Steve's jobs' Cultural Revolution in China

What Steve needs right now is a very large market of fashion victims who are used to abuse and neglect. He needs a country with an exploding number of nouveau riche who don't care if his products work properly or not. They just want them because they're cool. He needs 1.3 billion consumers who will blindly buy anything American, even if they don't know what an app is - especially if they don't know what an app is. Steve needs an over-inflated population of buyers who are less concerned about open or closed, and more concerned about the prestige of owning a trendy western gadget. He needs a nation where the media is controlled with an iron fist so it doesn't bother big business with trivial concerns like selling defective and over-priced products, or helping them get an A on their assignment. He needs China.

The iPhone 4 was released in China on September the 24th, 2010. This author was lucky enough to be there at the time. The China Daily mentioned very little about Android's crushing blows to the iPhone’s market share. The Government controlled media only vaguely mentioned some issue with the iPhone's antenna. An item that did not make it at all to The China Daily was the government ban placed on the alleged iPhone copycat MeizuMe. Steve defended the iPhone-friendly Chinese Communist Party by stating the ban was justified "because they stole our ideas and intellectual property."[1] The China Daily either condemned or outright ignored these anti-revolutionary issues. Instead, every article about the iPhone 4 was simply a breathless countdown to the arrival of the American wonder-phone.

With Mao dead, the Chinese need something else to follow that makes them feel they are part of something larger than the individual. Since the 1980s, China has found salvation by opening itself to the Western market of shiny things.

The Chinese have an aversion to orderly queues, so there was no line outside the Beijing Apple Store. Instead, a messy crowd of a thousand fashionistas with new money swarmed around Apple’s glass doors for two days before the iPhone’s release. When the doors finally opened, the staff raced around slapping high-fives with the faithful. The first fan-boy to receive his Judas Phone, was embraced like a long lost son. The mob chanted “Apple, Apple, Apple”, and then “iPhone, iPhone, iPhone”. The only ones not chanting were the migrant farmers and housekeepers hired by executives who felt that waiting with the proles was beneath them. They probably wished their boss had sent them out for a bag of dumplings instead of some gadget they themselves would never own.

Many of the crowd were scalpers with armfuls of cash, who hauled away dozens of iPhones, only to re-sell them within minutes. These were no ordinary scalpers. They were Chinese scalpers - representing a long tradition of heavily organised and dodgy entrepreneurialism.  These guys worked in teams. They wiped out the store’s inventory before regular customers had time to reach for their Mastercard. Forlorn and empty-handed, the regular customers were led away to alleys by the canny scalpers who made at least ten per-cent profit on a resale. Within a week, Apple laid down the law. New rules dictated that people must make reservations online to buy only one-phone per day, and they can’t leave the store unless they sign up to service provider on the spot. This was no problemo as Chinese citizens were used to being told what to do.

You can normally count on Chinese retailers to sell Western wares at about half the Western price. Apple products are the exception to the rule. Chinese fan-boys shelled out double the price paid by their Western brothers. This meant the average Chinese probably worked quadruple the hours of a Westerner to earn enough Yuan to buy the shiny new gadget.

Steve would not be there for the frenzied launch, but his spirit was everywhere in the capital. In crowded back alley markets, displayed on folding tables, little plastic Steves could be found. The dolls wore perfectly miniaturised black turtlenecks, Levi 502s, and New Balance 991 sneakers. They stood in good company next to little plastic Obamas. The President as okay with his doll - unlike Scrooge McSteve. One month later He would eradicate the Steve dolls with a single letter to its Chinese manufacturer.[2] Such swift unquestioning response is why the Chinese market agrees so nicely with Steve’s megalomania.

           
At the Beijing Apple store, this author approached one of the staff and asked,

"Sooooo, how's the antenna problem going?"

"Apple fixed it before they released it in here in China"

"Oh right? What did they do to fix it?"

"I don't know. I was just told they fixed it"

"Okay."

Moving on to another youngster in the signature blue t-shirt:

"Soooo, sell a lot of covers in this store?"

"Yeah, sure. Covers are popular cos you know... it’s necessary."

"Necessary?"

"You know? The antenna problem."

"Oh yeah, the antenna problem."

