Advice for Apple (Part 1)
(I was in pre-sales engineering at Apple in metro Washington, DC for 1.5 years. Laid off in November. Best thing that ever happened to me!)
It's become clear to me over the past couple of months that Apple has reached a crossroads.
Here are a few premises:
- The Macintosh developer community isn't going to sit idly by as Apple continues to expand into additional software markets. Apple's free pass expired with iPhoto. Mac OS X isn't a viable platform without a happy developer community. (A platform is a Chinese household.)
- The biggest Mac developers--Macworld keynoters--aren't capable of developing radically new software except by acquisition. Radically innovative software comes from small teams of developers motivated by a restless need to experiment (dig holes if you will).
- Converting any significant portion of the other 95% of the personal computing market will require radically innovative software that begins life as exclusively Mac.
- In my mind, some of the most important start-ups of late, KnowNow and Groove, have launched with products that were Windows exclusively. Only KnowNow has a Mac story, but as my friend Paul Snively likes to say it's a dirty little not-so-secret.
Suggested Action:
Apple should begin actively making capital investments in developers working on radically innovative software for Macintosh. Elements of this should include, but not be limited to:
- Holding quarterly meetings for these innovative software developers to pitch their software. Follow up with the developers within two weeks and let them know where they stand.
- Signing a non-compete with each company. Have the contract expire after 12 months if you're concerned they may be too constraining for Apple.
- Inviting other venture capitalists with a history of picking winners. Do not invite the press. Selling dreams was an aberration of the early to mid '90s.
- Don't make it executive team only. They're too busy running a company. And, you may not get some of the ideas the way the iThing product manager fresh out of grad school does.
- When you come across great programmers without user experience instincts (I'll go out on a limb and say you will :-), make it a point to introduce them to world-class functional and visual designers. Alternatively, hire a bunch of the unemployed design talent longing for something interesting to do and make functional/visual design (not app server programming) the focus of your professional services organization.
Final Thoughts:
Invest and depend on developers. (Hey, a six year loop!)
Thanks to Dave Winer for the inspiration for this post and for his company being a consistent, world-class Mac developer.
As always, these comments are my own and in no way represent any organization for which I pimp.
