlists on iTunes, andthenyou controversial. But what made the Rio was that they werecomplicated. They lists, because they weren't integrated w computer. So by owning the iTunes so allowed us to make the computer and allowed us to put the complexity in the The most Zen of all simplicities ished his colleagues, that the iPod wo became true of mostApple devices. Th devices would go dormant if they wer wake up when youtouched anykey. B that would go \"Click—you're off.Goo

l Hub 389 to navigate to something, or if it be brutal. \"There would be times nterface problem, and think we'd uld go, 'Did you think of this?'\" oly shit.' He'd redefine the prob m would go away.\" phone withideas. Fadell and the cuss Jobs's latest suggestion, and ere they wanted him to go, which ould have this swirling thing of y to stayahead of it,\" said Fadell. hat,whether it was a switch here, issue. With his style, youneeded other's back.\" at as many functions as possible n your computer rather than on y to use—and this took a lot of mit what the device itselfwould in iTunes on the computer. For ake playlists using the device. You synced withthe device. That was and other devices so brain-dead had to do things like make play with the jukebox software on your oftware and the iPod device, that d the device work together, and it e right place. was Jobs's decree, which aston ould not have an on-off switch. It herewas no needfor one.Apple's re not being used, and they would But therewas no needfor a switch od-bye.\"

390 Walter Suddenly everything had fall a thousand songs; an interface navigate a thousand songs; a Fi thousand songs in under ten m through a thousand songs. \"We s and saying, This is goingto be s cool it was, because we knew ho ally. And the concept became so in your pocket.\" One of the copy Jobs was the one who, borrowin modified that to iPod. The Whiteness ofthe Whale Jony Ive had been playing with th to conceive what the finished pr occurred to him on a morning d Cupertino. Its face should be pu car, and it should connect seamle \"Most small consumer products h Ive. \"There is no cultural gravity about the iPod is that there is s significant, not disposable.\" The white would be notjust device, but the headphones and he recalled. \"Pure white.\" Others course, should be black, like all h diately, and embraced white,\" said The sinuous flow of the white ea icon. As Ive described it: There was something very signif there was also something very qu ging its tail in your face. It was those flowing headphones. That'

r Isaacson len into place: a drive that would hold and scroll wheel that would let you ireWire connection that could sync a minutes; and a battery that would last suddenly were looking at one another so cool,' \"Jobs recalled. \"We knewhow ow badly we each wanted one person o beautifully simple: a thousand songs ywriters suggested theycall it a \"Pod.\" ng from the iMac and iTunes names, hefoam model oftheiPod and trying roduct should look like when an idea drive from his San Francisco home to ure white, he told his colleague in the essly to a polished stainless steel back. have this disposable feel to them,\" said y to them. The thing I'm proudest of something about it that makes it feel twhite, butpure white. \"Not only the the wires and even the power block,\" kept arguing that the headphones, of headphones. \"But Steve got it imme id Ive. \"There would be a purity to it.\" arbud wires helped make the iPod an ficant and nondisposable about it, yet uiet andvery restrained. It wasn't wag restrained, but it was also crazy, with 's whyI like white. White isn'tjust a

The Digita neutral color. It is so pure and quiet. inconspicuous aswell. LeeClow's advertising team atTBWA the iconic nature of the iPod and its w traditional product-introduction ads tures. James Vincent, a lanky young B worked as a DJ, had recently joined to help focus Apple's advertising on lovers rather than rebelbabyboomers Susan Alinsangan, they created a ser the iPod, and they spread the options for his1 inspection. At the farrightendtheyplaced th featured straightforward photos of t At the farleft end theyplaced the mo which showed just a silhouette of ing to an iPod, its white earphone w understood your emotional and inte the music,\" Vincentsaid. He suggeste director, that theyallstand firmly at t getJobs to gravitate there. When hew the right, looking at the stark produc said.\"Let's talk about these.\"Vincent from the other end. Finally, Jobs look ments, and said, \"Oh, I guess you lik \"It doesn't show the product. It doe posed that theyuse the iconic images in your pocket.\" That would say it a right end of the table, then finally agr claiming that it was his idea to push were some skeptics aroundwho asked an iPod?'\"Jobs recalled. \"That's when so I could push the idea through.\" Jobs realized that there was yet a Apple had an integrated system of c

