Who's the "Steve Jobs" of the gun industry?

[l98ster]

This is an interesting thread. I have read most of your responses and I seem to have a different take on this.

Steve jobs is a revolutionary thinker. His products are basically ruling the world. This is why I can see some people mentioning Browning, Colt, Glock, etc...

However, The way I see it, is that Steve Job's products, although fun and useful, are way overpriced. They are also very limited in functionality (you have to do what job says, as his products cannot be modified or compatible with other type of products.

The only way there could be a Steve Jobs in the gun industry, is a company putting out a gun that completely dominates the gun world, is chambered in a caliber only "Jobs" sells, no reloading components for it, and be way overpriced. The comapny would not let any other company develop something for their gun, and re-release the same stuff every year, with only slight changes in a successful effort to sell the same stuff over and over again.

Until that happens, there really is no Steve Jobs of the gun world. There are however, great innovators such as Browning, Colt and Glock...

-George

 

[Miami_JBT]

First off.... Steve Jobs and Apple is a bit of the crazy aunt you invite for dinner of Christmas but can't stand seeing for the rest of the year.

Apple and their products are designed for people that can't think for themselves. You cannot do anything you want with a Apple Product. I enjoy my Windows and Linux based PCs because I can design them to do what I want; the same with my Android Phone. Apple has not in anyway created anything that is new or amazing. The iPod, iPhone, and iPad are not new ideas. They were simply the first version that actually caught on with the public. That comes down to Moore's Law. The idea that Apple created the world's first PDA is bullcrap. What about the Blackberry phone? The Palm Pilot? The Casio Wizard? Shall I continue? As for the iPad.... Tablet PCs were around for a long time. They were pricey machines.... I had one during my time in high school (1998-2002) and it was advanced back then. Had a 40GB hard drive, ran Window's XP Tablet Edition, touch screen with stylus, writing software, etc.... It was worth about $2k but I got it through a pilot program through the company that made it. Motion Computing. They make Tablet PC for the medical industry and they were looking at branching out into the general PC market.

What Apple had was luck.... technology caught up to the ideas and they were the first ones to release a product on the market. It was done back in the 1990s and those companies that did it failed simply because the tech wasn't there to support the idea.

This happened back in the 19th Century and early 20th Century. Everyone wanted a firearm that was reliable, light in weight, had good range, and a good capacity of ammunition. You had the Ferguson Rifle from the American Revolution, you had the Double Rifles, you had the Volcanic Pistol, you had the Colt 1836 revolver, etc....

It wasn't until the designs from the late 1890s started to appear that everything that everyone has wanted has been made. Almost everything today is still based on designs that are over 100 years old. What is changing today is the material used in those designs.

Same with PCs to a degree.... the tech is starting to mature and stabilize. The only thing that is now changing in the world of PCs is more storage space and faster and faster processing speeds and download speeds. The PC tech world is evolving faster then the firearms market but that's simply because the PC tech world is not physical like firearms. Thus instead of a change in materials we have a change in use.

The invention of the internet and it's adoption by society is about the same as the invention of the modern ammunition cartridge. Guns didn't evolve because of the advancement of design.... they evolved because of the advancement ammunition. PCs is the same but with the internet. Before that..... PCs were very simple machines with specialized uses.

Apple is not ruling the world with their products. In fact they are loosing market share in the phone market to Androids, the iPad is already taking a dive with the release of it's 2nd Gen version because the Android and other OS Tablets are hitting the market. Apple is supported buy their hipster liberal base. The type of folks that buy a Toyota Hybrid not because they want to save gas but because it's "good" for mother earth. Apple is a toy maker and nothing more.....

I use tools not toys. Apple doesn't make tools.

 

[BlueTrain]

Apple computers must be good for something because although most everyone here have "normal" computers, the art department (yes, we have artists and designers) uses them. But I take the point about Steve Jobs and Apple Computer doing their best to manage their market.

Many gun manufacturers did that and to an extent, still do. A better example is the way that many cartridges started out as what we would call proprietary cartridges. That's why most of them have some company's name. There's .45 Colt, .38 S&W Special, .357 Sig and so on but apparently most of them were quickly chambered in guns from other manufacturers. The bigger ones were reluctant to us another company's name on their own guns and they either renamed the cartridge for their own convenience (.38 Colt New Police, for example) or ignored the actual original name of a cartridge (such as simply saying .45 Auto instead of .45 ACP or .40 Auto instead of .40 S&W).

In any event, it took a long time in some cases before a given cartridge was at all standard, at least in commercial circles, as opposed to military uses. The 9mm Parabellum was first used before 1908 when the German navy adopted the cartridge, followed by the German army, but I don't think there was a new US made 9mm until the Colt Commander was introduced in that caliber. Then came the S&W M39. Could you even buy a new 9mm in the US before then?

It hardly always works that way and just as often a new military cartridge enjoys immediate commercial popularity. Most US rifle cartridges certainly have. But of course the 9mm is foreign.

 

[BlueTrain]

I did a little basic research to satisfy myself about some of the things I just mentioned.

The S&W M39 came out in 1955, the Colt Commander in 1951 and it turns out you could buy a new 9mm before WWII in this country--maybe.

Stoeger contracted to sell Lugers after WWI. They would have been in 7.65 Parabellum since the Germans weren't allowed to make 9mm pistols. Later, however, the Germans ignored that prohibition and again manufactured 9mm Luger pistols. Stoeger listed them in their catalog in 1936 and also in 1947 for the last time. My source had not seen other catalogs and could not comment on listings for other years. Stoeger pistols did have special markings but apparently not all of them actually made it to the United States, perhaps being sold to the highest bidder or something. They also had reconditioned Lugers and parts for most other common German pistols of the day.

The 9mm was the new service pistol in Poland and the Hi-Power was also in production but I haven't been able to discover if any of them were imported before the war or when new 9mm pistols were again sold here after the war. It seems unlikely that any would have been sold here until after 1950.

 

[Boberama]

Steve jobs is a revolutionary thinker. His products are basically ruling the world.

I see the iPad 2 still doesn't have Flash. Pathetic.

Maybe it's the guy who chose the tang radius on the frame for the Springfield Armory 1911s?

Paws up. ('') ('')