I know most of the market share out there in the IT industry is with IBM and/or Microsoft. However, two years ago today, 5 October, we lost Steve Jobs.
Steve was a pure innovator with computers and was thinking outside the normal for most people. CNN has the Apple Mac 2 and iPods down in the 12 best designs from the last 100 years. That’s very impressive for someone who never finished college, and was taken off of the board of Apple Computers. I have to say he was always thinking what more can we do and how can we do things differently. Did he always get it right? No – just take a look at Apple Lisa from the late 1970s into the early 1980’s and you can see he didn’t always get it right, but after all remember he WAS human. Also, remember when he DID get it right, it was very impressive.
That being said, I think probably one of the least impressive things, in hindsight, he did was take the company public. By doing that, he gave others control over what he wanted to control very badly. I can honestly say, in my opinion, he was a control freak when it came to Apple and their designs. He only wanted things one way – his way. Everyone else could go jump. In some areas of business, having that attitude would be an advantage, but you have to offset it somehow, and, from what I’ve heard, he never did.
Since his passing, everyone has to agree Apple has not really gone that far in new designs. I know, personally, I was hoping the new iPhone 5 that were released in September would be mind blowing or at least some type of major design rework. Instead the majority of us were left very disappointed by what seems to be mainly a rehash of the earlier iPhones. I did see in July 2013 there was an article online that states “…the Mac maker has filed for, detailing a multi-function input port that could merge a USB port and SD card slot into one. Apple originally applied for the patent in December 2011, and it has yet to be awarded. One of the primary benefits of merging the two ports would be to facilitate even thinner designs” and this intrigued me. Are they looking into something new and they just haven’t got the design right or were waiting until the patent is awarded to go ahead? This I want to keep in mind over the next year. I’m hopeful, if nothing else, that Tim Cook will run with Steve’s vision and forethought on future products.
Tim’s tweet today (5 October).
In fact, what gives me a bit of hope is his tweet and internal letter was reportedly sent out to employees this anniversary of Steve’s passing. We should stop and think of Steve and what he did for the industry because the impact was huge and ever lasting.
So in keeping his memory alive below is a video, released by Apple on the first anniversary of Steve’s death, and its just as important to remember these ideals today as it was when he first passed.
You can view people paying their respects to Steve by viewing the Apple site for him. However, if you still want to pay your respects you can:
Over a million people from all over the world have shared their memories, thoughts and feelings about Steve. One thing they all have in common — from personal friends to colleagues to owners of Apple products — is how they’ve been touched by his passion and creativity. You can view some of these messages below.
And share your own at rememberingsteve@apple.com
Jo Ann Fitzgerald's Professional IT Blog 