alHub 391 Bold and conspicuous and yet so WA\\Chiat\\Day wanted to celebrate whiteness rather than create more that showed offthe device's fea Britwho hadplayed in a band and the agency, and he was a natural n hip millennial-generation music s. With the help of the art director eries of billboards and posters for s onJobs's conference room table he most traditional options, which the iPod on a white background. ost graphic and iconic treatments, someone dancing while listen wires waving with the music. \"It ensely personal relationship with ed to Duncan Milner,the creative thefar leftend, to see if theycould walked in,hewentimmediately to ct pictures. \"This looks great,\" he t,Milner, and Clow did not budge ked up, glanced at the iconictreat ke this stuff.\" He shook his head. esn't say what it is.\" Vincent pro s but addthe tagline, \"1,000 songs all. Jobs glanced back toward the reed. Not surprisingly he wassoon h for the more iconic ads. \"There d, Bows this goingto actually sell n it camein handy to be the CEO, another advantage to the fact that computer, software, and device. It

392 Walter meant that sales of the iPod wou turn, meant that he could take m iMac advertising and shift it to sp ble bang for the buck. A triple b lend luster and youthfulness to th I had this crazy idea thatwe coul ing the iPod. In addition, the iPo innovation andyouth. SoI moved the iPod, even though the category Thatmeant that we completely do We outspenteverybody by a facto The television ads showed the picked byJobs, Clow, and Vince main fun at our weekly marketin some edgy cut, Steve would say, to talkhim into it.\"The ads helpe notably the Black Eyed Peas; the a the silhouettes genre. Whena new Jobs would often have second thou he cancel it.\"It sounds a bit poppy say. \"Let's call it off.\" James wou around. \"Hold on, it's going to b Jobs would relent, the ad would be Jobs unveiled the iPod on Octob product launch events. \"Hint: It's When it came time to reveal the nical capabilities, Jobs did not do table andpulling offa velvet cloth oneright here in mypocket.\" He r the gleaming white device. \"This sand songs, and it goes right in m ambled offstage to applause. Initially there was some skept

r Isaacson uld drive sales of the iMac. That, in money that Apple was spending on pending on iPod ads—getting a dou bang, actually, because the ads would he whole Apple brand. He recalled: ld sell justas many Macs byadvertis Pod would position Apple as evoking d $75 million of advertising money to ry didn't justify one hundredth of that. ominated the market for music players. or of abouta hundred. e iconic silhouettes dancing to songs ent. \"Finding the music became our ng meetings,\" said Clow. \"We'd play 'I hate that,' and James would have ed popularize many new bands, most adwith\"Hey Mama\" is the classic of w adwas about to gointoproduction, ughts, call up Vincent, andinsist that y\" or\"It sounds a bit trivial,\" he would uld get flustered and try to talk him be great,\" he would argue. Invariably e made, and he would love it. ber 23, 2001, at one of his signature s not a Mac,\" the invitation teased. product, after he described its tech o his usual trick of walking over to a h. Instead he said, \"I happen to have reached into hisjeans and pulled out s amazing little device holds a thou mypocket.\" He slipped it backin and pticism among tech geeks, especially

TheDigital about the $399 price. In the blogosphe for \"idiots price our devices.\" Howeve More than that, the iPod becamethe e destined to be: poetry connected to en tersecting with technology, design th ease of use that came from being an from computer to FireWire to device ment. When you took an iPod out of t seemed to glow, and it made all other been designed and manufactured in U Not since the original Mac had a pelled a companyinto the future.\"If an Apple is on the earth, I would hold u told NewsweeHs Steve Levy at the tim skeptical of integrated systems, began it makes sense that Apple was the on enthused after the iPod came out. \"A making both the hardware and the so two work better together.\" The daythat Levy got his press pr to be meeting Bill Gates at a dinner, a you seen this yet?\" Levy asked. Levy that recalls those science fiction films with a novel object, creates some sor and the object, allowing him to suckd information about it.\" Gates played w every button combination, while his e \"It looks like a great product,\" he fin looked puzzled.\"It's only for Macintos

l Hub 393 ere, the joke was that iPod stood er, consumers soon made it a hit. essence of everythingApple was ngineering, arts and creativity in hat's bold and simple. It had an n integrated end-to-end system, to software to content manage the box,it was so beautiful that it musicplayers look as if they had Uzbekistan. clarityof product vision so pro anybody was everwondering why up this as a good example,\" Jobs me. Wozniak, who had long been n to revise his philosophy. \"Wow, ne to come up with it,\" Wozniak After all, Apple's whole history is oftware, with the result that the review of the iPod, he happened and he showed it to him. \"Have noted, \"Gates went into a zone where a space alien, confronted rt of force tunnel between him directly into his brain all possible with the scroll wheel and pushed eyes stared fixedly at the screen. nally said. Then he paused and sh?\" he asked.

