For those of you knowing me, you know that I’m not a blathering apple fan-boy.
Yes, I have owned an AppleTV, and yes I do own a iMac 27″ beast with a beautiful design, great usability and what not.
I have no intention of saying that what Steve Jobs did was to create any of these products, but he was one of the driving forces behind them. I don’t think there’s anyone in the industry (the IT-business one, that is) who disregards his involvement in the creation of them… but the loss of him does not prevent design prodigies as Jonathan Ive from designing great Apple hardware. Neither does it mean that the talented software developers at Apple are prevented from creating software that emphasizes usability, sleekness and captivate it’s users.
But… I am worried that Apple has lost it’s main driver, a person that settled for nothing less than perfection (or what he believed it being).
Let’s face it, the thing that Steve Jobs did for me was:
- Start the Smart Phone market. The iPhone started everything, which has lead to me having an awesome Android phone. Yes, I am aware of the fact that there was Palm and Windows Mobile prior to that… but calling those Smart Phones…well, not going into that.
- Make people aware of the fact that there’s something else on the computer market than just Microsoft. Sure, they may dominate the market… but Apple did stir something up, and it doesn’t seem like the waters will settle any time soon (or ever, even).
- Entertain me… Steve bought Pixar, and lead feature length 3D animation films into the main stream market. Quite an amazing task, one only comparable by the similar task Walt Disney took on when creating “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” back in 1938.
- Challenge everyone in the IT business to make great IT projects… and in term challenge me.
Everybody has over the last couple of days shown their respect to the loss of a genius in the business. A memorial page is up on Apple’s website, Google not only had a line saying “Steve Jobs – 1955-2011″ at their frontpage, but also desided to postpone their expected launch of their Nexus Prime Phone and Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich).
I’m looking forward to seeing who will “step up” to the plate and take over the task of being the main innovator in the industry. I guess time will only tell.
Rest in Peace, Steve
You will be missed.
