The Great Tech War Of 2012 | Fast Company

Gilbert Wong, the mayor of Cupertino, California, calls his city council to order. “As you know, Cupertino is very famous for Apple Computer, and were very honored to have Mr. Steve Jobs come here tonight to give a special presentation,” the mayor says. “Mr. Jobs?” And there he is, in his black turtleneck and jeans, shuffling to the podium to the kind of uproarious applause absent from most city council meetings. It is a shock to see him here on ground level, a thin man amid other citizens, rather than on stage at San Franciscos Moscone Center with a larger-than-life projection screen behind him. He seems out of place, like a lion ambling through the mall.”Apple is growing like a weed,” Jobs begins, his voice quiet and sometimes shaky. But theres nothing timorous about his plan: Apple, he says, would like to build a gargantuan new campus on a 150-acre parcel of land that it acquired from Hewlett-Packard in 2010. The company has commissioned architects–“some of the best in the world”–to design something extraordinary, a single building that will house 12,000 Apple employees. “Its a pretty amazing building,” Jobs says, as he unveils images of the futuristic edifice on the screen. The stunning glass-and-concrete circle looks “a little like a spaceship landed,” he opines.Nobody knew it at the time, but the Cupertino City Council meeting on June 7, 2011, was Jobss last public appearance before his resignation as Apples CEO in late August and his passing in early October. Its a fitting way to go out. When completed in 2015, Apples new campus will have a footprint slightly smaller than that of the Pentagon; its diameter will exceed the height of the Empire State Building. It will include its own natural-gas power plant and will use the grid only for backup power. This isnt just a new corporate campus but a statement: Apple–which now jockeys daily with ExxonMobil for the title of the worlds most valuable company–plans to become a galactic force for the eons.And as every sci-fi nerd knows, you totally need a tricked-out battleship if youre about to engage in serious battle.
via The Great Tech War Of 2012 | Fast Company.