I woke up to the news this morning that Apple co-founder Steve Jobs had passed away Aged 56. He had been battling cancer for several years. In the past few months, it had become clear that his health was in rapid decline.
Steve Jobs was more than just an innovator of technology, he represented Apple. Looking back on my own technological journey, I realise that this one person had given more to the way I live than any other innovator.
I remember back in the early 90s, it was all about Microsoft. I recallmember standing in line for hours on end eagerly awaiting my copy of Windows 95. In those days, it was all about Microsoft. Yet one person was slowly building technology that would change the way we live.
When you think of the company the CEO is always in the spotlight, and I cannot think of a company that is more closely linked to its owner than Apple. Yet what Jobs gave us was far more than what any other CEO would.
Of course, mankind owes the way we live to various inventors and innovators over the years. From Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone, John Logie Baird’s television, to Tim Berners-Lee’s Internet.
Yet none could match, in my opinion, with what Jobs gave us.
October 2001 I was walking to work and looked up the poster that caught my attention. On the poster was a particularly strange looking device, a basic small, white plastic square with words on. I had no idea what it was, but something about it made me realise that I had to find out more. It was of course the first iPod, and like the Sony cassette player in the 1980s it would revolutionise the way we listen to our personal music collection.
I remember my first iPhone in the summer of 2007. Compare to the 4S released just yesterday it seems almost primitive, but at the time it certainly was the coolest thing on earth. I slowly began to move away from owning different companies technology and began to become “An Apple Man”.
Today my laptop is then replaced with the MacBook Pro, my smartphone replaced with the iPhone 4, but to me Jobs legacy will always be cemented with the iPad.
The iPad from me changed the way I communicate. No longer do I have to take a laptop with me everywhere. I have the opportunity to work, socialise and communicate wherever I am.
Jobs was more than an innovator he was a thinker and above all he was caring, something that many of the other leading Internet giants have lost along the way.
The everlasting vision of Steve jobs that I will always remember would be the unveiling of Apple’s next innovation. Regardless if, it was the iPad 2 or simply a new IOS, he would reveal it with passion, joy and enthusiasm.
Even during his illness he would take to the stage and show off his new invention like a proud father showing off a new child.
There is no doubt that jobs has single-handedly given more to the way we communicate with each other than anyone in the last thirty years. His legacy is in safe hands, his dream will continue to inspire the next generation.
I think it’s safe to say that Steve Jobs change the world I live in. He ignited my passion for technology, he made it fun again and stimulating. Just like back in 1995 I find myself to be lining up outside an Apple Store for the latest device each time one is released.
Thank you Steve, may you be at peace.
