End of ERA - a SUPER HUMAN - a Great MAN

[ausmike]

I was one of few lucky enough to meet this great man; my best 30 mins of learning ; discussion and most humbling experiance of my life time
Steve Jobs
May you rest in peace and go with best of prayers.

Mike

[killer]

Pancreatic cancer is a dreadful disease. It doesn't respect how great or super a person is.

[pianowizard]

He was no doubt the Thomas Edison of our generation.

I just watched his 1984 demo of the original Macintosh and found it interesting: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KkENSYkMgs

[sysiphus]

He was no doubt the Thomas Edison of our generation.

I just watched his 1984 demo of the original Macintosh and found it interesting: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KkENSYkMgs

He was a great visionary and salesperson, but an Edison he was not--without Woz and later other great engineers, Apple as we know it wouldn't have happened.

That said, still a great loss

[pianowizard]

He was a great visionary and salesperson, but an Edison he was not--without Woz and later other great engineers, Apple as we know it wouldn't have happened.

Well, not in the sense that Jobs built his inventions himself, but in the sense that his company's products transformed our lives as much as Edison's inventions did. Smartphones and tablets are far more complicated than light bulbs and phonographs and no one could possibly build these fancy electronic devices all by themselves.

[ausmike]

...Edison , Einstein ...for me if Steve Jobs in being considered worthy of these such 'Engineers of lifetime'..... AM SURE he would still say :am not worthy:

Ipad, Iphone etc , has CREATED a WHOLE NEW WORLD , far more exciting than humble light bulb - each equally worthy products/invention(s) IMHO

RIP

[lead_org]

Steve Jobs is a very complex character, there are so many dimensions to this person. I don't think there are many people in the industry that have the type of showmanship, wits and charisma that Steve Jobs has. Also, i don't many people in history is admired by both his enemies and his friends alike, whether you hate him or love him, you can not stop admiring his will to succeed against the odds, or his vision for success. Truly a titan of our time.

[jdhurst]

"End of ERA "

Yes, it is. Steve Jobs will be missed. I use what fits my business needs, and Apple never had a place in that. Nonetheless, I join in the prayers, in the sadness and in the celebration for a great life well lived, and I give thanks for all his many accomplishments.

Rest in Peace, Steve. You have earned it. .... JDH

[ajkula66]

The ultimate master of marketing is gone. May he rest in peace.

While I never bought into any of Jobs' concepts, there is no point in denying his success on a variety of levels.

He even manage to postpone the inevitable long enough (yes, money and influence did help him there) to create the stuff most people will remember him for...the "i" generation of products...

Whatever one may think of Jobs, there is no doubt that we won't see anything like him in our lifetimes again.

[pianowizard]

While I never bought into any of Jobs' concepts

I do admire some of Apple's products, but like you, I have never liked them enough to actually buy them. The only Apple product that I own is a USB power adapter that I got for free.

Jobs' technological innovations influenced me indirectly. For example, without the 1984 Macintosh, desktop computers would probably be quite different. Without the iPhone, I probably wouldn't have the HTC Touch Pro2 that's with me 24/7. And without the iPad, I definitely wouldn't have my HP Touchpad. But Jobs had an impact on me in other ways as well. He inspired me to think outside the box, and his excellent presentations taught me how to improve on my own presentation skills. He also inspired me to work hard, because he proved that it is possible for a person to single-handedly change the world.

[bill bolton]

but in the sense that his company's products transformed our lives as much as Edison's inventions did.

Not even a few percent of the level of transformation that arose from Edison's major inventions/innovations.

Steve Jobs was an asute entrepreneur, and a very clever marketer, but comparisons to Edison (let alone Einstein) are just fatuous.

[paul*robertson]

He made technology sexy. The only Apple products i own are a couple of ipods, and while there are other mp3 players around, none are as simple or good looking as the ipod classic. Its just a beautiful piece of technology.

[underclocker]

R.I.P. Mr. Jobs. As CEO, he took control and responsibility for his company, products and people. That alone may make him "great".

[asiafish]

Wednesday was a very sad day for me. I actually migrated my entire law office from a Windows environment to a Mac OS X environment 2-years-ago, and never looked back. iMac desktops on my secretaries' desks look more like pieces of art than computers, while the MacBook Pro laptops used by my paralegal and office manager are smart enough to always know where they are, and adjust themselves accordingly (default printer, VPN, shares) with no intervention from the user whatsoever. My own MacBook Air is as much jewelry as technology in the courtroom, but does the 10-20 suspend-resume cycles every morning in court far better than anything else can. The biggest benefit of the Mac ecosystem to my business is the hours it saves me every week that used to be spent when someone complained "I can't print" or "I lost the share folder". Those things just don't happen anymore, and monthly computer maintenance went from hours to minutes.

No, the Mac won't go away anytime soon, but I have to wonder if without Steve Jobs at the helm, if bloat and bullet-point marketing will return to the platform and the elegant simplicity I love will gradually be "engineered" out.

I'll miss you Steve, you certainly enriched my life over the years.


