Sounds like a bit of a dick...

For violating an embargo and publishing a press release announcing products of another company that hadn’t been debuted? What “non-dick” response do you think is appropriate against a prospective partner that violated clear guidelines that defined their partnership which basically included “#1: Keep your mouth shut”, exactly?

They unilaterally issued a press release about Apple's upcoming release.

That's kinda a no-no for partnerships.

He was, but this incident wasn't an example. That's a righteous punishment for an infraction like that.

Going scorched earth was kind of Steve’s thing.

One word: "Courage"

Not sure I understand? Sounds like a temper tantrum to me.

Inside joke. Apple's marketing guy used the word "courage" as an explanation when removing the headphone jack.

lol

That decision had a lot of detractors at the time, but it ultimately seems to have been correct.

I don't know if I agree.

People who moved to bluetooth got arguably worse sound quality.

For wired headphones, there were very few lightning headphones and they mostly sucked.

Now with usb-c you can get a broader range of headphones (because other phones have gone with usb-c).

either kind needs a dac inside the dongle, or the shell of the headphone, or have a bulky external dac.

3.5mm is still king for decent wired headphones/earbuds.

Most people don't like wire and don't care about genuinely good sound through wire vs. artificially sweetened (DSP-ed) sound through Bluetooth. That's what Apple is targeting at, the mass consumer.

Wired headphones are making a comeback though. They're even considered trendy/fashionable now.

https://www.cnn.com/world/wired-headphones-comeback-spc

https://mashable.com/article/wired-headphones-instagram-acco...

Honestly that "most people" seems to be more marketing driven than real opinion.

When you simply can't purchase one thing, then you move to the next thing.

I have several wired and wireless headphones, all for different uses, and the existence of wireless headphones don't make the wired ones less useful for their particular strenghts.

It was wrong then, it is still wrong now.

All my three phones have a headphone jack.

I don't have or plan to have an iPhone.

It still has a lot of detractors but it is hard to beat such a sheer market flex.

Four words: You're holding it wrong.

I believe that the action does reflect Jobs' ego in the following way.

Namely, his belief that CEO == company.

Jobs would never take the view that the action of the CEO of ATI is actually one bad actor acting alone which doesn't represent what ATI wants as an organization, and is unfair and damaging to that organization and all of its employees.

The reason he would not take that view is because then he would not be able to believe that he is the single most important thing at Apple, overshadowing everything else.

If the leak had been the responsibility of some rank and file employee at ATI, with appropriate action taken against that employee by the ATI CEO, it is likely that Jobs would likely have reacted differently, because it then would not longer be seen as a personal matter between him and the CEO, where the corporations are just pawns in a game of teach-you-a-lesson.

Ultimately, it is the CEO who has to take responsibility. They are the chief executive officer, after all. And they are well compensated for it.

But did you notice how this was backwards: the company taking responsibility for the CEO's actions, in the court presided by Jobs.