Apple announced this afternoon that Steve Jobs had died.
It is the end of an era, but not the end of a company.
I met Steve Jobs only once – in 1992. There was only time for a brief chat – we were sharing the stage at an industry event. (He, um, went first.)
But, I’ve worked with the products Steve Jobs created since Jan. 24, 1984 – when the first Macintosh was released. I switched to the Mac 27 years ago, and haven’t looked back once.
The tributes to Steve have been pouring in since he resigned as CEO of Apple and he is deserving of all the praise. What he did with Apple since his return is both amazing and legendary.
However, the true measure of his legacy is how the world has changed because Apple was in it. And here, his influence is beyond measure, because it is woven into the very creativity of the planet.
He made giant footprints.
7 Responses to Thoughts on Steve Jobs
Well said, Larry.
Apple not only made their products better, but they forced other companies to innovate, advance or die. We all benefit from that.
May that legacy continue.
RIP, Steve Jobs.
Stay hungry. Stay foolish Steve.
http://news.stanford.edu/news/2005/june15/jobs-061505.html
Hi Larry,
I was in the middle of doing, well, what we editors do and using Steve Jobs’ hardware and software tools to do it best, when I got a call from my father. He said, “Brace yourself, Steve Jobs is dead. He just died.” In shock and disbelief I immediate went online and saw the headline on my Yahoo News page. I just stopped dead in my tracks and have been reflecting over his passing and how he has inspired me to enter one of the greatest professions in the world, Editing & Post-Production for Video, TV, & Film.
I grew up in school where we had many of those donated Apple II’s and early Macintosh computers. I have literally witnessed, like you Larry, the evolution of Apple and its products. My first Mac was the Macintosh Performa 575 after convincing my parents I really needed it for school. It was a family-marketed computer, but it was quite powerful in its day and I explored the early forms of computer animation in high school with its help. I did not even know about Steve Jobs at the time, but I learned about Steve from my professor, who was a former engineer for Apple. I remember watching during MSNBC’s debut week on the air, and they were showcasing NEXT’s Be Box computer, another brain child of Jobs’. I thought there’s the future. Little did I know that I was right as far as the interface and software which was integrated into Mac OS 8. Anyone remember OS 8.0? Probably the most stable OS they ever had until Mac OS X. I watched a demo of the OS and was blown away by the fact that you could run it on a laptop for week without restarting and it would never crash. After they messed, sorry – updated it, it was never the same. LOL.
Once the iMac hit the market we boarded the “Apple Express” and have never got off since. I just hope that the investors stay on board and let the experts who have made Steve’s fantastic product portfolio, do what they do best – CREATE.
We will miss you Steve, but your legacy is so radiant that we will have to wear shades to bask in your glow. We will always treasure your constant dedication and passion to innovate and better our lives. I always appreciated that you looked out for us creative people in the world, and encouraged many more to follow.
Farewell.
What continues to amaze me about the core principles of all that Apple created during the Jobs years is how the products make you want to use them. I guess it’s something Steve Jobs always understood.
I’m typing this now on an iPad, not the quickest writing tool available to me, but I enjoy using it, more even than my trusty iMac. Why? I’m not sure exactly, but there is a certain elegance and exitement in it that triggers me to use it. Maybe because it’s new, but it’s also about ‘the feel’ of it.
And maybe that is part of the genius of Jobs and his innovations. How they’re not necessarily as fully featured as their competitors, but they attract, inspire and make you want to create. It’s what moves me towards all Apple’s products and what also attracts me about FCPX. It’s not just simplicity, it’s how they push me to create, and be creative, more than any other brand of products on the market.
I feel the sadness over Jobs’ passing and will remember and respect him for years to come…
• 1978 Jul – I convince my wife to buy me an Apple ][ for my 39th birthday
* 1978 Jun – Unknown to me my 63-year-old father bought himself an Apple ][ a month before I did
• 1978 Dec – Two partners and I open the 5th computer store in Silicon Valley
* 1980 Jan – ! quit my 16 year [great] job at IBM to enter this “new” computer biz full time
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* 2011 Oct – Retired, on my new, loaded, iMac 27 with a Promise Pegasus RAID — I dabble in video editing and developing apps for the iPhone and iPad.
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• 2011 Oct – My 47-year-old daughter does Mom and Soccer Mom things on her iMac, reads voraciously on her iPad, shops using a checklist app on her iPhone
• 2011 Oct – My 11-year-old grandson prepares a report using Pages on his iPad and is using it to learn Spanish
• 2011 Oct – My 13-year old grandson plays mostly games and watches movies on his iPad — but we all do group reading, together, using our iPads.
• 2011 Oct – My 16-year-old granddaughter uses her iPad for simple photo and video editing — but does most of her creative work on the family iMac — she is transitioning from iMovie to FCPX.
Hey! This isn’t about us — it’s about Steve Jobs!
Well, in a way it is about us… and what Steve has done for us.
In the 35 years of Steve’s Apple life he has managed to appeal to, and inspire 4 generations (of my family) — I can’t think of anything or anyone who even comes close.
He has made “top-quality” and “use-without-thinking-about-how-it-works” and “Apple” the synonymous norm.
He has made us uncomfortable with “second-rate”, “good enough”, “status quo” — and motivated us to do something about it (certainly, someone else will).
In Apple, Steve has assembled a group of talented and inspired people dedicated to Steve’s view of, and dissatisfaction with the world — a highly-sophisticated innovation/motivation engine to build products that create opportunity for, us, the common man.
Apple is Steve’s legacy.
And, if someone were to ask me:
“As a jaded 72-year old, would you stand in line for hours — just to buy the next great Apple iPhone (iPad, whatever)?”
Damn Straight!
Thanks for the motivation!
Thanks Apple!
Thanks Steve.
He was a great visionary who could work out logistically how hardware “should be” and how software should compliment that hardware.
He was a brilliant business man, no doubt about that.
I am hoping in time we will learn of the philanthropic side to his character, for me this is a missing piece of the Steve Jobs jigsaw.
Lastly a comment about the bloggers who wrote that Steve “was waiting in the wings” to upstage Tim Cook after the 4S presentation.
My guess is they the senior team on that demo knew Steve was on his last legs at that time.
Just goes to show we have some high quality bone heads out there on the Internet and with luck they are now hanging their heads in shame.
RIP…Steve Jobs.
Thanks for all these years
Rest in peace dear Steve Jobs