Today is a very sad day in the technology world. Its shocking actually. That news of course being the passing of Steve Jobs.
I found out about it on my Twitter feed just like manny others. I don’t follow that manny people and it’s usually not a very busy feed to follow at any given day. But at around 8:00 EST, it exploded with the news that Steve Jobs had passed away. My heart dropped and then the shock fell in. The idea that he died was just a surreal feeling. A man who has played a huge part in how we use computers, consume music and revolutionize mobile devices such as phones and tablets is no longer with us. A man with a brilliant mind and a brilliant vision will no longer express his ideas through beautiful products people in masses love to use. A man who pushes design to the limits in consumer electronics is no longer with us anymore.
Regardless if you loved or hated him, everyone can agree that he left a huge mark on the technology world. Who knows how manny years back we will be if he never came? Who knows how computers would look today? Who knows if we will still be using CD’s to listen to music? When you look back at all the things he did, its just amazing the impact that he left for all of us.
It all started with a very simple beginning. Steve Jobs was a college drop out who then started building computers from his parents garage along with his friend Steve Wozniak and called the company Apple. He had a vision right from the start to change the world in a huge way. He wanted to take on the big giant tech companies at the time such as IBM. Eventually, Apple grew and Steve Jobs completely revolutionized personal computers with the release of the Macintosh in 1984.
Despite a power struggle between Steve and Apple management in 1985 that cause Jobs to leave the company, He went on to start his own computer company called NeXT as well as taking charge of a small animation movie studio we all know as Pixar. He has guided Pixar to release revolutionary movies like Toy Story, A bug’s Life and Finding Nemo.
Steve Jobs returned to Apple in 1996 after Apple was nearly in financial ruins and nearing it’s death. As a last hope, Apple bought NeXT to get the technology NeXT had created along with getting Steve Jobs to clean up the mess Apple was in at the time. Things really started to look up for Apple when they released the iMac in 1998. It was a computer that had a design that was unthinkable at the time. It was actually a really beautiful computer and since then, Apple has been pushing the vision to make beautiful looking computers.
Of corse it didn’t stop there. Apple released the iPod in 2001 and it was the start of the drastic change of how we all consume music. It was the start of the complete shake up of the music industry. With the interduction of iTunes and the iTunes store, What was once the big and bad music industry controlling every aspect of how music is distributed and consumed, Here came Steve Jobs forcing his way through and showed them the new way of how people will consume music. It didn’t stop there however. The same went with movies and TV shows. iTunes along with the iPod… Well, there was nothing els that matched it and thats why Apple dominated the music industry. Everyone had an iPod!
Perhaps the most brilliant thing that he has done was his shake up in the mobile devices world. Before the release of the iPhone, Smartphones kind of sucked. They where mostly ugly and hard to use. There user interfaces sucked and they where not exactly the most enjoyable devices to use. With the concept of the app store where you can buy and download applications easily to your phone became a run away hit with both consumers and those who created the applications.
Then came the iPad! A thin tablet device that is aiming to be your computer replacement. While taking manny concepts from the iPhone, it proved popular with consumers to the point where Apple could not make enough of them! All of this was under the guidance of Steve Jobs.
Steve Jobs really knew how to do a presentation. He was famous for them! They became more of a spectacle than a presentation. Any time he was on stage to show off a new product, the passion, the enthusiasm and the energy flows out of him anytime he presents something new. You can clearly see that back in 2007 when he announced the first ever iPhone back in Macworld 07.
It will be very hard to think of a world with out him around. There really isn’t anyone like him around that has the vision like he did. There isn’t anyone out there who pushes other tech companies out there to compete at the same level of Apple.
While I may not exactly agree with all the things Steve Jobs had done in the past with Apple, I deeply admire him and admire all the things he has done. He didn’t think like a normal person and didn’t see the world like a normal person. He had a vision set in his mind and did whatever means to achieve such a vision.
RIP Steve Jobs.
1955 – 2011