Afterhours, the empty store remained fully lit up. The carefully composed track lighting cast a heavenly glow upon row after row of iPhones and their cornucopia of beautifully crafted accessories. Two young security guards sat on stools inside the locked glass doors. They’re a lot less threatening than the two gorillas that keep the same watch within the Sydney Apple Store. One of them texted his girl on an old iPhone 3. He couldn’t afford the new one just yet. However, regardless of which model he has, he still won’t be able to access Facebook, thanks to the Chinese Communist Party.

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[1] Electronista (2010, October 10) Steve Jobs: MeizuMe “stole our ideas”. Retrieved from http://www.electronista.com/articles/10/10/10/apples.jobs.explains.meizu.shut.down/

[2] Snol, L. (2010, November 24) Apple Bans Steve Jobs Doll: One Less Thing. PC World.

Cargo Cult of Mac

The long queues of people waiting to buy an iPad is reminds one of the Pacific Island cargo cults. These are the last people on Earth to whom money is just bits of paper. What they value above all is Western cargo. Both the cargo cults and the Cult of Mac believe in the divine nature of manufactured goods. Each cult believes that goods have been created by their god especially for them. It doesn’t matter if the object is a crate of corned beef dropped by the U.N or an iPhone ordered online, these things represent both the salvation and trappings of the first world. 

There is a John Frum Movement in one of these islands ,which some suspect was named after a man called John from America. They worship American objects. The Islanders build coconut radios, which become totems of power in their village. 

The Prince Phillip Movement of Tanna is a cargo cult that genuinely believes Queen Elizabeth II’s husband is a mountain spirit will one day bestow upon their village a cargo of miraculous goods from the sky. Like Steve, Phillip does nothing to shatter their delusion. 

Cargo cultists are ignorant of modern factories. They are no different than Apple customers who don't know (or don't want to know) that many Chinese factory workers who build those lovely iPhone screens suffer permanent nerve damage from n-hexane poisoning.[1] Cargo cultists are skeptical when someone tries to explain modern business practices behind the scenes. They maintain that cargo is a miracle and mark themselves with the magical logos of civilized nations in homage to their god. This is not very different to the popular practice of Apple tattoo and the occasional scarification (left pic). The islanders build mock airstrips in case their god returns in their flying machine with more shiny objects. A similar ritual is the queue of MacHeads camping outside Apple stores. 

Mike Daisey was a member of the Cult of Mac until he found out how his iPhone was manufactured and his illusions were shattered. He took his story on the road as successful monologue in the tradition of Spalding Gray. The cherubic monologist reminds one of a lost little boy grown angry that Santa Claus turned out to be a myth. New York Times calls him as “one of the hardest-working and most accomplished storytellers in the solo form”.[2] Washington Post describes his show as, “a blisteringly funny, icily penetrating account of the extraordinary influence and not-so-benign impact the man and his company have had on the world”.[3]  Exploring “The Last Cargo Cult” comprises the first half of Mike’s act, followed by the "Agony and Ecstasy of Steve Jobs." Mike claims Steve as “not a micro-manager, he’s a nano-manager.” He researched these two stories by traveling to the Pacific Islands and the factories of China. In Shenzhen, he posed as a businessman to gain access to the workers. Both halves of his act dovetail into a whole that says something darkly humorous about our consumer culture.

Mike explained why Apple fell from his favor during an interview with Andrew Keen of TechCrunch.[4]

“Are you excited about the appearance of the new white iPhone 4?”

“No,” Mike chuckles from deep inside his generous girth as Andrew maintains his deadly earnest demeanor. ”Having spent time in Shenzhen, in factories, watching the circumstances under which the devices are made there’s something, sort of the height of hubris to think that (chuckles again) the significance of Apple being able to make an iPhone that is now white, but otherwise exactly identical to the old iPhone. …I own an iPhone and when I use it, I am reminded of the children who put the device together. …I spoke to many workers who were fourteen years-old, thirteen years-old, and twelve years-old. I heard stories to last a lifetime …the devices are lovely and they have a very real cost.”

Andrew: “Does it have to be that way?”

