Welcome back, Steve Jobs. For the past month, the Apple faithful have been celebrating the return of the company's charismatic prodigal founder. But amid the cheers, Apple has virtually ignored the impact its purchase of Next Software will have on its business customers. Apple insists Jobs will just be a part-time consultant. But some true believers hope he will once again manage to gain control of the struggling company even though Jobs was drummed out of the company in 1985 because he nearly ran Apple into the ground.
People forget things like that.
Its single, unforgettable image was a long row of neatly dressed business people, blindfolded, walking one after another off the edge of a cliff. That was what Steve Jobs thought of the corporate IS people who had failed to embrace his Macintosh. That's the Steve Jobs proud, angry, uncomprehending whom the Apple faithful are welcoming back. Trouble is, that isn't the real Steve Jobs. Jobs learned a lot during his decade of exile things that every Apple executive, productdesigner and developer couldalso learn.