Keeping Apple Healthy  

At the 1997 Macworld Expo (when I was 9 years old) Jobs announced Apple’s plan to partner with Microsoft to ‘get Apple healthy.’ Here is an excerpt:

If we want to move forward and see Apple healthy and prospering again, we have to let go of a few things here. We have to let go of this notion that for Apple to win, Microsoft has to lose. We have to embrace a notion that for Apple to win, Apple has to do a really good job. And if others are going to help us that’s great, because we need all the help we can get, and if we screw up and we don’t do a good job, it’s not somebody else’s fault, it’s our fault. So I think that is a very important perspective. If we want Microsoft Office on the Mac, we better treat the company that puts it out with a little bit of gratitude; we like their software. So, the era of setting this up as a competition between Apple and Microsoft is over as far as I’m concerned. This is about getting Apple healthy, this is about Apple being able to make incredibly great contributions to the industry and to get healthy and prosper again.

STEVE JOBS, Macworld Expo 1997

Okay, so we’re seeing the same trend again. You can actually read that entire quote with Facebook in place of Microsoft and it still makes sense. That’s the old reality distortion field; Internet explorer as the default Mac browser? Cool story bro!

This makes sense though, building a phone and mobile OS is no mean feat, it’s not something Facebook can just do. They just don’t have enough time.

As for Apple, by deeply integrating Facebook into iOS, Apple are distracting Facebook from pursuing hardware, while getting all this identity data to play with. A preemptive play to ensure Apple remains healthy.

Mutually beneficial, at this point.

It will be interesting to see how this relationship develops. With mobile overtaking desktop, Facebook needs Apple more than Apple needs Facebook. Zuck would be wise to play this partnership gently; it may just be their saving grace.