The Arrogant Ones

We all know them. They disrupt the flow. They are the arrogant ones.

Recently, the billionaire heiress of one of America's most successful retail chains exhibited "the trait" after being stopped on suspicion of drunken driving. She said to a state patrolman, "Do you know my last name?" Apparently the officer did not care what her last name as as he wrote her a ticket.

Many years ago in a land far away, the creators of the world's first mass-marketed graphical computer exhibited the same trait. They didn't cooperate. They created and pushed proprietary technologies when industry-standard technologies would have worked just fine. They were brash...they were the arrogant ones.

That's all changed now. With the operating system war seemingly lost forever to Microsoft, these arrogant ones almost lost their shirts. They almost had to close shop. They had to make changes. And they did.

Everything I read tells me that the words "not invented here" have for the most part disappeared from the hallowed halls of Apple Computer in Cupertino, California. Steve Jobs, co-founder and self-appointed "savior" of the company, has brought the likes of Microsoft into the fold, and has proclaimed that Apple will not longer snub its nose at technologies birthed outside Apple.

What is ironic is that Jobs, father of the Macintosh, pushed a closed system that had few upgrade avenues in the 1980s. Today, Jobs' mentality lives on in the iMac, an impressive, but at first glance limited of computer technology. However, let's remember that it's not you and me -- devoted Macintosh users -- that Jobs wants. He wants the first-time buyer and computer user. He wants a positive and exciting user experience. He wants to sell them the Volkswagen Beetle they have read about but never owned.

What a brilliant move! After all, isn't everyone is into "retro" these days? The iMac certainly fits the bill for something completely different and exciting. What's more exciting is that Apple's new "innovation" streak won't stop with the iMac. The iMac is only the tip of the iceberg of what we'll see from Cupertino in the years to come. With the OS wars over, Apple needs to continue to focus on its core strength Big Time -- which is innovation, innovation and more innovation!

Get ready Mac users and Mac users to be. Get ready to hang on for the ride. Steve and the Mac are back and they're ready to rumble!