“No. The standard belief that we’re all inculcated with is that if we don’t use cheap, cheap labor in China, our devices would be so hideously expensive. …China should be acknowledged is a fascist country run by thugs. The special economic zone that was carved out in the south, where corporations were invited to participate, those corporations, which were OUR corporations wrote their own rules for how labor would work there. …Many of the changes that could happen have nothing to do with money …while I was there at Foxconn, a worker died after working a 32-hour shift. …the entire system in Shenzhen that makes our devices is deeply inhumane. It is designed for using up the workers for everything they have and throwing them away. …I spoke to many people who have mauled hands, mauled in machinery making not just Apple devices, but Nokia, Lenovo, everyone makes their technology the same way”

The final note is very good point. Why does Steve cop all the bad press when his competitors use similar factories? Perhaps it’s for the same reason that we decried the Nike sweatshops rather than Dunlop sweatshops – both probably exist side-by-side in the same third-world town. However, unlike Nokia and Dunlop, Apple and Nike tack on a hefty desire mark-up into their price tag. Therefore, these desirous products represent two ancient sins that continue to grate on our conscience even in our modern consumer culture – greed and vanity. Our Christian guilt shifts into overdrive.

At the end of the show Mike gives out Steve’s email address to the audience. During an Washington Post interview he said, “The only reason to speak the truth is to try and change the world." Steve believes in the same creed, for very different reasons. Mike quotes Steve’s only reaction to his show, “I don’t think he appreciates the complexity of the situation.”Washington Post poses the question, “What if, for example, people were to stop upgrading their stuff for a while?”[5]

Mike alludes to Steve’s need to drive our desires: “If you control the metaphor through which people see the world in technology today, you control the world itself”.

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[1] Barboza, D. (2011, February 22) Workers Sickened At Apple Supplier In China. New York Times.

[2] Zinoman, J. (2007, January 21) The Need to Think Onstage Is Driving Mr. Daisey. New York Times.

[3] Marks, P. (2011, March 30) The Agony and Ecstasy of Steve Jobs. Washington Post.

[4] Keen, A. (2011, January 31) Exposed: Apple’s Terrible Sin in China (TCTV). TechCrunch. Retrieved from: http://techcrunch.com/2011/01/31/exposed-apples-terrible-sin-in-china-tctv/

  

[5] Horwitz, J. (2011, March 23) Mike Daisey discovers the worm in Apple. Washington Post.

Steve Jobs on The Simpsons

Apple and its customers raised the image of their precious iPod to an almost Holy Grail status. However, one can always rely upon satire to chop down the lofty pedestal of the proud. The sharpest axe in American satire is also one of the most popular television series in U.S history - The Simpsons. Episode seven of season twenty, Mypods and Broomsticks, summarised the hubris of Steve and his customers in just three short acts. It begins as a Mapple (Apple) Store opens in town of Springfield. Lisa Simpson, the snooty liberal, easily fills the role as the perfect Mapple customer.

“It’s so sterile”, Lisa gasps with awe as she looks up at the glass palace emblazoned with the Mapple logo (the Apple logo with two bites rather than one).

Perched at the Braniac (Genius) Bar is an overweight pony-tailed geek, ComicBookGuy:

"My question is the following statement. Operating System 4.2 has sloppier architecture than a Tijuana ant hill."

Braniac: "Did you get peanut butter in your Ethernet cord again?"

ComicBookGuy: "No, I got mayonnaise in the CD drive."

Lisa's father, Homer, is staring with wonder at a row of glowing Cubes.

"I see you're admiring our MyCube. It's fuelled by dreams and powered by imagination," says a cool soul-patched sales rep.

Homer: “What does it do?"

Salesman: "You should ask yourself "What can I do for it?"

Homer is on his knees in front of the cube: "OK, what can I do for you? Please I'm begging you..."

Salesman: "Sir, it's not even turned on yet."

Homer: "But it's glowing."

Salesman: "That light confirms that it's off."

Lisa is at the retail bench: "I can't afford any of your products but can I buy some fake white ear buds so people will think I have a MyPod?"

Saleswoman: "Sure. Those are called MyPhonies. Oh... And they cost $40."

Lisa puts away her money: "Oh I'll never get a Mapple anything."

Local clown, Krusty walks through the store complaining: "I hate this MyPod. I can't watch movies on a screen this small and the music today... Don't get me started... Here kid, you take it.” He throws the Mypod to very grateful Lisa.

An announcement is heard on the Mapple store speakers: "Attention, Mapple Universe. Prepare for a live announcement from Mapple founder and Chief Imaginative Officer Steve Mobbs."

