Person A :
I was looking at Apple - it is the American dream: relatively poor founders started small and through hardwork and intelligence achieved success.
Person C :
Apple is my favorite. They create best products and are very simple to use. But, it is very expensive. You must have heard 'I sold my kidney to buy an iPhone.'
Person B :
Can we stick to relevant stuff, please? The leadership was strong enough to get through the years.
Person D :
Mr. C, I love Scarlett Johansson. Let's talk about her in this group, too.
Sorry for the sarcasm, but knowledge addition is our goal here, not personal opinion.
Person C :
Don't be so mean. What I'm saying is the truth. Apple is great because their products are great.
Person D :
There is no doubt about that mister, but the strength of Apple lies in its origins. You know, the counter-culture emerging and how Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniac were influenced by it. So, they wanted to do something different, create new stuff.
And since then, they have always been wanting to do new stuff.
Person B :
Not many people know that they met at a computer club. Does anyone here know the name of the club/tech society?
It has now become immortal in history.
Person D :
That guy (Steve Wozniak) was always keen on computers. In fact, even in those days he dreamed of owning a personal computer! I mean who would even have such an idea?
Person A :
Computers were a novelty then - people didn't take them seriously. It's like Augmented Reality today. Although we may have heard of it, do we care about how AR will change the future?
(By the way, it was what Pokemon Go was based on. Animated characters acting as per real infrastructure in front of your camera lens.)
Person B :
True. Only tech enthusiasts like Jobs or Wozniak would follow such technology religiously.
Person C :
I just Googled the club: Homebrew Computer Club in San Francisco is where they met. I've read a book on Steve Jobs where I first read the name of this club. Steve Jobs also attended another - Sam Club.
Person D :
Why don't you Google your IQ? Perhaps even Google can't determine how low it is. Are we searching for Steve Jobs's horoscope now?
Excess, irrelevant information isn't required.
Person C :
Please treat everyone with respect. We are all contributing to sharing Apple's growth story.
Person A :
Guys, the bottom line is: they were able to start something and sell things because they were passionate about it.
Person B :
You're mistaken, my friend. They didn't sell much. The Apple One, their first PC only sold 50 units.
Person A :
Mr. B, come on, they were just in their teens then. I don't know if I could sell 50 computers when I was 14 or 19.
Person D :
True, and that wasn't just selling. Wozniak created smaller and smaller chips to cut costs and came up with better designs every week. Creating is more important than sales numbers.
Person C :
Yeah, Steve must have realized that people love computers at that stage itself.
That man had exceptional talent and foresight to gauge people's likes and dislikes even before the world could think about them.
Person B :
No doubt he thought of Apple Two to be the first packaged all-in-one computer. I'm sure you know before that, people had to assemble their own computers. Such computers could have only been sold by IKEA.
Person C :
Nothing is impossible for Steve Jobs. He is at par with Chuck Norris. The greatest ever. ;)
Person D :
And so is Donald Trump, for a few Americans. There are no gods. Just people with IQ lower than the room temperature.
Person A :
Look, I wanted to discuss Apple strategies, not start some debates on personal opinions.
Person D :
My bad, I'm sorry. But, my belief is my belief. Steve Jobs had this very trait - unshakeable belief.
Person B :
Keep your beliefs to yourself. Could we stay focused on the subject matter? Requesting you to curb such topics in the group. You know, Apple is successful because the 3 founders never fought like this, over their egos.
Person C :
You are mistaken, there are 2 founders, not three! How can you be so ignorant?
Person A :
*XD*
Person B :
*Facepalm*
Person D :
Along with Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniac, there was a third founder too: Ronald Wayne. The poor guy liquidated his 10% stake for $800 in a few days. Had he waited, he would have been a billionaire today! All he got were fees for designing the company logo.
Person B :
$800 is not bad. Nike had only given $10 to their logo designer.
Person D :
But I'm sure the founders must have fought. And, they needed each other also - Woz for hardware and Jobs to make designs simple and easy to use.
Person A :
Yeah! That simplicity makes their products user-friendly.
Person C :
But only after the user has sold their kidney! Hahahah!
Person B :
Mr. C, grow up or stop posting senseless messages.
Steve was not only restricted to design. His role was to even get money, which he got through fund production.
Person A :
But, didn't they start in a garage? How did the large-scale production start?
Person D :
Oh yes, they assembled computers in the garage and sold them on the streets. Of course not!
Once they got the money, they grew fast. Like really very fast. There were a few problems, but persistence helped them grow.
Person B :
Fast is an understatement, my sweet summer child!
I just Googled Apple and found this quote from Steve: - 'I was worth about over a million dollars when I was 23 and over $10 million when I was 24 and over a hundred million dollars at 25. And it wasn't that important because I never did it for the money.'
Person C :
Oh, it is always about money. The same money which gave them fame also cost them the founder. Steve Jobs lost his job because of money issues.
Person A :
That was a failure of strategy, more than money. The board kicked him out because his Macintosh project was taking in a lot of investment but not giving sufficient returns.
Person B :
You are forgetting something. Kicking Jobs out was not the only reason for Apple's fall. If other market factors had remained the same, they might have made it.
Person A :
Wait, did it have to do with IBM? I have heard something about it.
Person B :
Yes, it is about IBM. They realized the potential of personal computers.
While others thought of them as toys for tech guys, Apple gave them the confidence that even the general public would need PCs.
Person C :
What's this IBM issue? I'm hearing the names Apple and IBM together for the first time.
Oh, so IBM got the idea from Apple and screwed them for good?
Person A :
Apple was almost bankrupt, but it bounced back. After all, it is the great American Dream.
Person C :
Steve must have saved them, I'm pretty sure. He is known for getting things done just by sheer will of accomplishing them.
Person D :
Yes, he did when he came back and launched the iPod. And then there was no looking back - they became the largest company in the world. Bigger than IBM. Their quarterly revenues are more than Yahoo's market cap.
Person B :
Yeah, $50 billion earnings of every 3 months is a big amount.
Person D :
But, Apple has $178 billion in cash. Meaning with the cash, it could buy Netflix, Tesla, Twitter, Dropbox, Pandora and Spotify combined - not one but all!
Person C :
Woah! I wish I were Steve Jobs. Not just the money, but even the power and respect it brings.
Person A :
Apple's success can be attributed to taking a different - more human approach to technology.
It is about connecting with the gadget that you're using
Person D :
Mr. C: Then Apple would be in a different place right now.
Mr. A: I think we've understood what you're repeatedly saying.
Person B :
If I ain't wrong, their cash reserves are twice much as the US Treasury. The most in the world.
Person A :
Wait, bigger companies like Samsung must definitely get more money. They have almost 70-80 companies under their parent company.
Person B :
Samsung may have more revenues than Apple, but, Apple has more profits since they are more efficient in running the business.
Person A :
That may be true for now, but no longer.
Person B :
What do you mean no longer? The facts that we are discussing are the present, not the historical data.
Person A :
I'll explain. You have to accept that Apple products are losing their charm. You know what I mean?
Person C :
They will never lose their charm. Apple is best and will remain best. They have consolidated their position through decades of loyal customer acquisition.
Person D :
There might be some truth in this. Despite being a great company, Apple will face a tough time with Jobs gone.
Person B :
I don't know much about that, but its too late now, we'll speak about this conspiracy theory later.
if you skip this now, you're probably skipping for life!