Edison or Einstein? As US business leaders argue about the relative worth of Steve Jobs and his place in the pantheon, I would argue that his genius was as a marketer and salesman, not as an inventor.
True, he insisted on the importance of design and ease of use. But nothing he produced was groundbreaking, it was just better conceived and better looking than anything else on the market.
And it was better sold. He was the PT Barnum of our age. It was the great US circus promoter who said: "Without promotion something terrible happens … nothing." I wouldn't be writing this comment piece if Mr Jobs hadn't been such a huckster. He created such a hype over the launch of his latest gadget editors all swooned and insisted on acres of coverage.
Did Sony and Samsung get the same treatment when they launched their tablets? No, because a company needs a face and he was Mr Apple. Who is behind rival electronic companies except faceless nerds and marketing departments? Will we be writing their obituaries in every section of the paper?
Mr Jobs' gift was to convince everyone his company was the outlaw, the cool kid in the class compared to the ugly bully Microsoft. That is partly because for all the billions he gives away to the Third World, Bill Gates will always remain a nerd with a bad haircut. Mr Jobs was the Steve McQueen of technology, with everything but Ali McGraw.
While we were dazzled by his wizardry and black polo necks, Apple had become the biggest company in the world by market capital. It managed to get a stranglehold on music delivery and helped create a myriad of applications that you can use only on an iPhone.
Apple may be exposed as an evil empire using cheap Chinese labour once everyone realises Tim Cook, the new chief executive, is a logistics man and not a magician.
Everyone is racing to say Apple will survive Mr Jobs' untimely demise without a tremor. They are poor students of history. They argue other companies have survived the death of their founders, such as Ford and Chanel. But Ford had a family driving the company forward after his death, while Chanel floundered until it was revived by Karl Lagerfeld in the 1980s. Technology companies cannot stand still, nor do I think nowadays they could withstand something like the Edsel debacle. Despite spending US$400 million (Dh1.46 billion) on its development and launch, the car was a spectacular lemon and Ford took a while to recover from its failure.
One botched product launch and Apple will be sunk.
"If I shoot at the sun I may hit a star," said PT Barnum. Mr Jobs certainly aimed for the sky. I fear his successors will be more terrestrial. The poetry will turn to prose.
rwright@thenational.ae
Armies of Sand
By Kenneth Pollack (Oxford University Press)
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hall of shame
SUNDERLAND 2002-03
No one has ended a Premier League season quite like Sunderland. They lost each of their final 15 games, taking no points after January. They ended up with 19 in total, sacking managers Peter Reid and Howard Wilkinson and losing 3-1 to Charlton when they scored three own goals in eight minutes.
SUNDERLAND 2005-06
Until Derby came along, Sunderland’s total of 15 points was the Premier League’s record low. They made it until May and their final home game before winning at the Stadium of Light while they lost a joint record 29 of their 38 league games.
HUDDERSFIELD 2018-19
Joined Derby as the only team to be relegated in March. No striker scored until January, while only two players got more assists than goalkeeper Jonas Lossl. The mid-season appointment Jan Siewert was to end his time as Huddersfield manager with a 5.3 per cent win rate.
ASTON VILLA 2015-16
Perhaps the most inexplicably bad season, considering they signed Idrissa Gueye and Adama Traore and still only got 17 points. Villa won their first league game, but none of the next 19. They ended an abominable campaign by taking one point from the last 39 available.
FULHAM 2018-19
Terrible in different ways. Fulham’s total of 26 points is not among the lowest ever but they contrived to get relegated after spending over £100 million (Dh457m) in the transfer market. Much of it went on defenders but they only kept two clean sheets in their first 33 games.
LA LIGA: Sporting Gijon, 13 points in 1997-98.
BUNDESLIGA: Tasmania Berlin, 10 points in 1965-66
Villains
Queens of the Stone Age
Matador
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
I Feel Pretty
Dir: Abby Kohn/Mark Silverstein
Starring: Amy Schumer, Michelle Williams, Emily Ratajkowski, Rory Scovel
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
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The rules on fostering in the UAE
A foster couple or family must:
- be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
- not be younger than 25 years old
- not have been convicted of offences or crimes involving moral turpitude
- be free of infectious diseases or psychological and mental disorders
- have the ability to support its members and the foster child financially
- undertake to treat and raise the child in a proper manner and take care of his or her health and well-being
- A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30 years old and able to support the child financially