Marketing Apple: Secrets of the World's Best Marketing Machine

Inspired by Steve: My New Book on Apple Marketing

After spending the last few weeks thinking about Steve and the impact he had on the world, I've decided to write a more detailed book about my life and Apple.  This book will reveal what it was like to work at Apple during the dark days before Steve returned as well as how Apple changed the world under Steve's leadership.  You'll learn some secrets about Apple that I've shared in some of my keynote speeches including how I almost died the same year that Apple almost died, why the original iMac was translucent, and how iTunes was an accident.

As an experiment, I will begin by releasing some of chapters on these pages under new posts.  My hope is that you will enjoy my writing and give me some feedback and in return I may release some chapters for free as I've done with my short ebook.

Stay tuned, and thanks for your help on this labor of love.

Tribute to Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs' death hit me in a way I wasn't expecting, even though I was expecting Steve Jobs' death. 

I'll write much more on these pages soon, but I was inspired to quickly create this tribute video to him: Here is Steve Jobs narrating and starring in his own Think Different commercial.  I couldn't wait for Apple to do this so I had to - of course using all Apple tools.

Steve Jobs Died

Enough said.

First Apple Launch without Steve Jobs

So I already knew that Apple wasn't releasing an iPhone 5 today - remember gang, there was no iPhone 2 or iPhone 3 (we went from iPhone to iPhone 3G to denote the new carrier).  We also don't have an iMac 3 or an iPod 5, and the numbering scheme for iPhone 4 was really an anomoly.

So don't read too much into Apple product numbers.  But I am concerned about three rare product launch slip ups that never would have happened if Steve was minding the store.

The first problem: Apple.com was unreachable for more than an hour today.  Ok, the Store is something Apple always takes down before a product launch and then they time the home page to update as soon as Steve (er Tim) is done with his keynote.  But here is how Apple.com looked for hours after today's launch:

Apple.com was down?  That's huge news by itself.  And if that wasn't bad enough, look at what the images of the iPhone 4S looked like on the Apple website after the Apple pages were finally brought online:

Really?  Look at those white corners in the images of the iPhones? Anyone who knows web graphics knows you need to make those white corners transparent so the shadow effect is preserved.  Here they look like they were hastily posted without someone noticing that problem.

And finally, around an hour before the keynote all the details of the iPhone 4S and the new iPod nano was announced on Apple's Japan website for the world to see.  Whoops.

While none of these issues are earth-shattering in their own right (well, Apple.com going down is pretty big) I only hope this isn't the first visible signs that Steve's steady hand is required for Apple to continue to deliver great products - and experiences - that truly surprise and delight.

Come on Tim, your team has done better! (and we're all rooting for you)

P.S. I do take some delight in noticing that all the dates on the iPhone Siri screenshot - May 19 - is my birthday.