Nik Rawlinson
Jobs has answered some emails, but how can we tell the bona fide ones?
Steve Jobs has found the send button. Apparently. More and more people who send him a note are getting replies, but do you think it’s actually him?
Let’s consider the evidence. For starters, the address: sjobs@apple.com. Can you imagine how much mail must land in that inbox every day? Far too much for the CEO of your corner café to handle, never mind someone with a $25 billion cash pile. The new message sound will be pinging so often he’ll think he has tinnitus. His real email address will be far more obscure. sjobs is just a front.
Then there’s the tone. Jobs is known for his businesslike manner, but some of these emails are more than terse. Hardly good PR, and not a great way to create the image of a friendly, approachable company.
So what’s my gut feeling? Well, I do actually believe these emails come from Jobs. Or some of them do, at least. The trouble is, we don’t know which ones. No doubt there’s some kind of quality control you have to get through before his eyes ever rest on your words – perhaps someone employed just to watch that mailbox – but if he does light upon your message, then the note you get back will be from the man himself.
Congratulations. Tell the world, tell the web and revel in your brush with email fame.
But how do we know that you’re telling the truth? Therein lies the rub.
While Jobs engaging with the general public, if indeed it is him, is a move to be applauded, the fact that we can’t verify these messages makes it a dangerous move. Remember a couple of years ago when Apple’s shares tanked on the back of a supposed internal email announcing shipping delays for both Leopard and the original iPhone? It was leaked to Engadget, and investors started to weep. An hour later, the email was unmasked as a hoax and the shares more or less recovered.
These little email bulletins Jobs is apparently sending are simultaneously so hard to verify and so quickly seized upon by the media (even The Daily Telegraph has published ‘The top five terse Steve Jobs email replies’) that it wouldn’t be difficult for someone who wanted to manipulate the price of Apple stock so they could buy on the cheap and turn a quick profit to knock up a five- or six-word note with faked headers. The ultimate Fake Steve Jobs.
Whether or not these emails are real, Apple has a duty to itself and its investors to let us all know the last one has been sent, and replace them with a public forum. Keep sjobs@apple.com up and running, but pick the best queries and answer them in person, in public, at apple.com.
