Proving once again that the truth is stranger (and more entertaining) than fiction,
Steve Jobs himself delivers one of the finest
Oh no he didn't moments ever. Apparently riding high on the thrill of introducing the
MacBook Air, a hit of oxygen from his personal stash, and the espresso colonic he'd received earlier in the day, old Jobsy went "off" on Microsoft's Robbie Bach when questioned about the executive's statement that the Zune was a "worthy alternative" to the iPod. "Was he inebriated?" Jobs asked CNBC reporter Jim Goldman, and then went on to inquire, "Do you even know anyone who owns a Zune?" Uh, let's be honest -- that is
way harsh. Robbie, we feel your burn... and eagerly await a response.
[Via
MacDailyNews]
posted Jan 17th 2008 8:38PM
1. If I were Jobs, I'd be a dick too. It's just fun sometimes.
2. The Zune is a repulsive piece of work.
3. I live in a college town, and know NOT ONE person who owns a Zune. I am in two social organizations in a school of over 40,000, so I've met quite a few people and have never seen someone with a Zune.
I have a Zune 8, and before that i had owned two other ipods, the most recent being the 30g video. I love the beautiful screen, and the fact alone that for only 250 you get wiki radio podcasts 22hr battery life (yes it is debatable) and the ability to stream your music and video to any 360? so i should pay literally twice as much for a 32gig Ipod touch? I don't buy it. The zune has been good to me and i really dont see a need for anything else personally.
Sorry, i meant to say i own a zune 80gig, and wifi, not wiki. typos, blegh ^.^
And yes english is my first language i swear :D
I don't know ANYONE with a Zune. Anyway, given the choice, I'd rather get a CREATIVE player than a Zune.
OK. The title is a little misleading. Calling someone a drunk implies they are drunk a lot. Saying "was he inebriated" when a silly statement (in his opinion) is made is not the same at all. Like saying "are you on crack" is not the same as calling someone a crackhead.
What an asshole.
Steve has always been an asshole, just read any biography of him.
It's Steve Jobs. Do you imagine the leader of Apple to be anything else?
YOU STOLE FROM USSSSSSSSSS.
Lol.
he may be an asshole but I have nothing but respect for him, with a brain like that he can be an asshole all he likes.
I hate Apple (and I have a lot of experience with them), and I hate Steve Jobs. However, he's right. I don't know anybody that owns a Zune, or would choose one over an iPod.
Insignia Pilot 4-evAh!
"with a brain like that he can be an asshole all he likes"
Check it out. A Mac kid. Cool.
There are people out there with brains that aren't dicks, you know.
the guy is dead on, i owned the original zune and it sucked balls, waste of money.
the zune really is a joke, the original zune was based on windows CE for Christ's sake, it needed a 500mhz processor to run it and it was still slow
oh and battery life? yeah, 3 hours music only.. without turning the screen on.
Good on you Steve, when your product is better you're allowed to bash the opposition.
i know a few people that own zunes... but do i know anyone cool that owns a zune? No.
@ your_boring
Everything you've listed about the Zune is wrong. I'm sure you'll have supporters on Engadget because everything about this site is Mac >= Life.
Yeah i have a few friends who have zunes, and they like them. It's not a bad mp3 player, but their grievances did include the battery life. For me, it's the iphone all the way :) Yeah, maybe steve was a little harsh in this instance but you can't deny the humor in it. The zune did flop. twice. Even if it isn't a terrible mp3, it still warrants a few wisecracks.
The same way he doesn't know anyone who owns a windows pc.
Too bad i own a zune. And I'm not the only person with one.
Zune 80. 250 dollars. It's great. Original art on the back. Shipped from china to new jersey in 3 days.
@ez17
Really? People being assholes doesn't matter at all? As long as they accomplish something?
@ez17
If he's such a genius why didn't he attack something about the Zune itself, and not about how popular it is? Says a lot about what sells iPods. I'm no fan of either product, for the record.
I thought it was quite funny.
I've noticed recently that people are bashing steve for taking the piss out of its competition, so what? ffs.
The BSOD in Leopard was a classic.
why does he feel the need to bash Microsoft? This is one of the reasons I don't like Apple. That and because Mac fanboys think Jobs shits gold bricks.
I don't own one, but Ipods don't seem to be much better than Zunes. I think the main reason people buy them is because they've become almost a standard. Personally, I just bought an Archos 605 Wifi, and I love it.
@ ez17,
Why would you respect someone who is an ass?
Somehow it never seems that Bill Gates needs to be a jerk, even if people hate him for being wealthy and successful. I'd rather respect someone who never seemed to lose his geeky inner self after striking it big than an arrogant fathead who is begging for a downfall.
