Life Behind the Scenes at Apple

December 26th, 2006 at 2:00 PM - News by John Martellaro

Apple constructs a carefully crafted image at major computer shows. In a telling blog, posted Monday, the former Apple Director of Federal Sales described what really went on behind the scenes at one show.

David Sobotta wrote: "One of my all time favorite Apple stories is about the FOSE computer show in Washington, DC in the spring of 2004. FOSE is the government computer show of the year." Mr. Sobotta went on to describe in detail how, when the FOSE show became a big event for Apple, the corporate people came in to "manage" the show, a show in which Appleis presence had been very successfully built-up by the Federal team over the previous few years.

The blog continued: One edict "was that no third party vendors or software would be allowed in the Apple booth. Immediately we became an iLife demo wasteland. There would be no more showing how Appleis own use of SAPis Java client meant that Apple products could be used to access SAP data."

Mr. Sobotta tells it like it was. This reporter was present for all of it.