CEO Steve Jobs is never at a loss for free advice on the direction in which he should take Apple Computer. Industry columnists and bulletin board posters seem to enjoy dreaming up alternative futures for the company and its products.
Some suggest that Apple should be sold to another corporation, like Sony, merging their R&D and their product lines. Others say that Apple Computer should build on the success of innovations like the iPod, stop building computer hardware, and concentrate on the consumer market.
Usually these self-appointed consultants are not predicting the imminent downfall of the company, as so many others have over the years. Often, they mean well, but think they know what business Apple should be in, while poor old Steve has not yet seen the light.
I've been a Steve Jobs watcher for two decades now, and I don't think anyone who expects Steve to sell out or to get rid of the computer hardware side of the business understands what motivates him. I'm convinced that what Steve loves is developing creative and innovative computers, or, as he would put it, ones that are "insanely great!"
What about all of the marvelous system software Apple has developed under Jobs? Isn't OS X way ahead of any version of Windows? Yes, but you must have an insanely great operating system if you are going to have insanely great computer hardware.
What about the iLife suite of programs? Aren't they the kind of creative software Steve loves to produce? Yes, but when a company is not the primary producer of computers for business or now even for education, you must have innovative and effective software that will attract consumers to select your product over that of your competitors.
What about the iPod and iTunes? Don't they prove that Jobs is moving ever more into products and services that are closer to the music industry than to computers? No, I think these were developed as another way to convince customers that the Mac is better than Wintel machines and software.
But now both the iPod and iTunes are available for use with Wintel products, as well as the Mac! Yes, and that means that Apple has opened up a vast market that will produce the income it needs to continue to produce those insanely great Macintosh computers.
I may be wrong about all of this. By the time this article is published, Apple may be sold or Jobs may announce a major realignment of Apple business toward the consumer side of the market over the computer side, but I don't think so.
Remember that rock bands are not the only things that get their start in the garage (as acknowledged by Apple new product, GarageBand). The Apple computer got its start there too, and I think that Steve Jobs still relishes the excitement he and Steve Wozniak experienced with their pioneering efforts in the personal computer business.
When Steve was forced out at Apple many years ago, he first tried to develop another groundbreaking computer, NeXT. That didn't work out, so he bought Pixar and built it into a hugely creative and successful animated movie studio. That venture gave him the clout to return to Apple and to once again develop computers like the iMac, the Cube, the iBook, the eMac, and the G5 line of professional computers.
All of Jobs' hardware creations may not have been successful, and Macintosh computers may still be declining in market share. But taken all together, Jobs' hardware products over the years have been unmatched in the computer world for style, innovation, ease of use, and technical proficiency.
Steve Jobs may move out into the movie and music fields and into ever more creative software, even sell products in the Wintel market, but at heart, I think he still is committed to his first love and his first success, the personal computer.
On 1 July, Apple announced that production of its new version of the iMac had been delayed until September. I don't know about the rest of you, but I can hardly wait. We never know what new software or consumer products may be next for Apple, but what really excites me is what completely new and unusual computer Steve's wild imagination may have brought forth this time.