CHAPTER THE iTUN I'm the Warner Music At the beginning of 2002 Apple nection between your iPod, iTu easy to manage the music you a you had to venture out of this co download the songs online. The ing into the murky domains of fi wanted to offer iPod users a wa safe, and legal. The music industry also face by a bestiaryof piracyservices— that enabled peopleto get songs CDs were down 9% in 2002. The executives at the music bling, with the elegance of secon a common standard for copy-p of Warner Music and his corpo Time Warner were working wit

THIRTY-ONE NES STORE e Pied Piper e faced a challenge. The seamless con unes software, and computer made it already owned. But to get new music, ozyenvironment and go buy a CD or e latter endeavor usually meant foray ile-sharing and piracy services. SoJobs ayto download songs that was simple, ed a challenge. It was being plagued —Napster, Grokster, Gnutella, Kazaa— for free. Partlyas a result, legalsales of c companies were desperately scram nd-graders playing soccer, to agree on protecting digital music. Paul Vidich orate colleague Bill Raduchel of AOL th Sonyin that effort, and they hoped 394

The iTunes to get Apple to be part of their conso Cupertino in January 2002 to seeJob It was not an easy meeting. Vidic voice, so his deputy, Kevin Gage, beg at the headof the conference table, fid four slides, he waved his hand and br your asses,\" he pointed out. Everyone to get his voice working. \"You're right don't know what to do. You need to recalled being slightly taken aback, a work with the Warner-Sony effort. If the music companies had been encoding method for protecting musi could haveproliferated. That would h ate an iTunes Store that allowed Ap were handled. Sony, however, hand it decided, after the January 2002 C the talks because it favored its own p would get royalties. \"You know Steve, he has his own Idei explained to Red Herring editor genius, he doesn't share everything w to work with if you are a big compan Stringer, then head of SonyNorth A ing to get together would frankly be a Instead Sony joined with Univer vice called Pressplay. Meanwhile, AO and EMI teamed up with RealNetw ther would license its songs to the r about half the music available. Both allowed customers to stream songs access to them if your subscription restrictions and clunky interfaces. In ous distinction of becoming number 25 worst tech products of all time.\"T

s Store 395 ortium. So a group of them flew to bs. ch had a cold and was losing his gan the presentation. Jobs, sitting dgeted andlooked annoyed. After roke in. \"You have your heads up e turned to Vidich,who struggled t,\" he said after a long pause. \"We o help us figure it out.\" Jobs later and he agreed that Apple would n able to agree on a standardized ic files, then multiple online stores have made it hard forJobs to cre pple to control how online sales ded Jobs that opportunity when Cupertino meeting, to pull out of proprietary format, from which it n agenda,\" Sony's CEO Nobuyuki r Tony Perkins. \"Although he is a with you. This is a difficult person ny.... It is a nightmare.\" Howard America, added aboutJobs: \"Try a waste of time.\" rsal to create a subscription ser OL Time Warner, Bertelsmann, works to create MusicNet. Nei rival service, so each offered only h were subscription services that but not keep them, so you lost n lapsed. They had complicated ndeed they would earn the dubi r nine on PC World's list of \"the The magazine declared,\"The ser-