The crowd gasps:

"Steve Mobbs!"

"He's a genius!"

"He's like a god who knows what we want," exclaims one hipster goateed Mapple fan-boy.

Steve Mobbs appears on giant video screen. Rather than the resonant voice of God, Steve has a weasily lisp: "Greetings! It is I, your insanely great leader, Steve Mobbs. I'm speaking to you from Mapple headquarters, deep below the sea (a mythical narwhale swims in the background), with an announcement that will completely change the way you look at everything. (The crowd gasps and begin to pull money from their wallets.) And that announcement is-" 

Lisa's brother Bart plugs a microphone into the sound system and overides Mobbs' announcement:

"You're all losers! You think you're cool because you buy a five-hundred-dollar phone with a picture of a fruit on it? Well, guess what. They cost eight bucks to make and I pee on every one!"

The crowd drop their Mapple gadgets on the floor in disgust. 

Bart: "I have made a fortune off you chumps and I've invested it all in Microsoft. Now my boyfriend Bill Gates and I kiss each other on a pile of your money!" 

ComicBookGuy: "Traitor! Your heart is blacker than your turtleneck!" 

Inspired by Steve’s 1984 Mac commercial, the blubbering and disillusioned ComicBook Guy charges the screen with a large sledge hammer. He throws it in slow motion at Steve’s Big Brother video image.

Mapple Employee: "Who dares question the boss we fired ten years ago and then brought back?" 

Lisa:  "It was my brother, Bart!" 

Mapple Employee: "Flay him with your ear-buds! Flay him, I say!" 

All the Mapple staff take off their ear-buds, twirl them in the air medieval-style, and advance upon Bart. He backs up then spots and MyCube. Bart presses its button hoping for assistance

“MyCube, take me away”. The cube does nothing but display the current time and play the song, ”Lovin you is easy cos you’re beautiful.”

Bart escapes outside and complains, 

“Stupid angry mob chasin’ me because I shine a harsh light on modern society.”

The next day, a big beautiful box with the Mapple logo is home-delivered to Lisa. 

“It’s a gift from Mapple. Oh, such beautiful packaging! I never thought a company could be my soul-mate."

Inside is a bill the size of a Tolkien fantasy epic. The MyBill total is $1200. Lisa faints.  

Later, Lisa attempts to confront Steve about the MyBill. She is transported underwater in a giant USB stick. As it plugs into the side of Steve’s Bond-villain style underwater lair, a voice-over announces, “Welcome to Mapple headquarters, the cost of this journey will be added to your bill”.

Steve is surfing the net using a giant Minority Report-style multi-screen holographic computer. He is Googling his name to see how many results he can tally. “Yes! sixteen million results ”. An assistant enters, “Mr Mobbs, there’s a surface dweller here to see you, MyTunes member jazzgal62”  

Steve: “Mmm, oh, Lisa Simpson, send her in!” 

She walks in the with the brick sized bill.

Steve: “Lisa! Its insanely great to see you” 

Lisa: “Um, Mr Mobbs … I …sort of ..downloaded too many songs onto my MyPod. I don’t have the money to pay for them.” 

Tears well in her eyes.

Steve: “I’m sorry, I know our posters say ‘Think differently’ (finally Apple's bad grammar is corrected), but our real slogan is ‘No Refund’.” 

Lisa: “Can’t you open your Mapple menu and click on the compassion bar? oh please.” 

Steve: “Lisa, how would you like to work for Mapple?” 

Lisa: “Hah! Would I ever!”

The next shot shows Lisa dressed up as a giant disgruntled MyPod begging on a street corner for people to “Think Differently”.

This harsh dig at Steve was broadcast only ten months after he called The Simpsons Movie one of “the great films of the year” at Macworld. Later in the conference, the owner of the show, Fox Chairman, Paul Gianopulos, announced that “Homer’s on board” with Apple. Consider, if you will, that it takes less than ten months to create one episode. Despite plugging the show, Steve learnt that no one is immune from the sharp pencils of show’s writers.

In a wonderful example of the law of ‘six degrees of separation’, Lisa Simpson’s Grandmother was named after Steve’s sister, Mona. Her ex-husband, Richard Appel, was a writer for the series.[1]

The Unofficial Apple Website invited feedback from members about the episode. Note that these comments are written by Apple fans:

"Satire or not, the notion that think different is ultimately just a slogan is pretty dead on."

