SiliconBeat

Following my Sunday column, “Who will be Silicon Valley’s next Steve Jobs?” the most common response I got was: Why wasn’t Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey on the list? That was echoed in comments, tweets and emails.

In fact, I did strongly consider Dorsey. But ultimately, I dropped him.

There are certainly many intriguing parallels between the Twitter co-founder and Jobs. Like Jobs, Dorsey created a remarkable technology company that has had huge impact. And while there are several people considered co-founders of Twitter, Dorsey is usually credited with the concept, and the development. And, of course, he was the first CEO of Twitter before being pushed aside a couple of years ago — just like Jobs!

Rather than sulk and withdraw, Dorsey started another company, Square, a mobile payment service that has shown strong growth, attracting a recent venture round of $100 million that values the company at $1.6 billion.

And then, Dorsey made a triumphant return to Twitter earlier this year to lead product development, while remaining CEO of Square. Again, shades of Jobs, with his creation of NeXT, his role at Pixar, and then returning to Apple at first as an advisor.

And certainly, many others have made the Dorsey-Jobs connection. For instance, BetaBeat recently wrote:

“What we were startled by was the growing feeling feeling that there’s something about Mr. Dorsey that just sounds so familiar. A heavy emphasis on clean design. A charismatic presence at public announcements… wait a minute: @jack is kinda like a young Steve Jobs. Apple has even started selling Square in their retail stores.”

So, why didn’t I put him on the list? Part of it was the conceit of the list. I needed to keep it narrowly defined to be able to make comparisons, and so I decided to stick to people who were all CEOs. Yes, Dorsey is the CEO of Square, but that’s not why he’s such a big figure at the moment. Square is still tiny in impact compared to Twitter. It’s his role at Twitter, both as co-founder and now lead product designer that makes him a figure of note.

And in that regard, Twitter is still a mixed bag for me. The company still has scant revenue, and is still struggling to get its arms around a complex set of design and feature issues. The most interesting things about Twitter are often built by third parties, and the company needs to redefine its relationship with its ecsystem.

If Dorsey sorts all of that out, and he helps create a core, unified Twitter experience, then he’s certainly on the path to demonstrating a Jobs-like prowess. And if he can actually help the company figure out a business model, and even return to the CEO chair, then I think he’s someone to be considered for legendary status.

Everyone on that list has a lot to prove to be considered heir to Jobs’ legacy. But right now, compared to other folks on the list, Dorsey has even further to go.

Noah Wyle as Steve Jobs and Anthony Michael Hall as Bill Gates

A few months back, I noticed a bunch of folks tweeting about the 1999 made-for-TV-movie “Pirates of Silicon Valley.” I remember hearing about the movie just as I was moving to Silicon Valley that year, but never got around to watching it. I had heard mixed things about the movie, and its accuracy, but the tweets seemed pretty positive, so I decided to rent it and see for myself.

It exceeded my tremendously low expectations. Though as far as factual accuracy, it’s hard to say where truth ends and creative license takes over. The movie hits some of the high points of the emerging battle between Microsoft and Apple as told through the stories of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. And narrated by their wingmen: Steve Wozniak and Steve Ballmer.

There’s an amusing scene, about 20 minutes in when Wozniak and Jobs walk out of the famed Homebrew Club in 1976, having triumphantly demonstrated a version of their personal computer:

Jobs: “IBM is going to be loading in their pants!”

Wozniak: “Steve, I don’t think IBM even knows who we are.”

Jobs: “That’s okay. Because they’re the enemy.”

And later, in a conversation with John Sculley:

Sculley: ”Steve, I’m worried. About what’s happening. All the “them versus us” stuff. Macintosh versus Apple II.”

Jobs: “You don’t understand, John. People need a cause.”

Creative license aside, back in the late 1970s, and the early 1980s, Jobs had enormous power and the ability to impose his will. If you wanted to play with Apple, you did things Jobs’ way. And he wasn’t afraid to define his enemies and go after them (IBM, Microsoft). That is, until he was ousted in 1985 and Apple began its long, slow decline. And even after Jobs’ return in 1996, Apple was just happy to still be around, even striking a deal with Microsoft to invest to keep it going.

Apple’s clout has grown steadily over the past decade, thanks to the success of the iPod and the iPhone. With the iPad announcement a week behind us, it seems the the gadget itself may turn out to be less interesting than some of the things it tells us about the state of Steve Jobs and Apple. With the iPad, it appears that Jobs is confident that he’s once again in a position to dictate terms and define the opposition in a way he hasn’t been able to since the early days depicted in Pirates of Silicon Valley.

