Jon Rubinstein

"For the actor, see John Rubinstein."

Jonathan J Rubinstein (born 1956) is an American computer scientist and electrical engineer who was instrumental in the creation of the iPod, the portable music and video device first sold by Apple Computer Inc. in 2001. He was also responsible for the development of Apple’s iMac line. He has been elected to serve as a member of the National Academy of Engineering and is a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

Rubinstein left his position as senior vice president of Apple's iPod division on April 14, 2006. He became executive chairman of the board at Palm, Inc. after private-equity firm Elevation Partners completed a significant investment in the handheld manufacturer in October 2007. [cite press release
title = Palm Closes Strategic Recapitalization with Elevation Partners
publisher = Elevation Partners
date = 2007-10-24
url = http://www.elevation.com/EP_news.asp]

At Palm, where Rubinstein leads the company's research, development and engineering, his first tasks included winnowing the company's product lines and restructuring R-and-D teams. [cite news
last = Tam
first = Pui-Wing
title = Apple's 'Podfather' Now Aims to Revive a Wilting Palm
publisher = The Wall Street Journal
date = 2007-12-13]

Early years and education

Rubinstein was born and raised in New York City. He is a graduate of the Horace Mann School, Class of 1974. He went to college and graduate school at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., where he received a B.S. in electrical engineering in 1978 and a master’s in the same field a year later. He later earned a M.S. in computer science from Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado.

Rubinstein’s first jobs in the computer industry were in Ithaca, where he worked at a local computer retailer and also served as a design consultant to an area computer company.

Early career

After graduate school, Rubinstein took a job with Hewlett-Packard in Colorado. He spent about two years in the company’s manufacturing engineering division, developing quality-control techniques and refining manufacturing processes. Later, Rubinstein worked on HP workstations.cite news | last=Perry | first=Tekla S. | title=Jon Rubinstein | publisher=IEEE Spectrum | date = February 2000]

Rubinstein left HP in 1986 to join a startup, Ardent Computer Corp., in Silicon Valley.While at Ardent, later renamed Stardent, he played an integral role in launching a pair of machines, the Titan Graphics Supercomputer and the Stardent 3000 Graphics Supercomputer.

Jobs and NeXT

In 1990, iconic Apple co-founder Steve Jobs approached Rubinstein to run hardware engineering at his latest venture, NeXT Inc. Rubinstein headed work on NeXT’s PowerPC workstation – a graphics powerhouse that was never released because the company abandoned the unforgiving margins of the hardware business in favor of a software-only approach.

After helping to dismantle NeXT’s manufacturing operations, Rubinstein went on to start another company, Power House Systems Inc. That company, later renamed Firepower Systems Inc., was backed by Canon Inc. and used technology developed at NeXT. It developed and built high-end systems using the PowerPC chip. Motorola bought the business in 1996. [cite news
last = Hof
first = Robert
coauthors = Gross, Neil; Sager, Ira
title = A computer maker's power move
publisher = Business Week
date = 1994-03-07]

Apple years

After the sale, Rubinstein planned on an extended break and travel. But Jobs, at this point an informal consultant to Apple, asked Rubinstein whether he wanted to work for the Cupertino, Calif., computer maker.

Many didn't consider Apple a plum assignment at the time. The company's reputation as an innovator was waning, as were profits - Rubinstein's arrival in February 1997 came on the heels of a year in which Apple lost $816 million. But Rubinstein wanted to give it a shot because, he told the New York Times, "Apple was the last innovative high-volume computer maker in the world." [cite news
last = Markoff
first = John
title = Apple and PCs, Both Given Up for Dead, Are Rising Anew
publisher = The New York Times
date = 1999-04-26]

Rubinstein joined Apple as senior vice president of hardware engineering and a member of its executive staff. He was responsible for hardware development, industrial design and low-level software development, and contributed heavily to Apple's technology roadmap and product strategy.

When Rubinstein arrived, his work was cut out for him. The company sold no fewer than 15 product lines, yet its low-end consumer products were widely derided as technological also-rans. Engineering and product development were similarly troubled. Multiple engineering teams worked on the same product independently of each other, and the various lines were built with non-interchangeable parts. Rubinstein fixed both problems.

He also embarked on an extensive cost-cutting plan that axed both research projects and engineers. Expenses were cut in half. After vetting the projects in the pipeline, the one that appeared ready to deliver was the G3, a fast PowerPC-based desktop machine. When it was released at the end of 1997, Apple had what it hadn't in several years: a cutting-edge desktop machine that was on a technological par with Intel-based competitors.

