A series of commercials featuring Apple Store " " fell flat, and Apple quickly pulled it. Critics said the ads emphasized how dumb Apple customers are compared with how smart Apple employees are.

Before that, Apple ran some , its beta virtual assistant feature, with major celebrities such as John Malkovich, Samuel L. Jackson and Zooey Deschanel. The ads looked and felt just like Apple's normal highly polished commercials, but the celebrities made them seem like something strange. Technically, they were great. But they didn't "feel" right. Critics panned them.

Apple seems unable to fix Siri itself. After a few weeks of working great, the feature became , even as Apple promised huge expansions into China and the addition of new features, such as the ability to make restaurant reservations (which Siri could do before Apple bought it). The founder of Siri, , left Apple in June.

I get the feeling that so many of Apple's wrong notes this year would have been ruthlessly vetoed by Jobs. He would have killed the bad ads, willed Siri into full functionality, and persuaded Cheyer to stay on.

I also believe that Jobs would have lit a few fires that only he could light, which would one day result in major new product ideas.