Palm's Rubinstein Learning He's No Steve Jobs
You can't blame a guy for trying. Wait, I take that back. If the guy in question already broke his front teeth on a tough piece of meat and he goes for it again without wearing a mouth guard, I think you can blame him.
That someone in this case is Palm CEO Jon Rubinstein, who seems bent on besting his former boss, Apple CEO Steve Jobs, in a battle he's simply not equipped to win. It's not that the Palm Pre isn't as good as the iPhone (that's a matter of opinion) or that it doesn't have an app store worth talking about. The issue I have with Rubinstein is trying to steal the limelight from Jobs when his company's health depends on taking at least a little market share.
That Apple was hosting an event yesterday, September 9, wasn't simply a matter of public record. Rumors of what Apple would or wouldn't introduce became a veritable cottage industry for reporters and bloggers since Apple's last event in June, and reached a fever pitch last week as even seemingly unrelated events (The Beatles on Rock Band was also introduced September 9) seemed to fuel totally unsubstantiated rumors that Beatles songs would start selling on iTunes. (I say seemingly unrelated because I don't know of any connection between Apple and Harmonix Music Systems -- makers of the Rock Band video game -- but I am skeptical about coincidences this amazing).
In other words, the eyes of the blogosphere were on Apple yesterday, and only a fool would have tried to upstage Steve Jobs (the prodigal who has now managed not one, but two triumphal returns to the helm of the company he helped create). There's a reason that Democrats and Republicans don't hold their national conventions at the same time. But there was Jon Rubinstein launching a new device yesterday, trying with all his might to shout, "Yes we can!" while all around him people shouted "What did Steve Jobs say about the Beatles?"
It would be forgivable if this had been his first failed attempt at upstaging Jobs. Everyone's allowed to dream, and we wouldn't be who we are as a species if we weren't constantly striving to do what others deem impossible. But the guy who invented fire didn't stick his head inside a volcano. I'm not saying it's easy. Even when Rubinstein had the field to himself at the Consumer Electronics Show in January, Apple managed to steal the show. Peter Nowak at CBC News noted at the time, "The company that came out of CES looking the best was the one that wasn't even there: Apple."
If not then, Rubinstein should have gotten the message in June when Palm and Sprint launched the Pre in the U.S. market at the same time as Apple held its developer conference. If Pre got its fifteen minutes, the iPhone had its reality show renewed for another season. And while Palm's fate hangs in the balance, the Pre's numbers so far don't seem very encouraging.
How wrong would it have been to wait until next week, when everyone had finished picking over the remains of yesterday's fairly uneventful Apple event, to introduce Pixi, the company's last best hope? Rubinstein would have found his device the center of attention -- and I assume that's the idea behind product announcements. But what's going on has less to do with marketing strategy than machismo. Rubinstein was the unknown engineer who helped Jobs rescue Apple, and now he wants the recognition he didn't get while working under Jobs's shadow. Well guess what, Jon? You're still under his shadow.