In 1998, Apple's lack of an entry-level consumer desktop was soon to be history. While the G3 was being readied, the company was hatching the idea for the colorful, egg-shaped iMac. Rubinstein assembled a team and then spurred his much-leaner engineering corps to have the product ready to roll in 11 months - a timeline they considered impossible. When it came out, the iMac relied heavily on the USB peripheral standard - not an obvious choice, given that the technology was widely available for several years and little used. The iMac also shipped without a floppy disk drive. Rubinstein was responsible for both decisions.

Future rollouts under Rubinstein's watch included the G4 and G5 series of Macintoshes. The machines, while considered technical standouts, were still hampered by a public perception that they were "slower" than similar, Intel-based PCs because their CPUs had lower clock speeds. Rubinstein helped diminish that misconception in a speech following the 2001 rollout of the G4 - and popularized a term, the 'megahertz myth,' to describe how an Apple running at 733 megahertz could be faster than an Intel processor running at 1.7 gigahertz. [cite web
title = The Megahertz Myth
publisher = Apple Inc.
url = http://www.asia.apple.com/g4/myth/]

As the Macintosh started becoming successful again, the company began to pursue a strategy that would put the computer at the center of consumers' electronic entertainment. Turning the Mac into a digital hub which would connect with a range of devices formed the basis of Apple's strategy moving forward in the marketplace.

As part of this strategy, Apple developed software to edit videos (iMovie), organize photos (iPhoto) and store and play music (iTunes).

Developing the iPod

Unfortunately for Apple, far fewer consumers purchased Macintoshes than personal computers that used the Windows operating system. [cite news
last = Norr
first = Henry
title = Jobs performance: Apple's CEO has the computer-maker setting trends again
publisher = San Francisco Chronicle
date = 2002-01-06] So instead of focusing strictly on the hub itself, Apple began discussing creating a device that could tie into one.cite web | last = Schlender | first = Brent | title = Apple's 21st-Century Walkman CEO Steve Jobs thinks he has something pretty nifty. And if he's right, he might even spook Sony and Matsushita. | publisher = Fortune | date = November 11, 2001 | url = http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2001/11/12/313342/index.htm/] A host of products were considered, including video and still cameras and Palm-like handhelds.cite web | last = Aaron | first = Ken | title = Behind the Music | publisher = Cornell Engineering Magazine | date = Fall 2005 | url = http://www.engineering.cornell.edu/news/engineering-magazine/archives/cem-fall-2005/Behind-the-Music.cfm/] Apple went with music players, though, partly because existing products were weak. When introducing the iPod in 2001, Steve Jobs said, "Music's a part of everyone's life ... and because it's a part of everyone's life, it's a very large target market all around the world. It knows no boundaries." [ [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kN0SVBCJqLs iPod introduction, October 2001] ]

Jobs charged Rubinstein with coming up with a portable music player on a rushed, 8-month timetable.Kahney, Leander. [http://www.wired.com/news/columns/cultofmac/0,71956-0.html Straight Dope on the iPod's Birth] , "Wired News", 2006-10-17. Retrieved on 2006-10-30.] It was Rubinstein who recognized the utility of the iPod’s key technology, the tiny, 1.8-inch hard disk drive on which music is stored; he came across it while on a routine visit to Toshiba Corp.Kahney, Leander. [http://www.wired.com/gadgets/mac/commentary/cultofmac/2006/10/71956?currentPage=all Straight Dope on the iPod's Birth] , "Wired News", 2006-10-17.] Engineers there had developed the drive, but were not sure how it could be used.Kahney, Leander. [http://www.wired.com/news/columns/cultofmac/0,71956-0.html Straight Dope on the iPod's Birth] , "Wired News", 2006-10-17.] And it was Rubinstein who assembled and managed a team of hardware and software engineers to ready the product.

The team’s engineers needed to overcome a number of hurdles, including figuring out how to play music off a spinning hard drive for more than 10 hours without wiping out a battery charge. Rubinstein’s production contacts proved invaluable, too; the iPod’s sleek, minimalist design, with its high-gloss, engraveable metal back, was a mass-manufacturing triumph.

