I have been sitting at my keyboard for some time now trying to think of a suitable way to start this article. All the obvious ‘great man’ openers seem wrong somehow, and will be done far better by people who actually knew him, so it is left to the rest of us to comment on what the death – the very early death – of a man who indirectly affected so much means to us.
He was a businessman, someone who understood how to grow something small into something huge. But whilst other people in similar positions have grown technology businesses based on features and toolsets, or by tracking supply and demand, Steve Jobs realised that the way to stand out was to be creative. He included art into his designs, and made technology something that was approachable. From the early Apple II through the first Mac (now known as the Classic) and onto the latest iThis and iThat, the Apple brand has taken technology and turned it from being something you hid away in the corner to something you proudly displayed in the middle of your living room. It is as if whilst all the other companies were vying to see who could cram the fastest processor into the biggest boxes, Apple started by designing something that looked fun, sleek, or futuristic, and then fitted the tech into the available space.
But the Steve Jobs effect did not stop at the edge of the Apple campus. As they started to produce sleeker and more desirable equipment, other companies followed suit, and soon technology companies everywhere realised that the art of the product was as important as well. Whether you have an iPhone or an Android, a PC or a Mac, the ‘lifestyling’ of technology was led by Apple, as they realised that whilst what people needed was a powerful tool, what they wanted was something that looked more like a designer accessory than an industrial workhorse.
| “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” Steve Jobs |
Steve Jobs changed the way that the world looked at technology, and it will never be the same again. We can only wonder what he would have achieved with longer to develop his ideas and see them to fruition.
