On this day, 24 years ago, Steve Jobs was, more or less, a tech support representative for Apple. A curious call, iMacs that were given away for Christmas, and a Steve Jobs that was very, very clear about how things should be, are the ingredients of this Christmas tale.
The protagonists? Regis McKenna, Apple’s chief marketing officer at the time, and a 43-year-old Steve Jobs who had served as Apple’s CEO for just over a year after his return to number one Infinite Loop in Cupertino with the purchase of NeXT and NeXTSTEP. Without further ado, let’s get to the story.
“Ho-ho-ho”
We met at Christmas 1998 and Regis McKenna had decided a few days before, with his wife, buy five iMacs as gifts for her grandchildren. Back when the Apple Store didn’t yet exist, the McKennas went to a retailer and got their hands on all five brand new machines. When the happy time for opening presents arrived, the family enjoyed how the children opened their respective iMacs.
As McKenna tells Forbes, one of his granddaughters, Molly, who is only five, exclaimed “life is beautiful” when she saw in front of her the generous donation which I had just received. The adventures of the girl, but, and those of her grandfather, had not yet begun.
iMac G3
After a few hours of use, the iMac no longer opened the floppy drive door properly. At a time when a lot of software ran on floppy disks, this left the computer virtually unusable
The retailer replied that they were not allowed to trade in the computer due to Apple policies and that a repair would take several weeks. With little else to do, McKenna emailed Steve Jobs and inquired about those return and exchange policies.
In less than five minutes, the phone rang at the McKennas, it was the same Steve Jobs who asked what was happening and later the name of the distributor. After two short answers, Apple CEO replied “I’ll call you back”
To Regis McKenna’s surprise, he spoke to the dealer. A much, much friendlier dealership and profusely sorry that he told her he had a new iMac here for his granddaughter. There was no question of returning the original computer, just a new machine available immediately.
More than happy with the result, McKenna wrote again to Steve Jobs to thank him and assure him that he had made this Christmas a very happy one for his granddaughter. With his characteristic humor, Steve Jobs immediately responded with a simple “Ho, ho, ho”. —and allow me to add: Merry Christmas—.
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