"Wow, probably the smartest, yet easiest to get, answer to the changes Apple underwent in the past years yet… Apple has become nothing more than a money loving company not listening to its customers anymore… overpriced and hyped by the best salesman known to man and sought after by an immense number of "want" customers."

"I was a pretty funny rip on Apple even for us fanboys."[2]

Nice to see fan-boys can laugh at  themselves.

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[1] McGee, C. (2010, July 28) Mona Simpson Writes For Crowds and Avoids Them. Washington Post. 

[2] Palmer, R. (2008, December 1)The Simpsons Take on Mapple. Tuaw.com. Retrieved from http://www.tuaw.com/2008/12/01/the-simpsons-take-on-mapple/

Steve Jobs' Glass Houses

(right) Apple Store Architect Peter Bohlin

Steve no longer wanted his lovely objects flogged with the rest of the plebeian merchandise at the local Sears. He imagined his very own Apple stores that were not just retail, but social spaces, more like a clubhouse. Steve’s dream-store was a special place for true believers to make a pilgrimage rather than simply order a Mac online.

He travelled to other side of America to visit an old architect called Peter Bohlin in his home outside Scranton, Pennsylvania. Peter is a cheerful and gentle-natured man old enough to be his father. He is also totally computer illiterate. During their first of many meetings, Steve talked about the store Apple had leased in New York’s Fifth Avenue Plaza. The basement space below the General Motors tower had been an embarrassing failure, despite its prime location. How do you encourage people to descend into a basement?

While Steve spoke, Peter picked up his favourite Japanese Itoya pencils. He began to sketch.  His father ran the Faber pencil factory in the 1940s. Peter is the last of the generation who sketch on paper rather than fire up a laptop. In his mind’s eye, he saw the narrow General Motors tower. He imagined the stern looking men who designed this dinosaur of a broken industry. Peter was inspired to think different. He drew the delicate outlines of an ethereal glass cube in front of the tower. It was light as air, as if it would float away from its sullen and heavier neighbours. It has become one of the most photographed places on the Flickr. “There has always been something magical about a glass building,” Peter says.[1] Steve and Peter got busy adorning major cities around the world with Apple’s frosty glass emporiums.

At the posh Regent Street Store, a six-year-old London boy learns how to make music using Apple’s GarageBand software. The largest Apple Store in the world has a youth group, just like a church. Like a cathedral, the Apple Store is designed for visitors to bask in the glory of something greater than themselves.  Meanwhile, outside on the cobbles, actor, comedian, and self-confessed Apple fanatic, Stephen Fry signs autographs. He is the most watched Twitter user in the world. Before, during and after his visit to his local Apple church he tweets furiously about how Apple touches people, while reassuring us he is not paid a cent by Steve to say such things.

A group of Parisian MacHeads gather at the Apple store on Carrousel du Louvre. The space is so beautiful that it blends perfectly with The Louvre. They gather around an Apple “Creative” who is running a free workshop. He shows off the sleek interface of Apple’s Aperture photographic editing software. She directs the class to examine how legendary photographer, Doug Menuez, uses Aperture to manage and edit his work whilst on the road.

A Japanese woman books a One-To-One session at the monolithic Ginza Apple store wherein most of the staff speak several languages. She ascends to the fifth level in an elevator that could only have been designed by Steve - it’s built without buttons. The session has all the intimacy of a confessional. She confides that she has been a lifelong Windows user. Her penance is that she must learn that it’s “simple to switch“. The Apple website describes a One-To-One session:

We’ll show you tips and tricks that will help you do things faster, with an element of cool only found on the Mac. With these techniques under your belt, you’ll not only be thinking smarter, you’ll be thinking like a Mac user.

Afterwards, she waits in line to take part in the store’s New Year’s Day tradition of purchasing an Apple “mystery bag”.

The largest Apple logo in the world burns bright within the 700 square-meter glass atrium of the Sydney Apple Store. Musicians from all over the country have performed under the phosphorescent apple since the store opened in 2008. The first to score a gig inside the fishbowl was Powderfinger.

