"The engineering is long gone in most PC companies. In the consumer electronics companies, they don't understand the software parts of it. And so you really can't make the products that you can make at Apple anywhere else right now. Apple's the only company that has everything under one roof"
About this Quote
Jobs is doing what he did best: turning org charts into a morality play. On the surface, he is describing an industry mismatch PC makers with hollowed-out engineering DNA, gadget companies that treat software like an afterthought. Underneath, its a jurisdiction claim. Apple is not just a brand or a product line; it is a system of control presented as craftsmanship.
The intent is defensive and offensive at once. Defensive, because Apples closed ecosystem was constantly criticized as restrictive. Jobs reframes that restriction as the only responsible way to build modern consumer tech: if hardware and software are inseparable, then splitting them across vendors is not efficiency, its sabotage. Offensive, because he is implicitly disqualifying competitors: your problem isnt budget or taste, its that your company structure makes excellence impossible.
The subtext leans on a specific Jobs-era thesis: integration beats coordination. He is contrasting a supply-chain economy (PCs assembled from interchangeable parts, software bolted on) with a studio model where a single authorial vision can shape everything from silicon to interface. "Under one roof" is also a power move: it signals vertical integration as a moat, and it naturalizes Apples dominance as the outcome of competence rather than market leverage.
Context matters. This comes out of the post-Wintel hangover, when PCs were commoditized and consumer electronics were flooding shelves with feature-rich but incoherent devices. Jobs is staking out the new battleground: not specs, but experience and he is insisting that experience requires ownership.
The intent is defensive and offensive at once. Defensive, because Apples closed ecosystem was constantly criticized as restrictive. Jobs reframes that restriction as the only responsible way to build modern consumer tech: if hardware and software are inseparable, then splitting them across vendors is not efficiency, its sabotage. Offensive, because he is implicitly disqualifying competitors: your problem isnt budget or taste, its that your company structure makes excellence impossible.
The subtext leans on a specific Jobs-era thesis: integration beats coordination. He is contrasting a supply-chain economy (PCs assembled from interchangeable parts, software bolted on) with a studio model where a single authorial vision can shape everything from silicon to interface. "Under one roof" is also a power move: it signals vertical integration as a moat, and it naturalizes Apples dominance as the outcome of competence rather than market leverage.
Context matters. This comes out of the post-Wintel hangover, when PCs were commoditized and consumer electronics were flooding shelves with feature-rich but incoherent devices. Jobs is staking out the new battleground: not specs, but experience and he is insisting that experience requires ownership.
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| Topic | Technology |
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