No he’s not back. He’s probably reading this on the new iPad Mini with retina, up there. And this is not one of those cinematic, read-me-after-5-yeaes-even-though-i’m-writing-it-now sort of emails. This is in fact evidence that has been submitted for the ongoing Apple v. Samsung trial. The email is a bullet list of points that was for Apple’s Top 100, written by Steve Jobs himself. It offers us just a little peak into the mind of the world’s most largest start-up!
Dated October 25th, 2010, the year of the iPad, the mail shows us how far into the future the company thinks. It was addressed to Michael Tchao, VP of iPad marketing and Phil Schiller, VP of worldwide marketing. It contains ideas about products that were released to the public only a year or 2 later. The emphasis that this company puts on secrecy and confidentiality is unparallel to any other organization in the world.
Every year Steve Jobs used to gather the companies most influential people – The Top 100. The conference would be at an undisclosed secretive location for an intense three-day strategy session. The meeting itself is so secretive that employees aren’t even allowed to drive themselves to it. Instead they board on buses that depart from Apple’s HQ at Cupertino, CA. In fact employees are encouraged to not discuss about the meeting, even internally or even put it on their personal calendars. It was an important managerial tool for Steve to share his grand vision for the company.
The Top 100 meeting is part strategic offsite, part legacy-building exercise.
As quoted by Fortune.
The E-Mail that has been shared with us shows us how Apple works. Written in 2010, Steve introduces plans for the company in the year 2012-2013. It denotes key strategic moves that Apple has made in recent years. From moving to the cloud [introduced in 2011], to iOS5 [2011], to even the hardware specs of iPhone 5[2012]. Even ideas and rough sketches about iPhone 5C are mentioned, which was released only last year! This company thinks of everything, 5 years into the future. But the most interesting part of the mail, was mention about a “Holy War” with Google. Maybe these guys predicted that they’d be in a lawsuit with Samsung in 2014!
The actual email is embedded here on the page. Have a look and leave your comments below. We love to talk! Especially if it’s about Apple 😉