Does thine eyes deceiveth me? A Jobs article with a comment saying how much of a cock he is being highly ranked? On Engadget? What is this strange world I've entered...
I live in Australia, and including myself I know 4 people (real, fleshy people) with Zune's. What's special about that? We go to some lengths to import them, paying a premium on the Zune's (except me, I got a refurbished Brown Zune 30). I know two people with imported Zune 80s! If there are these many people in my circle of friends in my local city with Zune's, all the way in Australia, SURELY you guys must know someone with a Zune in America?
And yeah, screw Jobs. My Zune 30 is the best DAP I've ever owned (and I've owned a Zen Touch, the iPod photo, iPod 5G and an iPod 5.5G).
That may be a butthead thing to say, but come on, do you know a lot of people that own Zunes? Nobody I know personally has one. I've only ever seen 1 actually in use in the wild. I talked to the guy to ask him how he liked it. He hated it. Like burning, scornful hellfire hatred. He got suckered by a Windroid at Best Buy that told him it was better than the iPod because of the wifi. Kids, the wifi only helps if there are other people around that use it, "squirting" songs at you. And who thinks using words like "squirt" to describe sending a song is a good thing? Yikes.
Nah, the Zune is shit. Looks like it too.
All hail Steve! [/fanboy]
But seriously, who wouldn't toot their own horn? I've had customers return Zunes, get iPods, and thank me for helping them. The Zune was supposed to hurt Apple, it was an attack. It didn't work, and Steve seems to be rubbing salt in his rival's wounds.
Who wouldn't like to see MS in pain?
Definitely a feau pax on Job's part. You can't make statements like that without sounding like an asshole.
On the other hand, Steve Ballmer says the same kind of things, so this isn't really a valid excuse for hating on Apple more than Microsoft. The CEOs are both equal assholes, IMO. In fact, I'd be willing to guess that most CEO's of Fortune 500 companies are assholes. Maybe I should put "certified asshole" on my resume.
That survey a couple of pages ago that found Mac users really do feel they are better than everyone else said they had 7,500 samples.
I'm starting to wonder if they just interviewed Steve Jobs 7,500 times.
@Scott
It's faux pas, get your french right.
Who's this "Steve Jobs" I keep hearing so much about?
Jobs isn't a genius. He ran that company into the ground during the 90's. The only remotely intelligent thing he did was green light Jonathan Ive's ideas. He created a few little products such as the iMac and iPod. He also pulled Job's ass out of the fire. I've talked to people who's businesses and factories in China have been screwed because Jobs would fly in and change a design without consulting engineers, then when the factory starts investing production the Apple board would totally renege on whatever Jobs said because he doesn't actually have full control of the company. Apple would be a helluva lot better off without Jobs. Oh, and Al Gore sits on the board and he's an f'ing twat.
Well do you?
Does anyone?
Not that I am badmouthing the zine but I don't know anyone (but wish I did so I could try one out)
Not that I am badmouthing the zine but I don't know anyone (but wish I did so I could try one out)
I dont know anyone who reads, so i guess hes right.
For the record, i know of a few people in Canada who own a Zune, and we are not suposed to even have it. 80 gig models to boot.
I dont know of anyone who owns an iPod Touch, however.
Well I know a guy who has a Zune tattoo .. oh wait, that dude got 2 zune tats ....
Zunes and ipoos Both suck, The zune is a brick and the ipod is a shinny rock.
I prefer to pay for a device rather than a name.
I'll admit that I know not one person with a Zune, and I doubt that'll be changing anytime soon.
I have a Zune 30 that I got for $90. I freaking love it especially with the new firmware.
exactly! i don't know anyone that i've even heard TALKING about buying a zune lol. maybe people think it's harsh, but it's pretty damn true for the most part.
Nobody I know owns a zune... even the ones with PC's have ipods. I'm not sure if anyone I have talked to even knows the zune exists. I'm gonna start asking just to see.
"I don't know anyone who owns a Zune"
I've seen people on the bus with Zunes many times. It's easy to recognize them because they have the Zune headphones. My brother also owns one of the originals, and I thought it was really nice. The screen was really beautiful.
I have neither an ipod or a zune, but do have a Sansa. I've used both ipods and zunes before and i thought the zune was a lot better.
Why is anyone surprised that Steve Jobs thinks he's better than the rest of the world? I'm surprised there aren't more quotes like this.
I have one (Z2-80GB, Xmas) and know 2 moe people who have one.
one of the guys next door in my dorm has one.
I had a zune for 2 days. Now I'm no mac fanboy, in fact far from it. I wanted to give it a fair try and I did... for 2 days before I just couldn't take it anymore. I ebayed an old video ipod and have been shaking in a corner, naked and crying ever since.
