Apple Still Plans to Sell iPhones When It Turns 100
Photo-Illustration: WIRED Staff; Getty Images Save this story Save this story Apple is allergic to nostalgia.
In 2008, when the Macintosh was about to turn 25, I mentioned it to Steve Jobs and he instantly shut down the discussion.
“If you look backward in this business, you'll be crushed,” he told me icily.
“You have to look forward.” Now that Apple’s 50th anniversary looms, however, the company is begrudgingly engaging in a series of concerts and commemorations , and we’re being blitzed by books , articles , and oral histories of the company’s early years.
Rather than join the crowded trek down memory lane, I asked Apple to do what Jobs suggested—look forward.
What does Apple want to happen in its next 50 years?
Earlier this month, I sat down with two senior executives to discuss just that.
One was Apple’s SVP of worldwide marketing, Greg Joswiak, aka Joz, who joined Apple in 1986.
The other was SVP of hardware engineering John Ternus, the putative front-runner to succeed Tim Cook as Apple’s CEO.
He’s been with the company for 25 years.
I also chatted briefly with Cook himself, just before Alicia Keys sang in front of the Apple Store at Grand Central Station—the beginning of Apple’s reluctantly splashy anniversary celebration.
After acknowledging Apple’s uncharacteristic party mode—“this is too special” to ignore, admits Joswiak—we tackle the future.
After launching the personal computer revolution, Apple managed to navigate multiple inflection points.
With the Macintosh, it mastered the graphical user interface that makes computers friendlier to use.
The iMac positioned the company for the internet boom.