According to its head of retail, the store boasts the largest sheets of laminated glass ever built.[2] These perfectly engineered German panes have twice been replaced after damage caused by “a propelled hard object”.[3] Not everyone is an Apple fan.

Inside the emporium, a man in a grey Wayne Cooper business suit stalks past Doc Martin-ed kids playing with 300 dollar Skull Candy headphones. He climbs two flights of glass stairs that seem at once both ethereal and rock-solid. Steve’s name is on the design patent as he instinctively knew everyone would want his staircase (A broken Apple step was sold on eBay for US$9,950 in 2010). The businessman takes a seat across from his Apple consultant to discuss decorating his uptown office with suite of svelte iMacs. The Apple site claims:

Everyone needs a good business partner… And you’ll find one at the Apple Retail Store… We’ll be waiting for you when you arrive.[4]

New Yorkers hover like moths around a ten million-dollar flame that burns 24/7/365 at the Fifth Avenue Store. A man descends deep into its basement by taking a ride in a glass elevator that reminds him of a half-forgotten Roald Dahl children's story. A couple rendezvous for a date beside a row of iMacs showcased like fine art sculptures. Scores of Macheads are enjoying their clubhouse - just as Steve imagined. The store has become “a video arcade for grown-ups with credit cards” as one New York Times Journalist and Machead wrote.[5] The staff are chosen for their casual renegade cool – Steve’s projected image of himself. There is a genius bar built with blond farmhouse timber, handpicked by Peter.

The official Apple website explains the Apple Genius:

When you have questions or need hands-on technical support for your Apple products, you can get friendly, expert advice at the Genius Bar … home to our resident Geniuses.[6]

The real genius of the Genius bar is that you are tempted to buy stuff while waiting for a Genius. PC World journalist Rob Griffiths grew bored while waiting for his appointment. He gazed longingly at the femme fatale hardware displayed like sparkling Swarovski crystal-ware. Rob's total purchases by the time he spoke to his appointed Genius amounted to about twice the price of the item he had brought in to fix.[7]

The trouble with promoting brilliant customer service is that it creates impossible expectations in the minds of some customers.  The biggest complaint is the queue to see a Genius. Interestingly, their impatience is sometimes mixed with homophobia.  Technology weblog, Gizmodo published many stories of Apple customers behaving badly. One man stormed into Apple’s glass boutique, dumped his hardware on the bar, and stormed out without describing the problem. A few weeks later, he stormed back in demanding to know why his computer wasn’t fixed yet. He screamed, "It's not done yet? But you’re a Genius! You’re a Genius! You’re a Genius!" As he left, the unhappy customer asked one of the staff, "What's it like to work with fags all day?" Another man decided a Genius was taking too long to solve a problem and yelled, “f….ck you, faggot”, before throwing a right jab into the Genius’s face. 

The downside to nurturing a myth that your over-priced products are superior in every way is unreasonable customer expectations. A woman visiting a Genius accused Apple of stealing from her:

It's your responsibility for the damage because you should have known that somebody's dog would eventually pee in the computer and should have done something to protect it, like make it waterproof.[8]

A yellow puddle formed under her laptop on the once pristine white Genius bar. There are other stories of people releasing cockroaches and even pet tiger fur from their computers at Steve’s spotless show rooms.

These “war stories” clash with Steve’s idea that his customers are somehow more refined than the average Dell jockey. 

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[1] Saffron, I. (2010, March 22) Old-school architect creates an iOpener. Inquirer Architecture Critic. 

[2] Dockrill, P. (2008, June 18) INSIDE the Apple Store Sydney: sneak preview. Australian Personal Computer.

[3] ifoapplestore.com (2010, August 30) Sydney Window Damage Repaired—Again.  Retrieved from http://www.ifoapplestore.com/db/2010/08/30/sydney-window-damage-repaired%E2%80%94again/

[4] http://www.apple.com/retail/overlay_business.html

[5] Kukzynski, A. (2006, February 6) A Jammed Video Arcade for Grown-Ups. New York Times.

[6] http://www.apple.com/au/retail/overlay_genius_bar.html

[7] Griffiths, R. (2009, September 25) The Real Genius Of The Genius Bar. Macworld.

[8] Buchanan, M. (2010, January 22) Genius Bar War Stories. Gizmodo. Retrieved from http://gizmodo.com/5454395/genius-bar-war-stories/gallery/