You could feel this renewed swagger when Apple announced it recent earnings. Jobs said in a press release:

“If you annualize our quarterly revenue, it’s surprising that Apple is now a $50+ billion company,” Jobs said. “The new products we are planning to release this year are very strong, starting this week with a major new product that we’re really excited about.”

That was a not-so-subtle reminder of Apple’s financial strength. Consider that Apple has closed the gap in terms of market capitalization with Microsoft. This is from Silicon Valley Insider last November:

“In May 2000, Apple’s market capitalization was $17 billion. Today it’s $182 billion. Meanwhile, Microsoft was around $356 billion in May 2000. Today it’s around $261 billion.”

By the way, Google’s market cap is $171.73 billion as of mid-day Wednesday.

Since the release of the iPad and iTunes, Apple has had the music industry under its thumb. And with the iPhone, Apple was able to change the balance of power between device makers and phone companies. But with the iPad, let’s look at the new ways Jobs is flexing those growing muscles:

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Back on June 20, 1999, a made-for-TV movie called “Pirates of Silicon Valley” first aired. The movie chronicled the rivalry between Apple’s Steve Jobs and Microsoft’s Bill Gates.

This happened exactly one month before I moved to Silicon Valley from North Carolina. As I recall, the movie got lukewarm reviews, and I never saw it. Or even really thought about it, for that matter.

But recently, it’s popped up on my radar in rather random fashion. One of the keywords I track on Twitter is “silicon valley.” And at least a couple times each day, someone makes a reference to the movie:

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Sometime in the last year, Apple seems to have changed the way it tallies shareholder votes.

At its annual meeting with investors in February, Apple announced that shareholders had voted down all investor-sponsored proposals, including a widely watched one that urged the company to allow shareholders to vote every year on its executive compensation practices.

The result was something of a surprise, given that a similar say-on-pay proposal had passed the previous year and the say-on-pay movement has been gaining strength ever since.

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Shareholder meetings tend to be either dull or contentious — and occasionally informative. What they aren’t usually is light-heartened.

Apple’s annual meeting Wednesday certainly had its dull moments. It had some contentious ones. And it did offer some a few tidbits for the faithful.

But it also had its moments of levity. During a question-and-answer session following the formal vote taking at the meeting, one shareholder took note that Tuesday was the birthday of Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO who is out on medical leave. After wishing Jobs well, the shareholder got the audience to stand up and join him in singing “Happy Birthday” to the company’s co-founder.

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Someone at Bloomberg News probably wishes they could have a do-over of their Wednesday when they mistakenly caused a pre-written and critically incomplete obituary of Steve Jobs to be published on its wire. The story, which was quickly retracted, lacked one important fact — Jobs yet lives. A tipster sent a copy of the story to the tech gossip blog Gawker.

According to a story published by CNET, Bloomberg retracted the story, making only “the vaguest reference to the content of the gaffe.”

“An incomplete story referencing Apple Inc. was inadvertently published by Bloomberg News at 4:27 p.m. New York time today,” the retraction read. “The item was never meant for publication and has been retracted.”

Nancy Heinen (pictured), the former general counsel at Apple has agreed to pay $2.2 million in disgorgement, interest and penalties and be barred from serving as an officer or director of any public company for five years to settle complaints arising from the alleged backdating of Apple options, according to a release put out today by the Securities and Exchange Commission. In doing so, Heinen neither admitted or denied the Commission’s allegations.

According to the complaint, “Heinen caused Apple to fraudulently Read the rest of this entry »

Last year, when Apple released the first iPhone, it was an easy decision to pass. First, the price was way too high. Second, it was on a sluggish mobile network known as “Edge.” Third, the memory was just too small. And finally, it didn’t work with Microsoft Outlook.

That’s four strikes against it. But more than that, I don’t tend to be earliest of adopters. And figured many of these things would be fixed when Apple released iPhone 2.0.

And based on Steve Jobs’ keynote on Monday, they have. The new phone is on the much faster third generation mobile network, or “3G.” It works with Microsoft Outlook. At $199 or $299, it’s much cheaper. It has more memory. Bravo.

Apple is touting this new version as a device for the mainstream. All of these improvements will help move it closer to that goal. It needs to move beyond the geek crowd for Apple to reach its goal of selling 10 million iPhones by the end of 2008.

For all these reasons, I’m getting closer to being a believer. But I figure I’ll wait another year before getting an iPhone. Here’s why: Read the rest of this entry »