The Zune as a device is great, the software (thanks MS!) is the one thing holding it back and making it in my eyes completely unusable.
Well I own a Zune.
And I know at least 4 other people who do. Surprisingly, I met two of them today. Not by WiFi or anything, but I just saw them out.
I also know at least several people who are interested in a Zune. From what I could gather, they had enough issues with the iPod and are looking at joining a new platform.
I'm also going to get several of Zunes for my friend. People complain about how there aren't Zunes around to share, so I decided to be bold and get a few for my friends on their upcoming b-days.
I really love the many features that the Zunes don't have, among other things, so I'm kind of helping a few friends jump over the platform.
So there.
I know people who own Zunes, but WHAT THE FUCK should anyone care. Come on, is it so important to have what everything has even when there's a better alternative?! (yeah, I'm saying the Zune is better than the iPod)
His mind and the mind of the people who get apple products as a superiority/fashion statement have a brain as narrow as his unoriginal and boring turtlenecks.
I live in a SMALL town in CANADA and I know 3 people here who have Zunes. They aren't even for sale here!! Everyone that sees my 80 wants one.
i own one, and i know at least 4 other people with the original zune, i love mine and everyone that has one that i know loves theirs, they use them all the time. (my gf and i have black, but crazily enough i'd prefer brown...oh well)
You'd think Mac owners of all people would understand, that just because a product isn't popular doesn't mean its not a worthy alternative.
About a dozen of my closest friends have zunes, and half of which bought them after they saw how awesome mine was.
Whatishalo.....
Maybe not...but I don't know anyone that owns a mac either.
Before Jobs goes making fun of the Zune market share compared to the iPod, he should first remember the Windows to OSX ratio.
I own a Zune 80 woo hoo I am sooooo drunk.
@ Abuzar
While I fully understand the love of partying, the second part of your comment leads me to believe that you might have a few estranged children popping up in a few months.
I own a Zune, am in the Social, and have unprotected sex while drunk after partying.
And, no, it was not with Abuzar...
...I think, though that avatar does seem a little familiar...
@Alex Padilla:
Not if Abuzar pulls out early ;-)
I still have my black zune 30 I got the day after they went on sell. I am sooooo wasted right now!
To be fair, maybe Jobsy should stop drinking his own Kool-Aid.
@AJ
Did you pay attention in health class? lol
pull and pray, brother
@ Abuzar
Estranged children? That may be the least of your problems, might wanna watch for strange things down there ;-)
Oh, and um, have Zune, have an iPod, have a Walkman. I don't care, whatever works. Jobs is an asshole, plenty of the same on the other sides though!
Got the Zune 80 too. Everyone who sees it is all like "awesome". Even this guy with a Touch is getting jealous of my Zune-age.
Zune zune zune zune.
Steve Jobs only being a hole because he knows he'll never reach the status or level of Bill Gates.
Bwahahaha, good one!
Seriously though...
Bwahahaha, good one!
Seriously though...
This reminds me when Steve Ballmer accuses the competition, by calling iPod users thieves.
I hate Ballmer...but I take him as insane so I don't think he counts in the CE-Oh no he didn't at all since everything that comes out of his mouth is crap.
Microsoft is clearly in for the long haul on the Zune. Sooner or later, Jobs is gonna eat crow.
Do not F*#@ with El Jobso.
Best to just let this one go Robbie... Just let it go.
It's like that scene in Tombstone where Billy Bob is running up on Russell/Earp, and he's humiliated/saved by Kilmer/Holiday
shut the fuck up you a**hole
@ Seung-Hwan
My favorite part of your post was where you censored the word "ass" but not the word "fuck."
Anyways, thanks for sharing an always insightful commentary. I look forward to future dialog exchanges and hope they can be as enlightening as this one has been.
Now maybe you should let the adults use the computer for a while champ.
@ Seung-Hwan
My favorite part of your post was where you censored the word "ass" but not the word "fuck."
Anyways, thanks for sharing an always insightful commentary. I look forward to future dialog exchanges and hope they can be as enlightening as this one has been.
Now maybe you should let the adults use the computer for a while champ.
Do not F*#@ with El Jobso.
Best to just let this one go Robbie... Just let it go.
It's like that scene in Tombstone where Billy Bob is running up on Russell/Earp, and he's humiliated/saved by Kilmer/Holiday
I know 4 people with Zunes. Granted there are 6 iPod users in my house.
Ya know... disagree with the guy or agree.... that is pretty damn funny :-)
is there an echo in here?
i had a zune 30. people looked at me funny cuz they didnt know what it was. i hated the thing.
