Hasta La Gadget!

Everyone’s trying to pinpoint exactly what pushed Eric Schmidt to leave Apple’s board—or Apple to oust him—but whether it was Google Voice or the FCC doesn’t really matter. Eric Schmidt shouldn’t have been there in the first place.

Schmidt’s presence the Apple board of directors has been conceptually weird from the start, but in the last year or so, he’s been treading in dangerous territory. Many saw these concerns crystallize when the FTC invoked a century-old antitrust law that prohibits “interlocking directorates”—essentially, the sharing of leadership between two competing companies to investigate the companies after Google announced Chrome OS (an investigation which is still moving forward, despite Schmidt’s exit). The NYT, discussing the issue in May:

Antitrust experts say that investigations of interlocking directorates rarely lead to major confrontations between companies and the government. Executives typically choose to resign from the board of a competitor if it poses a problem rather than face a lengthy investigation or a bruising legal fight.

The thing is, until just now, Eric Schmidt didn’t step down, nor did he seriously talk about it. He didn’t feel he had to, because of a disingenuous loophole:

Under the Clayton Act, interlocking directorates are not considered a problem if the revenue from products in which the companies compete is less than 2 percent of either company’s sales.

Google’s competing services are generally free, including Android and the upcoming Chrome OS, and therefore don’t directly account for much—or depending on how stubbornly literal you want to be about it—any of the company’s revenue. This should have be a clear cue to step the hell aside, but it wasn’t taken that way. Schmidt was comfortable staying, and wasn’t afraid to say so as early as last week.

In an interview printed in the Mercury News on Friday, Schmidt said “the board question can be solved by recusing yourself, which I do with the iPhone,” hardly talking like a guy who was about to walk away. He was comfortable with this relationship; the regulatory bodies, the public and, most importantly, Apple, were not. It’s hard to imagine Steve Jobs, or Apple’s various board members, taking kindly to the consistent surprises they were getting from Google. As they saw it, the iPhone begot Android, Safari begot Chrome, and in a small way, OS X begot Chrome OS. Steve Jobs didn’t waste any words in their press release on Schmidt’s departure, and made these concerns pretty clear:

Unfortunately, as Google enters more of Apple’s core businesses, with Android and now Chrome OS, Eric’s effectiveness as an Apple Board member will be significantly diminished.

Chrome OS was announced in May, and Android in November of 2007. To Jobs and Apple, Schmidt’s overlapping interests were old news; to Schmidt, it’s safe to assume they were ancient history.

The Google/Apple relationship has been steadily getting more awkward since people first started talking about it, and at a fast clip since Schmidt’s been onboard. The relationship was unnecessarily strained as it was, but now Schmidt’s company is giving Apple some serious headaches, all the while looking like the innocent party in a confusing PR nightmare that’s drawn the wrath of the FCC. Granted, they deserve it, but having a Google CEO to step over only muddles the issues. It bears repeating: nothing good could’ve come from Schmidt staying. He’d either be accused of collusion, sabotage or both—his presence was a lose-lose proposition. He didn’t seem to mind, but it looks like Apple finally did.

Drawing a thicker line between these corporate structures is good for everyone, no matter how this plays out. If Apple and Google turn into direct rivals, they need distinct management. If they want to continue working together, like they do on browsers, iPhone software, or some as-of-yet-unannounced project—Apple could sure as hell use Google’s help with their cloud efforts, for example—they need the exact same thing.

While CEA chief Gary Shapiro was in San Francisco, talking up CES 2010 at a private dinner with journalists, I was at a downtown Manhattan bistro having dinner with Jason Oxman, the CEA’s Senior Vice-President of Industry Affairs. Like the West Coast dinner, this one quickly turned to the subject of who would and wouldn’t attend the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in 2010.

Oxman readily gave up two major–though not surprising–keynote speakers; Intel CEO Paul Otellini and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. Apparently there was a third big name, but Oxman wouldn’t divulge it, instead giving us cryptic clues about Detroit, Grosse Point and, possibly, music and cars (discuss).

Oh, yes: We talked Apple, too. As part of a game in which the assembled journalists made up names that rhymed with possible keynote speakers, someone threw in “Meve Slobs”–a pretty clear reference to Steve Jobs. Oxman didn’t say no, but laughed in a way that made me think it would be next to impossible. We also asked if Apple would have an official presence. Oxman never directly answered the question, but did say that the iLounge, an area devoted to third-party Apple accessories and peripherals, would be bigger than ever (25,000 square feet).

One thing we do know is Apple will not be at Macworld next year. (Will there even be a show? The site says yes). Does that mean Apple might finally grace CES with its presence? Unlikely. Apple never enjoys being one of many. It likes to control the venue and the message. CES is bigger than Macworld, making it even less attractive to Apple.

