Steve Jobs’ Willy Wonka Moment: Apple CEO Planned iMac Golden Ticket ♫ Come with me ♫ And you’ll … hear a fantastic anecdote about Steve Jobs, who thought of himself as the Willy Wonka of gadgetry. When the number of those berry-colored original iMacs sold was nearing 1 million, Jobs had an idea: Steve’s idea was to do a Willy Wonka with it. Just as Wonka did in the movie, Steve wanted to put a golden certificate representing the millionth iMac inside the box of one iMac, and publicize that fact. Whoever opened the lucky iMac box would be refunded the purchase price and be flown to Cupertino, where he or she (and, presumably, the accompanying family) would be taken on a tour of the Apple campus. Steve had already instructed his internal creative group to design a prototype golden certificate, which he shared with us. But the killer was that Steve wanted to go all out on this. He wanted to meet the lucky winner in full Willy Wonka garb. Yes, complete with top hat and tails.* The image of Jobs-as-Wonka — and Cupertino as the chocolate factory — is too marvelous for words. Who would the lucky child be? Would she eat forbidden microchips and turn into a hard drive? Would he stare at a screen until he was transported into a Mac Plus? Would he fall into an assembly line and get stuck? Or would he or she be humble enough to really deserve the ticket? Unfortunately, to complete the analogy, the Oompa-Loompas would have to be 12-year-old Chinese children living in a no-chocolate factory called Foxconn. *This is from Ken Segall’s new book, Insanely Simple: The Obsession That Drives Apple’s Success, which has a number of cool anecdotes about the late Apple CEO. Segall’s blog also has some stories that didn’t make it in print, such as this one, about Jobs, Noah Wyle and an odd interview question relating to, um, virginity. (via Mac Rumors) Go on, go ’head and click and Follow Us for more updates straight to your news & nonsense feeds. THE BEST STUFF OF THE DAY: • This British Ad for Marriage Equality Is Perfect • VOTE OR DIE: German Students Will Slaughter This Lamb Unless You Say ‘Nein’ • Dad and Kids Drive to School and Sing ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’