Yeah, that was exactly the reason...
Steve?
As in el jobso Steve?
If I were you, I'd discretely leave, half the people are pissed with you and the other half want to give their virginities to you (yeah, Mac groupies and overall desperate people).
Seriously? I know one guy with a Zune, and I personally have a Gigabeat (which everyone always asks if it's a Zune >.
dammit comment got cut off because of my smiley...
Anyways to paraphrase... Both of us get plenty of comments on our DAPs. It's pretty rare for someone to see an iPod and say how cool it is, because everyone has a fricking iPod. iPod users only get to enjoy that for the first few months when they're new, my gigabeat is going on 3 years now and people still ask to see it because it looks nice.
And sir, you have shown why the iPod is so popular. You need to fit in and feel that everyone approves of your purchase decision.
As for the Zune. I own the 80 and use it to play music in my car. The guys I work with were checking it out when I first bought it and they've decided to pick one up to replace their iPods as soon as they get the extra cash. Take what you will from that.
Say what you will about Steve Jobs, but he's cool. I don't think any Microsoft ween would ever be caught dead saying something like that.
Of course they wouldn't. It's called respect. Something Jobs is clearly lacking at the moment.
His entire marketing is based on mocking the competition.
I dunno, its kind of cool if you ask me. Who cares about respect, its a funny quip.
so different to how he thanked microsoft for such a great job on 2008 office for mac? is that kinda what you are pointing to or do u only evaluate each situation as it happens and forget the histroy.
Office 2008 is a good product. Thats the difference.
He thanked Microsoft for Office 2008 because Office 2008 for Mac helps Apple's sales. A competitor to the iPod doesn't. Also, did you notice the "I'm a mac, I'm a PC" bit right before that announcment?
Something doesn't need to be popular to be a "worthy alternative." Just look at macs, for example. I may not use it, or know anyone who does, but it's certainly a worthy alternative to windows. Even linux is for that matter. I don't see bill gates going off on him for pushing OSX.
i dont know anyone with an ipod thats lasted more than 2 years...
im still rocking my 10gb original, moving scroll wheel and all....
however, they built those things to last. current ones are a joke...
I had the 5 gig...then another when it broke...and then another when THAT one broke. So I have the third one..on a shelf...broken. I'd have gone for the fourth one but that darned third one actually made it past the 90 day warranty period!
I know one person with a Zune but too many ipods to count.
I'm on my 3rd ipod 4G (not photo). The hard drive has crapped out on me again. I hook it up to my PC, and it'll randomly stop working. Songs will play for 10 seconds and then skip. I'm glad I didn't pay any money for my ipod, or I'd be pissed! My next player is probably going to be the zune 80.
The statement was that Zune is a worthy alternative to the iPod. Does that have anything to do with how many people have them? If I didn't know anything about mp3 players and everyone I saw had an iPod, I'd probably get an iPod classic 80gb over the Zune 80 too...
Market share isn't everything. You'd think Steve would embrace that view in light his company over the last 15 years
Taking his word that 5% of his (ww) is nothing then.
Thanks Engadget.
What else did Jobs do today? We'd appreciate it if you could update us on his every move.
...I'm a microsoft fan, have a zune and an htc touch and a computer running vista, but that was the dumbest comment I've ever seen. If you have read engadget at all... ever you would know they have the "CE-Oh no he didn't" articles about any CEO that says something outrageous against the competition and as they go this is the most extreme thing I've seen one say.
I own an iPod, have no interest in buying a Zune....but, like a few others here, have no interest in worshiping the bearded, turtlenecked, smug-ass wonder, and therefore, you should have waited until you hit "Add Your Comments" before evaluating what the dumbest post ever was.
That's a far cry from calling somoene a drunk.
Uh, yes it is:
inebriated - noun /ih-NEE-bree-ated/
1. exhilirated or confused as if by alcohol: intoxicated
cf. "inebriate" - transitive verb /ih-NEE-bree-ate/: to make drunk: intoxicate
Jobs is an asshole--an incredibly charismatic, creative*, talented asshole, but an asshole nonetheless.
*Apple didn't invent multitouch or even a scroll wheel, and we all know of their lawsuit woes on menu structure in the iPod, but no one can deny that they simplified these technologies with fantastic interfaces to the point of elegance.
To be honest, I do know more people that own iPods than Zunes. But I know a lot more people that own Samsungs, iRivers, and various other digital audio players than both combined.
Thats interesting as all these combined dont equal apples marketshare...... Sandisk (9.7 percent); Creative Labs (2.7 percent), Samsung (2.5 percent) and Microsoft (2.5 percent). =17.4< apple 72.3