Speaking of size, Oxman did tell us that 113,000 attendees is the new normal for CES (previously, attendee numbers topped 150K). CEA execs believe it’s more manageable and valuable for attendees and exhibitors. One journalist at the dinner astutely noted that the show numbers had started to decline before the economic downturn; Oxman said it was by design–two years ago they started charging for attendance.

One other major move the CEA did announce is that it will no longer split the show between the Las Vegas Convention Center and the Sands Convention Center. In 2010, the show will be at the LVCC only.

Anyone who knows tech knows certain names—Gates, Jobs, Woz, Kamen, Stringer—but before they became legends, they were busy doing, well, some curious stuff. Here’s a glance at their lives circa 1979:

Steve Jobs

Now: Just returning to daily work at Apple after a prolonged health scare, he’s still one of the most powerful—and recognizable—names in the industry.

Then: This was the year Steve started work on the Lisa, but also the year he became kind of a square. This happened in stages: he bought his first house; began his lifelong Mercedes habit; trimmed his hippie mop; bought some suits; and became a father—at least as far as the courts were concerned—to his daughter, Lisa Nicole. Sellout. [Source]

Bill Gates

Now: Having stepped back from a day-to-day role at Microsoft, Bill now dedicates most of his time to his giant philanthropic foundation. For many, he’s still the voice of Microsoft—a perception he seems to appreciate.

Then: Still in his mid 20s, Bill Gates the businessman was busy rebranding his company from Micro-Soft to Microsoft, and moving operations from Albuquerque to the state of Washington, where they would stay from there on out. Bill Gates the nerd, on the other hand, was solving the so-called “Pancake Problem,” publishing a paper on it—his only academic work. Apparently, n being the number of pancakes in a stack, (5n + 5)/3 flips will always be enough to sort them into a desired order. Why? I have no idea, but it’s probably got something to do with me not being a genius billionaire. [Science News]

Steve Wozniak

Now: Sometimes he’s Segging, sometime’s he’s dancing, sometimes he’s even Giz-ing. In any case since distancing himself from Apple, he’s been doing whatever the hell he wants.

Then: He had begun work on the Lisa, which would later be passed to other engineers. But outside of work, he was diversifying his portfolio. Before he was a voluntary spokesperson for Dean Kamen‘s Segway, he was a paid spokesperson for Datsun, featuring in a TV commercial for the 1979 280zx in which he drops such memorable elocutions as “I prefer the Z!” and “IT. IS. AWESOME.” It is, Steve. It is.

Steve Ballmer

Now: At Microsoft, he’s the dude. He basically runs the show, filling Billy G’s old shoes, as it were. In any case, he’s at his peak.

Then: Fresh out of college, Steve hadn’t even joined Microsoft yet. It wasn’t until 1980 that he even pitched the company, who later gave him a job, then a few more jobs, then THE job. A distinguished student at Harvard, he had lofty dreams, which led him to LA, where he tried to make it in Hollywood. (Behind the scenes, of course.) His bid for fame, or at least, profit made from others’ fame, didn’t pan out, so he went back to school at Stanford. In an alternate universe, Ari Gold’s character in Entourage is based on Steve. [Seattle Times]

Michael Dell

Now: Michael Dell helms the second largest PC manufacturer in the world, and is currently trying to navigate a difficult economy and a precipitous drop in some of his core businesses.

Then: Baby Dell has was just getting a taste of his two lifelong passions: computing and cash. He got his first machine, an Apple II of all things, in 1979 at the age of 14, and promptly tore it apart. Soon after, he tried his hand at entrepreneurship, hawking newspaper subscriptions to newlyweds, whose information he scrounged from public records. This quickly made him a thousandaire. [Source]

Sir Howard Stringer

Now: Currently serving as the Emperor of all things Sony, Stringer is hoping to overhaul the company’s lumbering, inefficient structure into something a little more streamlined, a little more manageable, and a lot more profitable.

Then: Our Howard, not yet a Sir, was killing network news. In 1979 he was working for CBS, and in 1980 presided over wide staff cuts at the network, mainly in the news department. Apparently, this gutted the network, dragging it down in the ratings races to this day. Not an auspicious start as far as restructurings go, but Sony’s a totally different animal, I guess. Right? [NYT]

Bill Hewlett and David Packard

Now: Passed away, so R.I.P.. But, when they were less dead, they founded what would become the largest PC manufacturer in the world, and drove innovation in personal computing, printing and computer science for years.

Then: As loads of exciting innovations were swirling around them, courtesy of people who were more or less children, Bill and David were in the twilight of their respective careers. David had returned to HP after a stint in Richard Nixon’s Defense Department, where he became an expert in weapons procurement. Half-employed by HP and still advising the government from time to time, he could be seen wandering the halls of the company, doing odd jobs and making new employees kind of sad. By this time, Bill Hewlett had stepped down as CEO, though he and David still featured in some seriously rad company literature from time to time. [HP, Ralph Sanders, Image from BusinessWeek]

The Google Guys

Now: Eric Schmidt, Sergey Brin and Larry Page run the internet, to put it bluntly. Google’s got the most popular search engine, a wide range of successful web services, and a lion’s share of the online advertising market. They might have even made the OS on your phone.

