I have been a Mac guy since Macs were Macs. I fought in the Apple/PC wars, I suffered through Scully firing Jobs, Through Amelio running the company into the ground, almost killing it but then he probably did the smartest thing in his life, he hired Jobs back, in 1996.
Jobs founded Pixar in the time between when he left Apple and was rehired. Pixar laid down the standard for computer animation films with "Toy Story". He also founded Next computers and developed the Next software which was the basis for the Mac OSX system.
Under his reign, and it was a reign, Steve Jobs hired a new team, pushed his visions, uncompromising, through his company and after 15 years, Apple became the largest company in the country. As a businessman, he ran the company with an iron hand, terrifying employees with adherence to his decisions.
He came up with show stopping design. Remember the iMac when it came out. The Blue, Green, Orange and Red plastic curved egg shape that was totally ground breaking in the bland case world. Then the laptops styled the same way, the elegantly styled towers that unfolded to provide access to everything.
Steve Jobs changed the way America and the world thought about computers. With the Apple II he proved that their was a market for "Home" computers. With the Macintosh, he showed that, through good design of the graphic interface, anyone could use a computer. He brought color to computing, he took the computer out from under the desk to become a focal point on the desk with the iMac. Then the Power of the OSX system, a graphics beast.
That was the computing influence of Steve Jobs. But maybe that pales with what he did next.
Jobs introduced the iPod and in one day rendered the Walkman obsolete. He changed the way America interfaced with their music. In doing so he bent the entire Music industry to new ways of production and distribution.
Next came the iPhone, cellular was never the same. Putting a computer into the hands of almost anyone that wanted it. Picture taking turned into electronic picture taking and that industry bent away from film. Photo albums became portable Kodak died, Fuji is dying. Film cameras went the way of the Walkman. 1 hour photo processing became kiosks in stores with prints in minutes.
Still there was more. The iPad: big display, super slim, cameras, Wi-Fi connected to the internet cloud, millions are being sold and the publishing industry is reeling bending very much like the music industry. Borders books files for Bankruptcy protection listing the switch to e-books as a big reason for their failure. Jobs saw that dedicated e-book readers like Sonys, Amazons Kindle, B&N Nook and others weren't the way to go. Single purpose dedicated portable devices are always going to lose to a multi use, connected, colorful, dazzling device that works its magic so well that kids under six can probably use them more efficiently than their owners.
That is Steve Jobs legacy, my two word description is "World Bender".
Apple certainly has good people and Tim Cook has been groomed for a decade for this position. I think that Apple probably has several years worth of innovating products in the pipeline. But it will be different, I doubt if it will be better but probably not worse, if Cook can keep the teams together innovating. But the "World Bender's" alchemy is a tough thing to pass down.
I follow a guy by the name of Seth Godin, an Author, blogger, lecturer (http://sethgodin.typepad.com). Seths stuff is great, his book "Tribes" is top notch, his blog is a must read. Todays was, unlike this short and wonderful:
A little empty
I guess this is how a sports fan felt when Joe DiMaggio retired.
Business didn't used to be personal. Now it is.
Computers didn't used to make us smile. Now they do.
We didn't used to care about whether a CEO made one decision or another, or whether or not he was healthy. I do now.
Sure, there was baseball after joltin Joe stopped playing. But it was never quite the same.
Thank you, Steve, for giving us all something to talk about and a way to talk about it with beauty (and fonts). We owe you more than we can say.
'Nuf said
Mark
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