sculley

Ex-CEO Sculley says Apple needs to focus on cheaper iPhone

As rumors resume that Apple is readying a less expensive iPhone, one of Apple's former chief executives believes the company needs to revamp its supply chain to meet demand for cheaper smartphones.

As developed nations hit the smartphone saturation point, Apple will have to turn its attention to customers in developing nations who can't afford high-end handsets, John Sculley said today in an interview with Bloomberg Television.

"Apple needs to adapt to a very different world," said Sculley, who served as Apple's chief for 10 years in the 1980s and '90s. "As we go … Read more

Sculley happy Jobs' biography 'cleared up myths'

John Sculley and Steve Jobs had a "terrific relationship when things were going well," the one-time Apple CEO told the BBC in an interview published yesterday.

Although he said he hadn't read Walter Issacson's biography on the late Apple founder, Sculley seemed pleased that it "cleared up some of the myths--that I never really did fire Steve Jobs and that Apple was actually a very profitable company."

Sculley, who was recruited by Jobs to run the company in 1983, said he was brought into the company to extend the commercial lifespan of the Apple … Read more

Erstwhile enemy Sculley: Jobs was 'greatest CEO'

Steve Jobs and John Sculley got off to a rough start, with Jobs luring the former PepsiCo executive to Apple and Sculley eventually ousting Jobs from the company. But Sculley has a very different view today, a day after Jobs' death.

"His legacy is far more than being the greatest CEO ever," Sculley told The Wall Street Journal. "A world leader is dead, but the lessons his leadership taught us live on."

Sculley, who has criticized himself for failing to recognize the potential of Apple's HyperCard software, called Jobs a "brilliant genius who transformed … Read more

Goodbye Walkman, thanks for the iPod

Sony has announced it has finally retired the Walkman cassette tape player, marking the end of one of the most successful consumer gadgets of all time.

At least it outlived disco.

By today's standards, the Walkman was clunky. The plastic tape player required frequent replacing of two AA batteries. There was no shuffle. There was no storage to speak of. It could play only the number of songs on the tape. Jumping to a new song tasked an owner with fast-forwarding, an inexact process that meant repeated stops to find the start of the desired tune.

But until July … Read more

My Newton story

Today the iPhone is the alpha gizmo, the one item of consumer electronics that dominates all the others.

But in 1993, the hot new gizmo was Apple's Newton, and it was a whole different thing.

Not very many people had Newtons. Apple sold fewer Newtons over the whole life of the product than it sold iPhones the evening of June 29.

Also unlike the iPhone, the first Newtons weren't even very useful. Although called "personal digital assistants" (PDAs), using a Newton was significantly more difficult than using a Day-Timer. The original MessagePad had very poor handwriting … Read more