Apple’s Phil Schiller Says No to Corporate Museum

Before passing away in October 2011, Steve Jobs asked his fellow executives to never look back and to never say “what would Steve do?”, when faced with a tough decision. Apple is planning to make good on its promise to keep looking forward, invent the future, and not rest on its laurels, according to a statement coming from Philip Schiller, senior vice president of worldwide marketing at Apple.

The author of a guest post at Cult of Mac believes Apple should celebrate the past with a corporate space dedicated entirely to the company’s history.

A rendering of said “museum” shows Steve Jobs’ van, Steve Wozniak’s calculator, photos of the two computer whizzes, and even Jobs’ garage (where the two Steves co-founded Apple Computer).

The author pitched the idea to Cult readers, as well as to every single member of Apple’s board. Unsurprisingly, there was no response from Apple’s officials (at first), though regular people were more than happy to give him a piece of their mind.

Here are some examples (as posted in the original article):

“Apple never lives in the past. Why would they create something that does?”

“I’d prefer to see Apple’s history embedded within a larger context at the Computer History Museum. Placing this museum at Apple’s corporate headquarters would probably be, as Jobs thought, a distraction – their eyes must be focused on their future, not the past.”

“Apple had a museum. In 1996. When Steve returned, he trashed that crap (gave it to a university) because what the frick is the point of living in the past? The day Apple has another museum marks the beginning of the TRUE end, unless there’s another Steve out there somewhere that can save them.”

Indeed, the first thing that comes to mind is that Apple would refuse such an idea. But the author clarifies that he doesn’t regard this Apple “museum” as corporate inspiration from the past. Instead, this place would simply celebrate Apple’s past achievements, and would make a wonderful attraction to “architects, artists, students, tourists, and the just plain curious.”

After sending a second mass email to Apple’s board, the author finally got a response from Phil Schiller, the company’s marketing guy.

“I don’t think this is a good idea for Apple,” he said. “We are focused on inventing the future, not celebrating the past. Others are better at collecting, curating, and displaying historical Items. It is not who we are or who we want to be.”

So much for trying to convince Apple to look back.