I was a late, LATE adopter of Apple products-- I resisted the Mac for decades, but the iPod wore me down, and the iPhone and iPad won me over.
I still don't consider myself a fanboy, but even I came to admit: they make good stuff that consumers wanted-- better yet, they made stuff we *didn't even know* we wanted, the hallmark of the most successful inventors and businesses.
And it was all because of Jobs, a singular corporate visionary the likes of which are all too rare these days, and a brave man who fought to stay with the work he loved even after his dreadful illness struck.
I was an early fan of the Mac and remain so today with no apologies. It's provided me with a career I could not have imagined had this visionary not pushed forward for its development.
Like Dave, I too was a very late adopter of Apple products. And also like Dave, the iPhone absolutely made me a believer.
Creative genius is one of the most overused phrases in the English language, but in Job's case, it's more than warranted.
Jobs has the unique distinction of not only making one enormous company better, but making another better as well - his chief competitor, Microsoft. Microsoft is unarguably a better company because of the excellent products created by Steve Jobs. And, because of that, Bill Gates owes Jobs a huge debt of gratitude.
I have not owned an Apple product since the Apple IIe in the early 1980's. I generally do not agree with the way they do business.
I do appreciate, however, what Apple has done for the home computing market, in general - how it stimulated competition and bent the PC market towards the "average" or even "casual" user. This was the doing of Steve Jobs and his vision. He moved mountains and shook the industry and I respect the heck out of him for it. A great American success story and he will be missed.
I'm an Apple user. I admired Steve Jobs in many areas. But a DaVinci, he was not. While he was smart and competent with technology, he invented nothing. In the early days, Woz did all the inventing and engineering. And in later days, the inventing and engineering was led by industrial designers like Jonathan Ive. Jobs never "invented" a single thing.
What Jobs DID have was a bit of P.T. Barnum's showmanship and "wow-ism", and Henry Ford's sense of what the public might want to buy. Unlike a DaVinci or an Edison or a Tesla, though, Jobs never created a single product or engineered a single device in his life. He simply gathered smart people around him and looked at their ideas and picked out what he thought was closest to his own likes.
I was also struck by Jobs' similarity to Henry Ford. They both started out cobbling a prototype together in a garage. Like Jobs, Ford had a great talent of picking talented associates, in the case of Jobs, starting with Steve Wozniak.
Joe Galamb and Eugene Farkas designed the Model T. James Couzens ran Ford Motor Company's business affairs. Charlie Sorensen made sure that Henry Ford's obsessions were kept in check so they could build modern automobiles. Edsel Ford built the Rouge complex. Without those people, Henry Ford would never have been the success he was.
I was curious about that, and did a search on his name as inventor at the USPTO database. He comes up 317 times as a named inventor. The vast majority are design patents - the number starts with a "D" - which is NOT for the funtioning of something but rather purely for the non-funtional "ornamental design" of something. His earliest utility patent, #5,146,556, assigned to NeXT, is for the software design of a menu and he is named with other inventors. This holds true with all the other utility patents with his name on them - a member of a team doing display software design. Mr. Jobs may have been a brilliant marketing person but the patent database does not disclose talents in electrical or mechanical engineering.
Being a visionary doesn't put you on par with a DaVinci, a true genius if there ever was one, who was truly artist, engineer, and inventor, in addition to being a visionary. Calling Steve Jobs a DaVinci cheapens DaVinci. And Steve Jobs would probably tell you that himself.
"simply gathered smart people around him and looked at their ideas and picked out what he thought was closest to his own likes"
1st - what is so "simple" about that? The ability to identify those who will contribute is not trivial, since you also have to gather complementary talent.
2nd - Without a vision, how would he know who and what to pick out? The guys at Xerox PARC couldn't see ANY use for a graphical user interface, so they let Jobs and Apple run with it.
That completely ignores the fact he is well-known for doing more that simply "picking out" ideas, but pushed his people to do better. Sometimes they failed, but he took the risk.
I am amazed at how often people who are able to identify talent and ideas, nurture them, and produce something greater than the sum of the parts are dismissed out of hand in the business world.
Yet these same types of people are honored in the sports world. How many coaches out there were the best in their sport when they were younger? Not a lot of them, I would wager.
OK, maybe he wasn't a DaVinci, but don't trivialize his other strengths.
Jobs and that whole Apple garage gang will go down in history along with Edison, Bell and the Wright Brothers as pioneers. I prefer the PC but can respect the innovation and genius of Jobs. I hope he found Christ before he died. RIP.
I was in college when I got my first development contract - to do a device drive for one of the first hard drives for the 128k Mac. Already, the drive for perfection was clear.
May we all strive for perfection in all that we do.
“Laissez lire, et laissez danser; ces deux amusements ne feront jamais de mal au monde.”
Martin Sandberg
It was only a matter of time.
May he rest in peace.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAn impressive man. RIP
(Perhaps we can make a concerted effort to keep the thread apolitical.)
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseConsidering KW's post wasn't exactly politics-free, I think that's a non-starter. There are other RIP threads.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI was a late, LATE adopter of Apple products-- I resisted the Mac for decades, but the iPod wore me down, and the iPhone and iPad won me over.
