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Former Sony President Recounts Steve Jobs' Desire to Launch an OS X-Compatible VAIO

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Steve Jobs had a desire to launch an OS X-compatible Sony VAIO, according to a new blog post from longtime Japanese freelance writer Nobuyuki Hayashi (via The Verge). The account comes from a 2011 interview with former Sony president Kunitake Ando, who stated Jobs and another Apple executive presented him with a VAIO running OS X during a winter golf tournament in Hawaii.

sony_vaio_flip2

Most of Sony's executives spends their winter vacation in Hawaii and play golf after celebrating new year. In one of those new year golf competitions back in 2001, "Steve Jobs and another Apple executive were waiting for us at the end of golf course holding VAIO running Mac OS" recalls Ando.

Upon his return to Apple in 1997, Steve Jobs famously ended Apple's Mac OS licensing program for third-parties. However, Ando notes that Jobs was ready to "make an exception" for Sony's line of VAIO notebooks. Ando states that the partnership between the two companies never happened due to "bad timing" for Sony, as the company had finished optimizing both the VAIO's hardware and software specifically for Microsoft's Windows platform.

In addition to having a strong interest in the company's notebooks, Ando also claims that Jobs asked many questions about Sony's line of "SonyStyle" retail stores, which he believes led to inspiration for Apple's own retail stores. Jobs also reportedly inspired the GPS feature found in many of Sony's CyberShot cameras, as Ando recounts the former Apple CEO professing his desire for the feature upon using the product.

Top Rated Comments

H
hrn
160 months ago
This is the history of Project Marklar... and how he ended up taking a flight to meet the Sony President. :)

http://www.tuaw.com/2012/06/10/how-marklar-os-x-on-intel-owes-its-start-to-a-one-year-old-boy/ (http://www.tuaw.com/2012/06/10/how-marklar-os-x-on-intel-owes-its-start-to-a-one-year-old-boy/)

Ok... this is the original link

http://www.quora.com/Apple-company/How-does-Apple-keep-secrets-so-well/answer/Kim-Scheinberg (http://www.quora.com/Apple-company/How-does-Apple-keep-secrets-so-well/answer/Kim-Scheinberg)

Max (our 1-year-old) and I were in the office when this happened because I was picking JK up from work. Bertrand walks in, watches the PC boot up, and says to JK, "How long would it take you to get this running on a (Sony) Vaio?" JK replies, "Not long" and Bertrand says, "Two weeks? Three?"

JK said more like two *hours*. Three hours, tops.

Bertrand tells JK to go to Fry's (the famous West Coast computer chain) and buy the top of the line, most expensive Vaio they have. So off JK, Max and I go to Frys. We return to Apple less than an hour later. By 7:30 that evening, the Vaio is running the Mac OS. [My husband disputes my memory of this and says that Matt Watson bought the Vaio. Maybe Matt will chime in.]

The next morning, Steve Jobs is on a plane to Japan to meet with the President of Sony.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
F
frikova
160 months ago
I'm glad it didn't happen, as probably Apple would not have been what it is today.

But, anyway:

Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
szw-mapple fan Avatar
szw-mapple fan
160 months ago
Vaio is actually pretty good as a laptop, for a Windows machine.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
musika Avatar
musika
160 months ago
That was unexpected. It would've been really funny if he had wanted it on a Samsung laptop.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
M
MaulRx
160 months ago
Little hard to believe but if had to be anyone it would have been a Sony product.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Tankmaze Avatar
Tankmaze
160 months ago
I would buy that, vaio hardware design is also as beautiful as a mac.
If I would switch to windows, vaio is definitely my choice.

But this was probably when steve got back to apple around 1997ish maybe.
Edit : after reading the article this event happened in 2001.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
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