‘We’re Apple. We Don’t Wear Suits. We Don’t Even Own Suits.’

In light of last week’s leak from Time Warner executives that Eddy Cue showed up for a meeting wearing “jeans, tennis shoes with no socks, and a Hawaiian shirt”, it’s worth a look back to this 2010 Wired story by Fred Vogelstein on Apple’s strained relationship with AT&T:

Looking back, it’s clear that the cracks in the Apple-AT&T relationship began forming as soon as Jobs announced the iPhone in January 2007. It was the first time the public got to see the long-rumored device — and, shockingly, the first time AT&T’s board of directors saw it as well. (Apple refused to show the phone to all but a handful of top AT&T execs before the launch.) The split only deepened from there. Apple and AT&T have bickered about how the iPhone was to be displayed in AT&T’s stores: Apple insisted the phone be presented on its own display stand, away from other models. They have even fought about wardrobe: When an AT&T representative suggested to one of Jobs’ deputies that the Apple CEO wear a suit to meet with AT&T’s board of directors, he was told, “We’re Apple. We don’t wear suits. We don’t even own suits.”

★ Wednesday, 3 August 2016