I still don't consider myself a fanboy, but even I came to admit: they make good stuff that consumers wanted-- better yet, they made stuff we *didn't even know* we wanted, the hallmark of the most successful inventors and businesses.
And it was all because of Jobs, a singular corporate visionary the likes of which are all too rare these days, and a brave man who fought to stay with the work he loved even after his dreadful illness struck.
He will be missed.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseSteve Jobs, requiescat in pace.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseSteve Jobs, requiescat in pace.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseA great man and inventor has passed away. May he rest in peace.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseNice post, Dave, and thanks for that clip, K-Lo.
I was an early fan of the Mac and remain so today with no apologies. It's provided me with a career I could not have imagined had this visionary not pushed forward for its development.
God speed, Steve Jobs. You did good.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseLike Dave, I too was a very late adopter of Apple products. And also like Dave, the iPhone absolutely made me a believer.
Creative genius is one of the most overused phrases in the English language, but in Job's case, it's more than warranted.
Jobs has the unique distinction of not only making one enormous company better, but making another better as well - his chief competitor, Microsoft. Microsoft is unarguably a better company because of the excellent products created by Steve Jobs. And, because of that, Bill Gates owes Jobs a huge debt of gratitude.
RIP, Steve.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI have not owned an Apple product since the Apple IIe in the early 1980's. I generally do not agree with the way they do business.
I do appreciate, however, what Apple has done for the home computing market, in general - how it stimulated competition and bent the PC market towards the "average" or even "casual" user. This was the doing of Steve Jobs and his vision. He moved mountains and shook the industry and I respect the heck out of him for it. A great American success story and he will be missed.
RIP, Steve Jobs.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseHe was the DaVinci of the past 25 years. Rest in peace.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseNo he wasn't.
I'm an Apple user. I admired Steve Jobs in many areas. But a DaVinci, he was not. While he was smart and competent with technology, he invented nothing. In the early days, Woz did all the inventing and engineering. And in later days, the inventing and engineering was led by industrial designers like Jonathan Ive. Jobs never "invented" a single thing.
What Jobs DID have was a bit of P.T. Barnum's showmanship and "wow-ism", and Henry Ford's sense of what the public might want to buy. Unlike a DaVinci or an Edison or a Tesla, though, Jobs never created a single product or engineered a single device in his life. He simply gathered smart people around him and looked at their ideas and picked out what he thought was closest to his own likes.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI was also struck by Jobs' similarity to Henry Ford. They both started out cobbling a prototype together in a garage. Like Jobs, Ford had a great talent of picking talented associates, in the case of Jobs, starting with Steve Wozniak.
Joe Galamb and Eugene Farkas designed the Model T. James Couzens ran Ford Motor Company's business affairs. Charlie Sorensen made sure that Henry Ford's obsessions were kept in check so they could build modern automobiles. Edsel Ford built the Rouge complex. Without those people, Henry Ford would never have been the success he was.
Ronnie Schreiber
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseCarsInDepth.com
External Link
Completely ignoring the visionary contribution.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseNot to mention the fact that his name is on over 200 patents.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI was curious about that, and did a search on his name as inventor at the USPTO database. He comes up 317 times as a named inventor. The vast majority are design patents - the number starts with a "D" - which is NOT for the funtioning of something but rather purely for the non-funtional "ornamental design" of something. His earliest utility patent, #5,146,556, assigned to NeXT, is for the software design of a menu and he is named with other inventors. This holds true with all the other utility patents with his name on them - a member of a team doing display software design. Mr. Jobs may have been a brilliant marketing person but the patent database does not disclose talents in electrical or mechanical engineering.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseBeing a visionary doesn't put you on par with a DaVinci, a true genius if there ever was one, who was truly artist, engineer, and inventor, in addition to being a visionary. Calling Steve Jobs a DaVinci cheapens DaVinci. And Steve Jobs would probably tell you that himself.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"simply gathered smart people around him and looked at their ideas and picked out what he thought was closest to his own likes"
1st - what is so "simple" about that? The ability to identify those who will contribute is not trivial, since you also have to gather complementary talent.
2nd - Without a vision, how would he know who and what to pick out? The guys at Xerox PARC couldn't see ANY use for a graphical user interface, so they let Jobs and Apple run with it.
That completely ignores the fact he is well-known for doing more that simply "picking out" ideas, but pushed his people to do better. Sometimes they failed, but he took the risk.
I am amazed at how often people who are able to identify talent and ideas, nurture them, and produce something greater than the sum of the parts are dismissed out of hand in the business world.
Yet these same types of people are honored in the sports world. How many coaches out there were the best in their sport when they were younger? Not a lot of them, I would wager.
OK, maybe he wasn't a DaVinci, but don't trivialize his other strengths.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseJobs and that whole Apple garage gang will go down in history along with Edison, Bell and the Wright Brothers as pioneers. I prefer the PC but can respect the innovation and genius of Jobs. I hope he found Christ before he died. RIP.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI was in college when I got my first development contract - to do a device drive for one of the first hard drives for the 128k Mac. Already, the drive for perfection was clear.
May we all strive for perfection in all that we do.
“Laissez lire, et laissez danser; ces deux amusements ne feront jamais de mal au monde.”
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseMartin Sandberg