Gaston Bastiaens leaves CD-I for PIE

It was one of the most surprising — even shocking — pieces of news to come across the transom in quite some time: Gaston Bastiaens, public and vocal champion of the CD-I standard for consumer electronics devices, jumped ship after 21 years at Philips to become the general manager for Apple Computer’s new Personal Interactive Electronics (PIE) division.

One can only imagine the delicacy of the negotiations, since not even a pre-announcement whisper came from Apple, which should be dubbed the “Leak-of-the-Week Club” for its inability to keep anything secret. The announcement on the subject seemed to slip out of Apple’s back door and contained nary a quote from any of the principals involved. We can only imagine how Jan Timmer, chairman of Philips and the original flag-bearer for CD-I, took the news.

The move has significant ramifications on the tenor, if not the substance, of the nascent market for interactive multimedia of the type that Philips and Apple have been hyping for many years.

Swiping Bastiaens from Philips has the potential to be a major score for Apple. There are not many people in the world with his deep knowledge and understanding of the technical and marketing issues involved in selling a new interactive consumer technology.

Those who had lost faith in Apple’s commitment to interactive multimedia — and that would be just about every software developer, at this point — can take heart that rumors of revitalized consumer CD player devices (Sweetpea et al.) are without a doubt true.

In addition, and this is probably why he tiptoed across the Atlantic to his new post, Bastiaens has for the past four years been responsible for the entire CD-I business for Philips. He knows everything there is to know about how Philips intends to sell the product; he was the liaison between CD-I standards development partners Sony and Matsushita; he had a hand in all things CD-I from product development to manufacturing to software and titles creation, marketing and sales.

Not to mention that he’s managed to figure out how to put full-screen, full-motion video onto a compact disc.

How the Apple announcement addressed this issue is by saying, “As standards are important in electronic publishing, Gaston will investigate solutions for compatibility for CD-I and Apple media products.”

WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR PHILIPS AND CD-I?

At first glance, one might assume that Bastiaens’ move sounds the death knell for CD-I, a technology that has had a very difficult time getting off the ground, even after Philips has invested many hundreds of millions of dollars trying to snare consumer interest.

Bastiaens and Timmer have been flogging the technology to virtually no effect for many years, and one must assume that Philips’ investors will see Bastiaens’ defection as a sign that CD-I is a dead end.

However, most CD-I development is already done on the Macintosh. Many Macintosh multimedia developers turned to Philips for production money when Apple abandoned them a couple of years ago, and have since honed many of the skills necessary to produce interactive CD titles.

So one could speculate that the “compatibility” referred to in the press announcement may eventually include Apple helping Philips divest itself of the weight of being the standard-bearer for an unpopular technology, while at the same time acquiring some of the necessary (and Mac-based) tools and skills for interactive multimedia development that Philips has so assiduously cultivated and acquired.

Instead of being the death knell for CD-I, Bastiaens may actually be able to move it more into the mainstream. It’s a long shot, but stranger things have happened.

In fact, the inroads that CD-I has made — Sony still plans to release CD-I into the industrial training and education markets, while Matsushita still intends to release it as a consumer platform — may benefit Apple as well.

CULTURE CLASH SEEMS INEVITABLE

In any case, it will be very interesting to see how Bastiaens makes the transition to the wide-open Apple culture. Bastiaens has in the past been distant and elusive, but those of us who follow this industry hope that he will adapt himself to the more communicative Apple style.

In order to help jump-start a new technology area, he must learn from the past and leave behind the closed, combative style that’s been the signature of Philips’ press relations.

Though it took a few years, Apple’s commitment to multimedia and digital media — through incessant technology demonstrations, both in public and private — has finally begun to pay off, and Apple is perceived as being at the forefront of the activity in all the hot new electronics areas. Selling a new consumer technology won’t be easy, and Apple will need every winning personality it can find to get the job done.

Denise Caruso