Oh, Yeah, He Also Sells Computers

Free registration required to read the article. “STROLL the corridors and the atriums on Apple Computer’s corporate campus these days and you will notice that something is missing. Gone are the posters and graphics accenting the company’s sleek personal computers. In their place, in the main lobby, is a striking, three-story-high billboard celebrating Steven P. Jobs’s brand-new billion-dollar consumer electronics business – the iPod digital MP3 music player. In just two and a half years, Mr. Jobs, Apple’s chief executive, has managed to take a well-designed hand-held gadget, add software connecting it to Macintoshes and Windows-based personal computers and convince the recording industry that he has found an elegant solution for ending its nightmare of digital piracy. In doing so, he has shifted the emphasis of Apple from what made it famous – hip, even lovable computers – to what he hopes will keep it relevant and profitable in the future: products for a digital way of life.”