Steve Jobs 1955 – 2011
Few people can be called ‘revolutionary’ without there being some negative connotations, Steve Jobs’ was among that number. People like Jobs, whose creativity and vision realise potential we never thought existed and who change our lives for the better are rare. Detractors alleged a fanatical attention to detail, but in the culture of secrecy and loyalty that surrounds Apple products, who knows if this is true? Even if it is, surely our love affair with everything Apple is based on its simple perfection; it makes products as beautiful and intuitive as you can imagine they should be.
The story behind the creation of the Apple 1 is computer legend: working from Jobs’ parents garage Steve Wozniak assembled the hardware as Jobs took orders for units and blagged credit for the components. Over the next three years, two more versions (Apple II and Apple III) were launched and by 1982 Steve Jobs had made the cover of Time Magazine, where he was reported as saying “There are only a couple of questions. There are no penalties for wrong answers. The weight of the argument and the heat of the debate are what count”.
The 80’s wasn’t plain sailing for Jobs, being ousted from Apple in 1985, but out of adversity, a new creative direction emerged when he bought a division of George Lucas films and created Pixar was born.
By 1997 Steve Jobs was back as CEO of Apple and the following year, the company turned a profit after years of downsizing and consolidation. 1999 saw the introduction of the first iBook followed by the iPod, iTunes, iPod Shuffle, iPod Nano, MacBook pro and iPhone. Apple’s march across our conciousness had begun.
Despite apparent intransigence, Jobs capitulated eventually to the need for interoperability with Windows; ultimately migrated to the Intel platform and finally agreed a settlement with Apple Corp over a name spat with the Beatles and released the entire Beatles back catalogue to iTunes. commercial mountains that had once seemed immoveable eventually came to Jobs.
From its humble beginnings in a Californian garage, to it’s global reach of over 300 stores with sales of the iPad exceeding 8 million in the last financial quarter alone, I genuinely believe our children will be taught about Jobs just as they learn about Newton, Darwin and Edison. His loss to the technology community is immeasurable and his passing is truly a loss to us all.
THURSDAY 6th OCTOBER 2011
Link to tributes to Steve Jobs here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-15202484
Link to Apple here: http://www.apple.com
Email Apple’s condolences page here: rememberingsteve@apple.com
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