[asmithmd1]

It shows how bold Jobs was even when Apple was on the ropes. This was the same year he needed a $150M investment from Microsoft to keep from running out of cash and he was willing to close the most profitable part of the company because it was not how he wanted to sell to people. The authors big quote is from Jobs in 1997 "Fuck the channel. we don't need the fuckin' channel"

That is exactly how I feel as a B2B customer. Companies that sell through "the channel" have beautiful web pages showing the products and absolutely no way to find out how much something costs. You need to get a call back from a salesperson who wants to figure out who your customer is so he can "add value" right up to the limit of what you will pay. I have begged with these guys to just give me an order of magnitude: "Do you sell for $100, $1000, $10000?"

[efsavage]

This is changing. As people who grew up with the internet start to become responsible for spending, salespeople are figuring out that "no price = no lead". It's a slow process, I'd say it's got another 10 years of steam left in it, as the old guard (on both sides of the table) fade out, but I hear this concept being discussed from business/sales/MBA people far more today than 10 years ago.

[r00fus]

Wait, wasn't it Eddie Cue who said "Fuck the channels"?