Steve Jobs: “Your phone is the dumbest f***ing idea I have ever heard”
This will be the funniest thing you will read all day. An apparent excerpt from Those Guys Have All the Fun: Inside the World of ESPN
The story goes that ESPN president George Bodenheimer attended the first Disney board meeting in Orlando, Florida, just after the company had bought Pixar, the innovative animation factory, and spotted Apple CEO Steve Jobs in a hallway. It seemed like a good time to introduce himself. “I am George Bodenheimer,” he said to Jobs. “I run ESPN.” Jobs just looked at him and said nothing other than “Your phone is the dumbest fucking idea I have ever heard,” then turned and walked away.
Steve is a champion who is not afraid of speaking his mind.
What an awesome find from Gruber of DaringFireball, who points out that the “dumbest” phone in question is this ESPN branded Samsung flip-phone from 2006, shown here:
DaringFireball also points out that ESPN and Disney when on to lose $135 million on that phone, which kind of proves it was a dumb idea. Assuming this quote comes from when that ESPN phone was released (mid-2006), this was pre-iPhone, but the iPhone was certainly being tested internally at that point for a launch the following year in January of 2007. The rest is history, as Apple released the iPhone which changed the entire face of the mobile industry, and in just Q3 2011 alone they sold over 20 million of the phones.
By the way, what better way to sell a book than an epic Steve Jobs quote?
LOL
Steve Jobs is the coolest genius on the planet. The Dude abides.
Just cracks me up. Man, he got balls to tell him that.
You mean Disney went on lose $135 million?
to*
Sorry, I’m French and I’m Affraid to understand : “Dumbest f*** idea” : could-you help me (of course not for f*** !). Did steve was CEO of Pixar in 2006 ?
Thanks
Yes and Disney bough Pixar with Steve, and Disney also owns ESPN. Steve though ESPN’s phone was a stupid ides, he was right.
Motorola ROKR.
Pot, meet your friend the kettle.
Actually ROKR was genius move by Apple ! It was killing 2 birds with 1 stone… It was the perfect example of “This is how NOT to do it!” and kill Motorola’s credibility as well in the process!
I was involved with a couple of exchanges with Steve Jobs in the 1980s; this sure sounds like him. However, rudeness works well when you’re on a great uphill sweep as Apple is now. It didn’t work so well when the company struggled and had to have (shudder) Microsoft help them out. Jobs is hitting on all cylinders now but should learn some manners if for no other reason than to show his own maturity.
AFAK: The “help” MS gave Apple back then was how they settled a lawsuit Apple had against MS. MS agreed to support Office on the Mac for 5 years, and invested in the Company. They kind of kept that quiet for awhile. That’s the keynote where he uttered the epic phrase about changing the way they think: “For Apple to succeed Microsoft doesn’t have to lose”
AFAIK it’s AFAIK
I’m with you on the manners thing. I don’t care how smart or good at your job you are if you can’t work with other people and be civilized, that’s not okay.
Karma is a bitch, just saying..
Personal experience from when was at the top of his game- you steered clear from Steve when he was leaving the IL campus.
Sorry man, I’ve seen the cupertino city meetings on the expansion for CC4-5 on homestead road ( remember Glenn, your facilities VP? ).
I did not get it :/ ?
sorry, I’m hardly understand the word “epic” means what, can u detail to me
An “epic” is like a classic heroic story from literature, most people think of The Iliad or Beowulf, but it has also become a slang term used to describe a memorable event.
thanks for your reply
In slang, most people use the word “epic” in place of the word “grand” or “super”.
[...] via OS X Daily [...]
[...] OS X Daily This entry was posted in 苹果业界 and tagged [...]
What an utterly lame geeknerd humor. Pointless up to a level of total fail.
You will ruin any date with such boring stuff.
“when on”?
You mean “went on”!
An excellent time to publish this: just as Samsung’s Galaxy S is outselling the iPhone. Karma IS a harsh mistress.
Are these comments auto-generated?
my comments hardly ‘suck’, more like succulent
Just more proof that Steve Jobs in a complete douche.
The king of the douchebags
Steve Jobs on ESPN PHone: “Your phone is the dumbest f***ing idea I have ever heard” and the phone went onto make a loss of $135 million
contrast that with:
Steve Ballmer on iPhone in 2007: “IPhone – dont make melaugh” and iPhone is the fastest selling phones in the history of smart phones!!!
i think that says it all.
If this is the funniest thing you will read all day, you are going to have a very sad day.
What is the music equivalent of ESPN? RIAA? ESPN phone is like a RIAA phone no? And isn’t iPhone about as close as you can get to an RIAA phone? Meaning, Apple uses DRM + iTunes to control that content licensed to them by RIAA. ESPN is the Sports Content equivalent of RIAA. Granted sports and music are much different forms of content. Nobody tends to watch sporting events over and over like they listen to the same song tracks. But they do subscribe to “Teams” and watch them play new seasons year after year. If Steve things the ESPN content + ESPN Phone was such a bad idea, what does he think RIAA + iPhone is? It’s the same thing, albeit the iPhone is a better execution, but music was also an easier market to succeed in since it isn’t LIVE.
If George ever meets Jobs again – I hope he has enough balls to break his Jaw.
Thanks for censoring my F$&$ word! I guess only Steve Jobs can say the F-word and get away with it. Please hold your editorial to the same standards as your reader comments. Thanks.
Comments containing curse words are automatically prevented from publication for anti-spam reasons, I removed it so the comment would pass the filter.
Who the **** is Steve Jobs?
the founder of apple.
Just because he was right (and he certainly couldn’t be sure of that back then) does not give him the right to be such a dick. Guess he never heard of karma… maybe he’ll look into it now that he’s sick and it’s come back to bite him.
[...] Steve Jobs: “Your phone is the dumbest f***ing idea I have ever heard” (osxdaily.com) [...]