Then: This is where Silicon Valley exec age disparities start to get funny. In 1979, Eric Schmidt was on his way to becoming a respectable adult, heading into a PhD program at Berkeley. Meanwhile, Sergey was emigrating from the Soviet Union. With his parents, of course, since he was only six. While Schmidt was churning out a dissertation over in Oakland, Sergey and Larry were building block castles at Montessori schools. Tech-savvy PhD candidates take note: Those kids at the Waldorf Academy down the street? They might be your bosses someday. I mean, don’t worry, you’ll be filthy rich. But still. [NNDB, The JC]

Dean Kamen

Now: Though he hasn’t birthed truly high profile invention since the Segway, Kamen is still doing some really cool stuff, be it designing water purification systems, bionic arms for vets, or rock-climbing wheelchairs. Or hanging out on his own private island.

Then: In 1979, Dean was running from the tax man! Sort of. Having failed to graduate from the Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Dean had jumped headfirst into a new project called the “Auto-Syringe,” which would later be known as the first insulin pump. After his project gained traction, he moved from Massachusetts to New Hampshire for tax reasons, and promptly got rich. [Wired]

Gizmodo ’79 is a week-long celebration of gadgets and geekdom 30 years ago, as the analog age gave way to the digital, and most of our favorite toys were just being born.

In our kick-off excerpt from the gorgeous coffee table book Core Memory, photographed by Mark Richards and written by John Alderman, we learn of the Cinderella-like beginning of the Apple saga.

Name: Apple I
Year created: 1976
Creator: Apple Computer Company
Price: $666.66
Memory: 4KB semiconductor
Processor: MOS technology 6502

Of course people would want their own computer. But when Steve Wozniak offered a design for one to his employer, Hewlett-Packard, it was rejected. With fate on his side, Wozniak introduced the Apple I to Silicon Valley’s Homebrew Computer Club, even if it was a little more than a kit. Kits were popular with hobbyists, and the offerings were often crafted by users onto wooden boards, as pictured here.

Sensing that the market for a personal computer went beyond people who had the time to put together their own, Wozniak (or “Woz” as he is known, and evidently signs his name) and his friend Steve Jobs sold fifty pre-built Apple I computers to The Byte Shop in Mountain View. If the biblical allusions of the price and the image of temptation represented by an apple weren’t enough, many believed that “Apple” was a reference to the Beatles’ Apple Corps record label. All of these cultural markers conveyed that this computer, and the company that made it, was for cool people who were in on the joke and ready to take the reins of technological power—or at least have a bit more fun with it. The computer industry was beginning to make serious inroads into popular culture—or was it the reverse? It was Steve Jobs whose crafty marketing sense pushed all these themes into play. Not coincidentally, the idea of the computer “evangelist” proselytizing about new hard- or software took hold at Apple.

About two hundred models of the Apple I were sold—not as many as the Altair, but to Jobs and Wozniak, they established the concept and provided the fuel to form a company to launch the Apple II, a runaway success. And some important lessons were learned: Maybe it was the lack of a case that impressed on Jobs the importance of a good-looking box. Either way, no one has done more than Apple to turn the home-brewed computer into the beautiful, consumer-friendly machines, from the Macintosh to the iPod.

Core Memory is a photographic exploration of the Computer History Museum’s collection, highlighting some of the most interesting pieces in the history of computers. These excerpts were used with permission of the publisher.

The photograph (top) was taken by Mark Richards, whose work has appeared in The New York Times Sunday Magazine, Fortune, Smithsonian, Life and BusinessWeek. The eye-candy is accompanied by descriptions of each artifact to cover the characteristics and background of each object, written by John Alderman who has covered the culture of high-tech lifestyle since 1993, notably for Mondo 2000, HotWired and Wired News. A foreword is provided by the Computer History Museum’s Senior Curator Dag Spicer.

Or go see the real things at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, Calif. Special thanks to Fiona!

Gizmodo ’79 is a week-long celebration of gadgets and geekdom 30 years ago, as the analog age gave way to the digital, and most of our favorite toys were just being born.

And he’s back, folks. Six months after Steve Jobs took a medical leave from Apple due to health reasons, the company has announced that he’s back on the job, working a “few days a week” on the Apple campus and from home the remainder. Of course, we’d been hearing of Steve’s continual involvement in “key aspects” of Apple’s business for a while now, so this seems like more of a rubber stamp on the status quo than a major change, but now that it’s official we’re sure the questions from shareholders and other interested parties regarding Steve’s health will only grow louder and more insistent — especially given the news of his liver transplant earlier this year. We’ll see how Apple decides to handle the situation when the time comes — until then, we’re just thankful that he’s returned and is doing well.

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Steve Jobs back to work at Apple originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 29 Jun 2009 14:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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