The Pluses and Minuses of Jobs

The movie Jobs about the life of Steve Jobs is worth seeing. I liked it in one sense but felt it fell short in another. I liked it because it relates Jobs’ personal life to the type of company he made out of Apple. His relationship with his ex-wife (or ex-partner) and especially his daughter was really sick. He was a control freak who hurt the only person he loved (his daughter) in order to control her. And that’s exactly what his business strategy was. Google uses open source, and Microsoft doesn’t force Windows users to buy exclusively Microsoft programs. But Apple is different. It’s as if tires on GM cars have to be GM-produced, and their cars could only run on GM-gasoline. In short, the movie shows how Jobs was a control freak in both his personal life and his business life.

The downside of the movie is that it dwells too much on the personal drama, and there is little about what was really going on in the company with regard to the development of cutting-edge technology. And the movie ends with ipods: nothing about tablets, iphones, mobile technology, and the like. Throughout the move, scenes hark back to a decision that was made back in the mid-80s with regard to Apple 2 and Macintosh.

Worth seeing, but don’t hold your breath.