Museum Of Modern Art Acquires A Cube, Jobs Comments On Cube's Demise

by , 12:00 PM EDT, August 20th, 2001

The New York Times has published a report that is of interest in two ways. First and foremost, the newspaper is reporting that New York's Museum of Modern Art, MOMA to those in "the know," has acquired one of Apple's G4 Cubes for its design collection. From The New York Times:

"The personality of these objects is incredibly important," said Paola Antonelli, the curator of Workspheres, a recent exhibition that included several Apple products. "These objects give more meaning to the desk and the work. They are pleasant companions."

We applaud the Museum's taste.

Something will be of even more interest to those who regularly follow the goings on in Cupertino is that the piece included commentary from Apple's CEO about the demise of the now-cancelled Cube. Apple in general, and Mr. Jobs in particular, are not known from publicly commenting on much of anything. It would seem in this case, Mr. Jobs' fondness for the Cube overcame his usual reticence. From the New York Times article:

"That was not a failure of design," Mr. Jobs said. "It was a failure of concept. We targeted the Cube at a professional audience. We thought they would rather have something small on the desk than expandability and we were wrong. It was a wrong concept — fabulously implemented."

There is additional information in the New York Times article, and we recommend that you check it out. The article requires a free membership with the New York Times in order to read it.

The Mac Observer Spin:

We have commented before on how obvious it was that Mr. Jobs felt that the Cube was one of the most insanely great things Apple ever made. He said at its introduction that it was a computer he had asked Apple to make for a customer, him. In fact, we would go so far as to say that only his feelings for iMovie and iDVD come close to the way he felt about the Cube. With that in mind, killing his baby was probably a hard decision, and one that reflects his ability to make sound business decisions.

All that aside, his candid comments included in the Times piece are pretty interesting. Mr. Jobs is saying "I screwed up," and we applaud his honesty. It's also a very good thing that the company is able to identify the exact nature of its mistakes, as it shows it can learn from them. This bodes quite well for Apple's future.

New York Times Article