Andrew

Office: MacBook Pro 13" X2, iMac 20" and 21", Mac Mini C2D, MacBook Pro 15", MacBook Air 11", iPhone X2, iPad X3.... no more Windows

[RealBlackStuff]

I think Steve Jobs was also a bit of an ego-tripper: I-phone, I-pod, I-pad, I-mac etc.
Never spent a penny on any of his/Apple's products, over-rated and over-priced.

[GomJabbar]

Steve Jobs was more than an excellent marketeer. He was a visionary and superb executive that put together some of the best minds to create the next new thing. His devices had no equal when they were introduced (Macintosh, iPod, iPhone, iPad, etc.).

True, others were able to improve on what Steve Jobs' Apple envisioned and created, but Apple was first with a 'hit' product in each example above. Of course not everything Steve Jobs envisioned was a hit, but the numbers don't lie regarding his successes and loyal admirers.

[dsvochak]

In 1998, ‘i” represented “internet, individual, instruct, inform, inspire”.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BHPtoTctDY

As was said, his vision of “the next new thing” impacted us all.

[asiafish]

I think Steve Jobs was also a bit of an ego-tripper: I-phone, I-pod, I-pad, I-mac etc.
Never spent a penny on any of his/Apple's products, over-rated and over-priced.

Never bought an Apple product? Your loss.

[pianowizard]

Not even a few percent of the level of transformation that arose from Edison's major inventions/innovations.

Jobs' influence will continue to grow over time. His impact on society right now is probably comparable to Edison's impact back in around 1910, when the number of people benefiting from his inventions was still rather limited.

[daeojkim]

There is not going be anyone who denies that Steve Jobs has changed the way we live and how we implement technology in our daily lives. The fact that he left us at such young age by a disease that we all dread makes his story even more compelling. However, to compare Steve Jobs to Thomas Edison and Albert Einstein is a stretch. The latter individuals "invented" or "discovered" novel technologies or ideas and changed the fundamentals of science and the way we live. Steve Job was a visionary, fabulous marketer, but not an inventor or scientist to the level of Thomas or Edison or Einstein.

Steve Jobs did not invent microprocessors, hard drive technology, mouse, RAM technology, display technology, tablet computers, smart phones, etc... He was able to put together technologies that were already available and repackage / make it better so that we can use it more easily and convenient.

Some notable individuals that would be in the league of Edison and Einstein would be Archimedes, Galileo, Copernicus, Newton, Edward Jenner, James Watson, Graham Bell, Nikola Tesla, Wright Brothers and many others.

Steve Jobs will definitely remembered as one of the most significant person in the last century, but he is no Thomas Edison or Einstein. He is perhaps is more like Henry Ford.

[ajkula66]

daeojkim wrote:

Steve Jobs will definitely remembered as one of the most significant person in the last century, but he is no Thomas Edison or Einstein. He is perhaps is more like Henry Ford.

Very well put.

[pianowizard]

Look up the history of the items that Edison invented. We use the word "invented", but he really only improved them. For example, before him, at least a dozen people had contributed to the development of the light bulb. Most people don't know this fact because he lived such a long time ago, whereas Jobs doesn't have this advantage since he was our contemporary and so we all remember that he merely built upon existing technologies.

But I agree he was no Einstein. One was an inventor, and the other a scientist, two very different categories.

[ThinkRob]

Jobs didn't create products. He was a great presenter, but I'm not sure that he was even a great marketer; Apple's best marketing successes were created by others.

What he was good at -- phenomenally so -- was identifying consumer electronics markets and putting together the necessary engineering talent to cater to those markets. That's a relatively rare talent, and one that I think he deserves respect for.

[daeojkim]

He was a visionary but not an inventor to the level of Edison by any means. Like I stated earlier, he was able to repackage already existing hardware into a pretty designed package. Then use his marketing genius to entice his followers or new converters to buy the company's product. Apple has been a brilliant industrial design company under the guidance of Steve Jobs.

Thomas Edison did not repackage already existing light bulb technology, but he found the reasonable material (cotton filament) that was suitable to use in light bulb that was relatively cheap and long lasting making it practical for masses to use.

If Steve Jobs or Apple created a microprocessor with material that can replace current silicon based processor so that it can run 10 times faster while being 10 times smaller and consuming 10 times less power at affordable price, then I would give Steve Jobs the credit as an inventor worthy of comparison to Thomas Edison.

[killer]

There is no doubt that many people think that Steve Jobs had an important role in the development of modern consumer products. They may be correct, although Bill Bolton is right to query the comparison with Edison. The next thing is that people will start to go overboard and compare him with Matthew Boulton.

Apple corporation (didn't they pinch Apple from the Beatles?) was a lot larger than Steve Jobs. He was the face on TV ... the front man.

I am sure that all of us would wish that he rests in peace. Maybe we should leave it there?

[RealBlackStuff]

Never bought an Apple product? Your loss.

On the contrary, not buying any of his (for me useless, but YMMV) products saved me hundreds, or rather thousands of $$$!
I don't buy stuff like that because I don't follow marketing hype.

