Theft, Death, and Steve Jobs
Hi frens,
We are old enough to remember iPhone 4, the most successful, controversy, yet the first and biggest leaked event before public announcement. Steve Jobs claimed,
This is a story that’s amazing. It’s got theft, it’s got buying stolen property, it’s got extortion, I’m sure there is sex in there somewhere... so somebody should make a movie out of this!
And 14 years later, here comes a documentary! "Theft, Death, and Steve Jobs".
For the theft part:
Apple’s Gray Powell lost the iPhone 4 prototype.
Brian Hogan and Sage Wallower got it and sold it.
Gizmodo bought it and Jason Chen reported the leaked iPhone 4.
For the death part, it was about Foxconn.
Disclaimer: I supported the project when YouTube homepage recommended me the trailer. My name is on the “producers” list at the end of the documentary.
If you were closely following relevant news from 2009-2010, there's probably not much new stuff in the documentary. However, it's indeed a good moment to reflect on how Apple made itself an empire as we see today.
In 2010, Steve Jobs reflected,
...when this whole thing with Gizmodo happened, I got a lot of advice from people who said "you gotta just let it slide, you shouldn't go after a journalist because they bought stolen property and tried to extort you. You should let it slide. Apple's a big company now. You don't want the PR." And I thought deeply about this, and I ended up concluding the worst thing that could possibly happen, as we get big and we get more influence of the world, is if we we change our core values and start letting it slide. I can't do that. I'd rather quit.
Apple in Steve Jobs' era was driven by developing products for years in secret, and bringing surprise to consumers in its announcement events. Apple's empire was rooted in pursuing trade secret and globalization to the very extreme.
Was it worthy for the human being? The documentary gives it a shot. 2010 was the year of a turning point, Apple's new product hasn't been so secret after that. But the capitalization proceeds, we're still in the age of for-profit empires.
Your friend,
Denken