Rare photo shows Steve Jobs flipping the bird to IBM

30 December, 2011 - Paul Dixon
Steve Jobs photograph from 1983

In this rare photo from 1983, Steve Jobs is shown literally flipping the bird to Apple’s biggest competitor at the time – IBM. The photograph was posted earlier today on Google+ by Andy Hertzfeld, as a memoriam to the Apple co-founder.

The following was posted along with the photo:

“In memoriam for Steve Jobs as 2011 draws to a close, here’s one more rare photo that illustrates his rebellious spirit. In December 1983, a few weeks before the Mac launch, we made a quick trip to New York City to meet with Newsweek, who was considering doing a cover story on the Mac.”

Hertzfeld goes on to explain how his editor wanted him to include the photo in his book, but he was too timid to ask Steve Jobs for permission – partly down to the fact that, at the time, IBM were providing CPUs for Apple.

One of the original members of the Apple Macintosh development team, Andy Hertzfeld worked for Apple between 1974 and 1984. He now works for Google, where he was one of the main developers responsible for the Google+ Circles user interface.

You can thank him for sharing the photo, by leaving a comment on Google+

[Via Cult of Mac]

About the author

Paul Dixon is the owner of Macsessed. He lives in Lancashire in the UK where he works as a web designer. You can find him on and Twitter.