[bill bolton]

Jobs' influence will continue to grow over time.

Only hindsight will be able to tell on that, but I suspect that without the man, the influence will decline fairly quickly. We already have a model for that

His impact on society right now is probably comparable to Edison's impact back in around 1910, when the number of people benefiting from his inventions was still rather limited.

That merely indicates you have little idea of the impact of Edison's primary innovations (of which the incandescent light bulb was merely a minor expression) and what others, like Sprague et al, built on them.

Cheers,

Bill B.

[asiafish]

On the contrary, not buying any of his (for me useless, but YMMV) products saved me hundreds, or rather thousands of $$$!
I don't buy stuff like that because I don't follow marketing hype.

Hype?

So reducing the time spent at my office supporting 7 PCs from between 4 and 12 hours per month to one hour per quarter for 7 Macs is hype?

Having the ability to administer my law office network myself without hiring an IT guy to fix things when they go down (I'm a lawyer, not an IT guy) is hype?

When we had PCs, I fixed what I could, and hired out roughly two or three times per quarter when something went wrong. That meant at best time that I spent as amateur IT (unpaid) instead of as lawyer (highly paid), and at worst it meant the office grinding to a halt waiting for the IT guy to show up and fix the problem.

In the two years since we had Macs, I spend an hour per month installing whatever patches and updates Apple and Microsoft (for Office: Mac) puts out, and otherwise it just works.

That is not hype, that is an OS that is simple to administer and thus saves me time and money.

I can say the same for every Apple product I've added, they cost more money up front, but save me a fortune in the long run. I used to have to pay to have BlackBerry Enterprise Server configured for a new phone every year or two when I or someone in my office needed a new one. Now, with iPhones, plug in the username and password and DayLite (our office calendar, database and CRM suite) does the rest. No more BES.

I'm forced to use Windows for my military duties and I use it for playing games, but I wouldn't dream of moving my business to Windows, it is just too expensive despite the PCs being cheaper. Linux would cost even more despite being free.

I used to think buying generic PCs saved me money, now I know better. Buying a high-end X220 saved me quite a bit of money compared to buying a cheapo netbook. Buying Apple likewise saved me thousands, and keeps on saving me thousands compared to using Windows or Linux. Money saved in reduced (as in ZERO) support costs, money saved in hardware that I can keep five instead of three years, and money saved with five-year-old gear that fetches 50-70% of its purchase price when resold on eBay, compared to the 10-25% PC gear tends to get, if it can be sold at all.

If that's hype, I'll take more anytime.

[ajkula66]

asiafish wrote:

That is not hype, that is an OS that is simple to administer and thus saves me time and money.

While I have no reason to doubt your personal experience regarding OSX vs. Winows deployment, it is hardly a typical one. Millions of businesses worldwide run on Windows, and many of them have looked into having Macs replacing their PCs but decided against it since there are way too many applications that simply won't run in the OSX environment...and VMs of any kind are a no-go...

I used to have to pay to have BlackBerry Enterprise Server configured for a new phone every year or two when I or someone in my office needed a new one. Now, with iPhones, plug in the username and password and DayLite (our office calendar, database and CRM suite) does the rest. No more BES.

Any cell phone or PDA is only as good as the network it's on...and for any larger-size enterprise that remains the main consideration...a communications device that reliably works everywhere or thereabouts...not an option with the original iPhone, not a problem with BlackBerry - none of which would've been my personal choice if I had to actually spend my own money on a cell phone...

Money saved in reduced (as in ZERO) support costs, money saved in hardware that I can keep five instead of three years, and money saved with five-year-old gear that fetches 50-70% of its purchase price when resold on eBay, compared to the 10-25% PC gear tends to get, if it can be sold at all.

Once again, in a larger-size enterprise, all of the aforementioned is a non-issue. That's why for many people used to functioning within such systems - let alone running them - Apple's products could only be perceived as "hyped up" and "over-rated"...because they are immature in their own way and do not play well with others...which is a MUST in this type of environment...

My two cents regarding the issues at hand would go along these lines:

Everyone has their own setup that works for them, at least to a degree.

For many people, Steve Jobs was the one who provided them with the setup they couldn't find elsewhere. Quite a feat in many respects.

[asiafish]

While I have no reason to doubt your personal experience regarding OSX vs. Winows deployment, it is hardly a typical one. Millions of businesses worldwide run on Windows, and many of them have looked into having Macs replacing their PCs but decided against it since there are way too many applications that simply won't run in the OSX environment...and VMs of any kind are a no-go...

Any cell phone or PDA is only as good as the network it's on...and for any larger-size enterprise that remains the main consideration...a communications device that reliably works everywhere or thereabouts...not an option with the original iPhone, not a problem with BlackBerry - none of which would've been my personal choice if I had to actually spend my own money on a cell phone...

Once again, in a larger-size enterprise, all of the aforementioned is a non-issue. That's why for many people used to functioning within such systems - let alone running them - