Steve Jobs on New Products: The Next Dream
What Jobs talks about
Jobs talks about Apple’s approach to new products as a choice between vision and compromise. He says the Macintosh came after earlier versions that never satisfied their designers.
He emphasizes that Apple would rather gamble on its vision than make mediocre products. The point is that product creation should be driven by perfection and a willingness to keep pursuing the next dream.
Jobs speaks throughout.
In his words
“They didn't know the meaning of compromise, only perfection.”
“So we're gambling on our vision,”
“We would rather do that than make me too products.”
“For us, it's it's always the next dream.”
Key points
- Computers and society were just beginning to connect in the 1980s.
- The Macintosh was the fourth attempt after earlier versions failed to satisfy their designers.
- Apple did not want to compromise on manufacturing or product quality.
- Jobs says Apple is willing to gamble on its vision.
- He contrasts Apple’s approach with making “me too” products.
- For Apple, the goal is always the next dream.
Full transcript
What's happening is computers and society are sort of out of the first date in the nineteen eighties. The Macintosh that's out today is actually the fourth because each of its predecessors never quite satisfied its designers. They didn't know the meaning of compromise, only perfection. That meant no compromises in the manufacturing of Macintosh either. So we're gambling on our vision, and we would rather do that than make me too products. Let some other companies do that. For us, it's it's always the next dream.
Transcribed from the audio by speech recognition (Deepgram). Timestamps link to the video above. Errors are possible.