An Open Letter to Steve Jobs

Sep 17, 1998

This is a Job for Steve, man!

So where is Apple going to find the new users or 'forward migrants' to win over?

In Asia alone, a vast number of computer neophytes exists. If Apple doesn't get its act together to win over this target group, Someone Else will. And as the mountain obviously won't come to you, you've got to go to the mountain. Apple's recent decision to set up regional bases in China, India, and South Korea — as revealed by Graham Long, the company's corporate vice-president and general manager of its Asia-Pacific HQ — is a step in the right direction. It indicates Apple's serious intent of expanding Asia-Pacific's contribution to its future global revenues. And what a contribution the region could potentially make. Take China for instance. The other evening, a Mandarin news report on TV caught my attention. It revealed that currently, there are only an estimated 1.2 million Internet users in China. In case you don't know, China has a total population in excess of 1.2 billion people. Staggering thought, isn't it? Just think of the potential market in that country alone.

[Postscript (Sep 19, 1998): I wish to clarify that the 1.2 million Internet users referred to above are those of Chinese-language websites. I would expect the penetration of English-language websites in China to be much less. Furthermore, this figure of 1.2 million users in mainland China is expected to soar to 7 million within the next three years. In addition, there are another estimated 2 million surfers in Taiwan, and 500,000 in Hong Kong and other Chinese communities scattered worldwide.]

On a much less awesome scale, according to this 1996 report, the number of Internet users in Singapore, estimated at 60,000 two years ago, was predicted to rise to 250,000 by the new millennium. The latest figures now show that the population of this community has already reached 300,000. A five-fold increase in just two years, that's approximately one Internet account holder for every 10 Singaporeans, based on the current estimated national population of slightly over 3 million people. Yet I believe this to be a very modest estimate, because there's Singapore ONE to consider. With the advent of Singapore ONE, virtually every home, school, and office building in the citystate will be wired up to the high-speed nationwide network. The program by Singapore Cable Vision (SCV) to get the entire island cable-ready is already close to its final stages, and will be completed by next September. By that time, it would be unlikely that anyone who has any personal, educational, commercial or other interest in getting aboard the Singapore ONE network wouldn't do so.

So why am I bringing this up? Well, if memory serves me correctly, the iMac is supposed to be the Internet Mac. The perfect vehicle to get you onto the Information SuperHighway.

Bill Gates may have already staged a successful coup of sorts in Singapore ONE. But the fledgling network has only just completed its year-long pilot phase and is still expanding, with new content providers entering the fray each day. Estimated at a little over 10,000 as of June this year, the number of subscribers is expected to swell to 400,000 by 2001. So as far as reaching out to both content providers and users alike, the race has barely begun. As I've pointed out before in my previous Singapore Macworld Expo report, the iMac is the ideal computer for potential subscribers of Singapore ONE. Thanks to its built-in Fast Ethernet capability, it comes Singapore ONE-ready. Few computers here in its price-range are able to make that claim. So Apple should really push this hard as a selling point of the iMac in the Singapore market.

Next, as one of its five Singapore ONE initiatives, Microsoft is working with Singapore's Education Ministry to build its IT Master Plan for Education. I wouldn't put it past Gates to try to muscle in on the education market here in the process. (Would you?) The education market has traditionally been a stronghold of Apple in Singapore, as it is elsewhere in the world. Microsoft has laid a challenge which I don't think Apple should leave unanswered. And the answer is the iMac, pure and simple.

Considering that Apple's Singapore plant was recently reported to be now spearheading the production of iMacs to fill the unexpectedly high global demand, it seems a little curious to me that the buzz hasn't quite caught on here, as far as I can tell. While I don't know the situation in the other countries in Asia, I can say that not enough publicity — and hence interest — is being generated for the iMac here in Singapore. Each day that an ad for another budget-priced PC appears in the media, the iMac risks losing another lot of potential customers.

As we have seen from the events between the initial unveiling of the iMac on May 6 and its subsequent launch in the US on August 15, staging a publicity campaign early is critical in building up mass anticipation for a product. In those three months, before even a single official ad was shown, Apple enjoyed a blitz of relentless free publicity — controversial, but nonetheless free — for the iMac. Everybody, from the most august newspapers and magazines, to the myriad websites on the Net, rushed in line to have their say about this new Apple. Announcements of peripheral support for a new standard called USB, which was virtually unheard of before the iMac, started pouring in, as did software. At last count, there were close to 500 new or upgraded products available for the iMac — five days before it was launched in the US. This website you're currently visiting, and many others like it, were created because of the iMac. In short, no other computer in history, except for one, has fired the collective imagination of the world as the iMac has done. So clearly, it deserves some publicity. And more than any US$100 million ad campaign, Apple needs a front-man to deliver the ultimate sales pitch. And you know who that is.

Far be it from me to assume that Apple's CEO would ever chance upon this article. Still, hope springs eternal. And if — and I know it's a Very Big If — if Steve Jobs were ever to read this, I'd say to him: Even if you make the best software and hardware products in the world, you've still got to go out there and tell people about it too. Evangelize even, if that more accurately describes what you do. And not just on American soil. Go global, and bowl them over, because next to the Mac OS, you're probably Apple's most prized asset right now. If Bill Gates can do it with the charm he possesses, and James Barksdale with his (and this time I'm serious), so can you. Indeed, so should you!

In closing, picture if you will, a fine October morning in downtown Singapore. Outside the Suntec City Convention Center, the giant electronic billboard overlooking the historical War Memorial Park screams "Steve Jobs Launches iMac in Singapore!" Inside, an excited crowd has already gathered in the main auditorium, eagerly waiting to see and hear the man who, having finally vindicated himself after his ignominious departure from the company he co-founded, still calls himself the Interim CEO. As you go onstage to deliver another one of your trademark scintillating addresses to a room filled with an audience who knows better, you realize the party's just beginning. Yes, Mr Jobs, we'd be delighted to welcome you to Singapore for the iMac's launch next month.

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