Steve Jobs’ Foot-In-Mouth Disease

Normally senior executives measure their words when talking about stuff that their companies are working on in secret. They are especially careful not to say negative things about a rival’s product or technology when they are working on something along the same lines. Looks like Apple CEO, Steve Jobs, is not that kind of a person and has absolutely no problem making himself and his customers look stupid.

Today I came across this article on CNN.com. Apparently, during a 2008 earnings call, Jobs said that Apple could not make a $500 computer that is not a “piece of junk”. This January, Apple came out with the $499 iPad, their answer to the netbook. Now since the netbook is actually a computer (I have successfully managed to install and use SolidWorks 2010 on my Dell Inspiron Mini 10v, among a host of other CAD systems), I am beginning to wonder whether Apple has finally been able to create a piece of junk. Either that or Apple does not consider the iPad to be anything close to a computer.

Looks like Jobs has an uncanny habit of pissing on his competition and then dishing out the same piss to his customers. In 2008 he had this to say about Amazon’s Kindle, “It doesn’t matter how good or bad the product is, the fact is that people don’t read anymore. 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.” And a year later he pulls out the iPad.

Hardware takes years to develop, test and get into production. When Jobs was making these statements, he knew exactly what his engineers were up to. So the next time Jobs pisses on something, that should serve as a good indication on the direction Apple is headed.