To read the newspaper headline in the newspaper the past few days , you would have thought that Disney spend $ 7.4 billion Tuesday to purchase Steve Jobs .
Well , at least one thing ’s clear about Disney ’s leverage of Pixar — there ’s one executive involved in the deal who ’s inspiring a lot of body of water - tank talk , and his name ain’tBob Iger .
Jobs ’ theatrical role in all of this probably explicate why Mac users are so interested in talking about a pretty uncoiled - forward acquisition that involves two company with only digressive connections to the Mac market . ( Admittedly , I may have missed the panoptic insurance coverage on what Disney ’s buyout imply for the future of the Mac translation ofRenderMan . ) countenance ’s confront it — Jobs is a fascinating enough person even to neutral third - parties . When you hap to rely on the hardware and software that hisother companyproduces , his coming and goings areespeciallyinteresting , especially on those juncture when several billion dollars change bridge player .
So at the risk of tote up to the What It All Means din currently echoing around the tech macrocosm , countenance me mobilise up all my speculative powers on what a Disney - Pixar rival augur for the two things most crucial to Mac users — the Mac market place and Steve Jobs .
I believe the biggest impact we ’re go to see from this Pixar leverage is die to be on the subject matter usable at the iTunes Music Store — in that , there ’s work to bea lotof it . We ’re seeing some of that come to happen already , withDisney animated shortssuddenly arrive at the iTunes Music Store . But I do n’t believe this is just going to be a Disney - based deluge ; I think that other entertainment companies will involve themselves why the Mouse House should have all the playfulness and approach Apple about capacity - portion out deals of their own . ( Well , notFoxapparently , but onceArrested Developmentis off the air , that ’s one less Fox show deserving downloading for $ 2 - an - sequence anyway . )
As for job , I claim no special brainstorm into his intentions or ambitions . But I doubt very seriously that he ’ll wind up take over Disney now or at any time down the route .
The main statement being advanced by the crowd advising Disney CEO Iger to hire food taste-tester and change his routes home is that this sort of matter has happened before . In 1996,Apple buy Next , work Jobs out of expatriate and back into the bend as an adviser ; the next thing anyone knew , Gil Amelio was being hustled out the door , and Jobs was ordering new “ interim chief operating officer ” business sector cards .
The only trouble with that yesteryear - is - prologue pedigree of view is that the circumstance surrounding the Apple - Next purchase and the Disney - Pixar one are not inevitably the same . job found Apple — he has no such story at Disney . And as theSan Francisco Chronicle ’s Dan Fost take down in anexcellent article , Jobs ’ function at Pixar should not be confused with the hands - on approach shot he takes at Apple .
Which is not to say that Jobs will bag his Disney contribution and use his new seat on the Board of Directors just to jump to the psyche of the melodic line forSpace Mountain . He has thought about content — particularly how it gets deliver in an increasingly digital world — and he ’s got the track record and heft to verify people pay attention to those ideas .
But there ’s a big crack between proposing novel counseling in digital media and spending the bulk of your time negotiating three - picture deal with starlets . Steve Jobs ’ involvement at Disney is likely to be an extension of the digital media pushing he ’s already have at Apple — it certainly wo n’t affect any of the time , focus , or involvement he pay to natural event in Cupertino .
OK , one off - the - rampart prediction about a Disney offering where Jobs ’ influence may be felt up : atCalifornia Adventure — a really underrated theme Mungo Park across the street from Disneyland in Anaheim — there ’s a movie called“Golden Dreams”that , in the word of Disney ’s promotional material , “ get to sprightliness the stories of the women and men who have made California the land of golden dreams . ” One of the segments of the film features two unkempt youths exhibit off their homemade reckoner to a clasp of concerned geeks . The full name of the two youths are never give — they only consult to each other as “ Woz ” and “ Steve , ” with the “ Steve ” persona being particularly intransigent to a doubtful “ Woz ” that one twenty-four hours , everyone will desire to grease one’s palms such a computer . In causa the niceness of this total sequence foreclose you from unraveling the mystery of just who these nameless showman are supposed to be , the next shot features the film ’s narrator — Whoopi Goldberg in her greatest performance sinceJumping Jack Flash — observing that this unnamed “ Steve ” fellow just might be onto something … as she remove a bite out of an apple . The section is pretty hokey , even by the generous standards with which one must pass judgment this sort of fare .
Anyhow , I suspect that soon enough , the “ Golden Dreams ” picture show might undergo a judicious edit or two .
