[...it through Brin and Page (and Schmidt). (] idea for a blog entry, perhaps?)

The title of your post is “Apple is no hardware [...] company” and now you say that it is also a media company =) Backtracking a bit? Anyway, you’re right that Apple in a sense stands between consumers and artists and fills this gap with… (wait for it) …hardware.

Kari> Take a look at what I write sooner in this blog’s history:

“iPod´s lack of interoperability confirms the underlying strategic move Apple´s CEO Steve Jobs has made. Apple is exiting step-by-step the software industry in which Microsoft Windows KO-ed Mac OS a long time ago – to do what it does best (design and marketing), & become a consumer hardware devices pure-player, reproducing Microsoft´s monopolistic economics.”

Source: http://jeremyfain.wordpress.com/2006/07/04/think-different-don%c2%b4t-think-ipod/

As you may have understood, I’m trying to provoke. I aknowledge the fact that Apple is acting more and more like a consumer electronics (hardware if you like) company. But it is also a media company, in the sense of a company that stands between entertainment consumers and entertainment artists (music, video, graphic design, etc.).

Moreover, Apple definitely belongs to the Show industry, and I pretty much disagree with you on you stance “analzying Apple through Jobs is a mistake”. Could you analyze Iran today without taking a look at Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s bio? Okay, very, very bad comparison (cf. geopolitics in the above post) since Steve Jobs intends to make our lives more comfortable and handy when Ahmadinejad has nihilistic views about the future of the world, but my point is that leaders matter.

Apple’s core business is to sell Apple hardware. Apple does not create, publish, market music, movies or anything “media”. Apple’s revenue from selling music and movies through iTunes are probably really small, but anyway nothing compared to the revenue from iPods and computers.

Because Steve Jobs, Pixar’s former CEO and Disney’s board member, can leverage his experience and influence in show/media business, Apple has advantage in these markets. The success of iPod was capitalized by Apple, but not probably planned. In the beginning it was nothing more, in words of John Gruber, than “a $399 5 GB Mac-only MP3 player”. As Vincent points out, Apple has not forgotten its Pro-market, which only link to “show business” is that creative professionals have traditionally used Apple’s gear.

Apple is very much Steve Jobs, that I agree with. But I think that analzying Apple through Jobs is a mistake.

Repeat after me, Apple is a hardware company…

That said, I’m not sure if Apple will ever make a full commitment to being “media.” The demand for professional software and hardware from Apple is still relatively high, and will be there even if the media-frenzy dies down.