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Promax and BDA 2006: Deal a Win-Win for Jobs, Apple

Jun 19, 2006  •  Post A Comment

For Apple Computer and its CEO, Steve Jobs, the addition of ABC programming to the concept of podcasting can be viewed as a great leap forward.

Last October’s marriage of broadcast network television programming with Apple’s sleek new marvel, the video iPod, marked a triumph for the technology company, which has transmogrified from a practically moribund computer maker with a quirky and exclusive operating system to the industry’s pacesetter in computer-based hardware and software design and technology.

At the heart of Apple’s success is Mr. Jobs, who founded the company in 1976 and resigned in protest in 1985, only to return 11 years later to rescue Apple from financial straits and a stale product line. In the 10 years since his return, the company has put forth a bedazzling and ingenious system of interrelated technological products and Internet sites. With the addition of television programming to the iTunes Music Store, it has become a distributor to be reckoned with in our industry as well.

As Time magazine said of Mr. Jobs last December, “If you could read this man’s mind, you would see the future. He has sold more than 18 million iPods this year, more than doubled Apple’s stock price (to an all-time high) and put ‘Desperate Housewives’ in your pocket. Jobs’ thoughts tend to become our reality. What will he think of next?”