The success of the first-generation iPod was almost overnight. [cite news
last = Kato
first = Donna
coauthors = Boudreau, John
title = Holiday shopping season kicks off
publisher = San Jose Mercury News
date = 2001-11-24] The business became so important to Apple that the iPod was ultimately spun off into its own division, which Rubinstein took over.Kahney, Leander. [http://www.wired.com/news/columns/cultofmac/0,71956-0.html Straight Dope on the iPod's Birth] , "Wired News", 2006-10-17]

Other iPod models were released on a regular basis, increasing the device’s capacity, decreasing its size, and adding features including color screens, photo display and video playback. By early 2008, more than 119 million iPods had been sold, [ [http://www.usatoday.com/tech/products/2008-01-11-3553182628_x.htm USA Today, "All Eyes on Apple at Macworld," 2008-1-11] ] making it not only the most successful portable media player on the market today but one of the most popular consumer electronics products of all time. [cite book
last = Levy
first = Steven
authorlink = Steven Levy
title =The Perfect Thing: How the iPod Shuffles Commerce, Culture and Coolness
publisher =Simon & Schuster
year=2007]

While Rubinstein’s fingerprints are on the iPod’s development, [ [http://grouchygeek.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2007/06/04/beware-of-geeks-bearing-grudges/ Fortune, "Beware of Geeks Bearing Grudges," 2007-6-4] ] he was also instrumental in creating a robust secondary market for accessories such as speakers, chargers, docking ports, backup batteries and other add-ons. That gear, produced by a network of independent companies, generates more than $1 billion in annual sales. [ [http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FA0A13FD3D5A0C708CDDAB0894DE404482 NYT, “The iPod Ecosystem; Add-Ons Have Become a Billion-Dollar Bonanza,” 2006-2-3] ]

In the 2007 fiscal year, the iPod generated $8.3 billion in revenue, or about a third of Apple's sales. [ [http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=107357&p=IROL-secToc&TOC=aHR0cDovL2NjYm4uMTBrd2l6YXJkLmNvbS94bWwvY29udGVudHMueG1sP2lwYWdlPTUyODYwMzUmcmVwbz10ZW5r Apple Inc., Form 10-K, Nov. 15, 2007] ]

Affiliations

*Member, National Academy of Engineering
*Senior Member, IEEE
*Director, Immersion Corp.
*Member, Cornell Alumni Council
*Member, Cornell Silicon Valley Advisors
*Fellow, World Technology Network
*Member, Consumer Electronics Association Board of Industry Leaders

References

External links

* [http://www.engineering.cornell.edu/news/engineering-magazine/archives/cem-fall-2005/Behind-the-Music.cfm/ Cornell Engineering Magazine, “Behind the Music,” Fall 2005]
* [http://www.businessweek.com/archives/1994/b336138.arc.htm?campaign_id=search/ Business Week, “A Computer Maker’s Power Move,” March 7, 1994]
* [http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/Xplore/login.jsp?url=/iel5/6/17780/00819930.pdf?isnumber=17780&arnumber=819930/ IEEE Spectrum, Feb. 2000]
* [http://spectrum.ieee.org/sep08/6592 IEEE Spectrum, "From Podfather to Palm's Pilot," Sep. 2008]
* [http://www.asia.apple.com/g4/myth/ Apple Computer Inc., “megahertz myth” video]
* [http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2005/oct/14cook.html/ Apple, press release, Oct. 14, 2005]
* [http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/USAToday/10331498.html?did=10331498&FMT=ABS&FMTS=&date=Oct+17%2C+1996&author=Schmit%2C+Julie&pub=USA+TODAY&desc=Apple+turns+a+profit--And+a+corner/ USA Today, “Apple turns a profit – And a corner,” Oct. 17, 1996]
* [http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F30C14F8345E0C758EDDAD0894D1494D81 New York Times, “Apple and PC's, Both Given Up for Dead, Are Rising Anew,” April 26, 1999]
* [http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FA0A13FD3D5A0C708CDDAB0894DE404482 NYT, “The iPod Ecosystem; Add-Ons Have Become a Billion-Dollar Bonanza,” Feb. 3, 2006]
* [http://www.wsj.com/ Wall Street Journal, “Designing Duo Helps Shape Apple’s Fortunes” July 18, 2001]
* [http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2001/11/12/313342/index.htm/ Fortune, “Apple's 21st-Century Walkman CEO Steve Jobs thinks he has something pretty nifty. And if he's right, he might even spook Sony and Matsushita,” Nov. 12, 2001]
* [http://wired.com/news/columns/cultofmac/0,71956-0.html?tw=wn_index_1 Wired News, "Straight Dope on the iPod's Birth" Oct 17, 2006]