[SoftwareMaven]

Your comment feels like it is giving Jobs and Apple a bit more altruism than I think they deserve. They are absolutely in it for the money, but I think you are also right that they see this as a better way of computing: a way that can make computing better and easier for many people (who, in turn will give Apple more money).

It is a win-win for Aplle and the consumer, which is a great place for a company to be.

[lukifer]

It's also true that even if you ascribe absolute altruism to Jobs and all the other stakeholders at Apple (which is a big leap), large revenues fuel their ability to do more R&D, take big risks, drive down costs to increase adoption of their cool tech, etc.

[Gilpo]

"They are absolutely in it for the money"

Not so sure about that.

This is what I think motivates Steve Jobs: His insane passion for consumer computer electronics. Juicy and illuminating supporting fact: Jobs's first job was at the HP factory in Palo Alto at age 12. <http://www.playboy.com/articles/playboy-interview-steven-job...;

"I remember my first day, expressing my complete enthusiasm and bliss at being at Hewlett-Packard for the summer to my supervisor, a guy named Chris, telling him that my favorite thing in the whole world was electronics. I asked him what his favorite thing to do was and he looked at me and said, "To fuck!" [Laughs] I learned a lot that summer."

Every day he works, he energizes that little kid inside him. Not a bad life.

[mturmon]

This quote rings true:

http://37signals.com/svn/posts/2813-do-you-want-to-sell-suga...