396 Walter vices' stunningly brain-dead featu nies still didn't get it.\" At this point Jobs could have de music meant more valuable iPod and the artists who made it, he wa of creative products.As he later to Fromthe earliest days at Apple, I ated intellectual property. If peop be out of business. If it weren't pro to make new software or produc property begins to disappear, creat get started. But there's a simpler re people. And it hurts your own cha He knew, however, that the best way—was to offer an alternative brain-dead services that music co lieve that 80% of the people ste just no legal alternative,\" he toldA 'Let'screate a legal alternative to t nies win.The artists win. Apple w gets a better service and doesn't h So Jobs set out to create an five top record companies to allo be soldthere. \"I've never spentso people to do the right thing for t companies were worried about th albums, Jobs pitched that his new intosh, a mere 5% of the market risk. \"We usedour smallmarketsh if the store turned out to be destr universe,\" he recalled. Jobs's proposal was to selldigi impulsive purchase. The record co

r Isaacson ures showed that the record compa ecided simply to indulge piracy. Free ds. Yet because he really liked music, as opposed to what he sawas the theft old me: realized that we thrivedwhen we cre ple copied or stole our software, we'd rotected, there'd be no incentive for us ct designs. If protection of intellectual tive companies willdisappear or never eason: It's wrong to steal. It hurts other aracter. way to stop piracy—in fact the only e that was more attractive than the ompanies were concocting. \"We be ealing stuff don't want to be, there's AndyLanger of Esquire. \"So we said, this.' Everybody wins. Music compa wins. And the userwins, because he haveto be a thief.\" \"iTunes Store\" and to persuade the ow digital versions of their songs to o much of mytime trying to convince themselves,\" he recalled. Because the he pricing model and unbundling of w service wouldbe only on the Mac t. They could try the idea with little hare to our advantage by arguingthat ructive it wouldn't destroy the entire ital songs for 99 cents—a simple and ompanies would get 70 cents of that.

The iTunes Jobs insisted that this would be mo subscription model preferred by the that people had an emotional conne They wanted to own \"Sympathy for t Storm,\" not just rent them. As he to at the time, \"I think you could make a a subscription model and it might not Jobs alsoinsistedthat the iTunes S not just entire albums. That ended up flict with the record companies, whi albums that had two or three great so get the song they wanted, consumers Some musicians objected on artistic g gregate albums. \"There's a flow to a g of Nine Inch Nails. \"The songs supp like to make music.\" But the objection downloads had already deconstructed couldn't compete with piracyunless yo At the heart of the problemwas a loved technology and those who loved had demonstrated at Pixar and Apple bridge the gap. He later explained: When I went to Pixar, I became aware o don'tunderstand creativity. They don'ta the abilityof an A&R guy at a musicla and have a feel for which five might be creative peoplejust sit aroundon couch because theyVe not seenhowdriven an placeslike Pixarare.On the other hand clueless about technology. They think th tech folks. But that would be likeApple music. Wed get second-rate A&R peop ended up with second-rate tech people understands howproducing technology and how producingsomethingartistic

Store 397 ore appealing than the monthly music companies. He believed ection to the songs they loved. the Devil\" and \"Shelterfrom the old Jeff Goodell of Rolling Stone available the Second Coming in t be successful.\" Storewould sellindividual songs, p being the biggest cause of con ich made money by putting out ongs and a dozen or so fillers; to rs had to buy the whole album. grounds to Jobs's plan to disag good album,\" said Trent Reznor port each other.That's the way I ns were moot. \"Piracy and online d the album,\" recalled Jobs. \"You ou sold the songs individually.\" a chasm between the people who ed artistry. Jobs loved both, as he e, and he was thus positioned to of a great divide. Tech companies appreciate intuitive thinking,like abel to listen to a hundred artists e successful. And they think that hes all day and are undisciplined, nd disciplined the creative folks at d, musiccompanies arecompletely heycanjust go out and hire a few e tryingto hirepeople to produce ple, just likethe music companies e. Fm one of the few people who y requires intuition and creativity, takes realdiscipline.

398 Walter Jobs had a long relationship AOL unit ofTime Warner, and get the music labels into the prop everyone's circuit breakers,\" Schu gument that because you have a iPods to the store, you can best p One day in March 2002, Sch to conference-in Vidich. Jobs as pertino and bring the head of W Jobs was charming. Ames was a (such asJames Vincent andJony Good Steve was on display. At even played the unusual role of ran iTunes forApple, gotintoan was not asvibrant as in the Unit \"We know about tech, but we do not argue.\" Ames had just lost a boardr AOL division improve its own \"When I did a digital download song on my shitty computer,\" he a prototype of the iTunes Store, exactly what we've been waiting Music would sign up, and he off panies. Jobs flew east to show the ser sat in front of a Mac like a kid any other CEO, he was totally e Jobs began to hammer out the d the number of times a track coul the copy-protection system woul and set out to corral other music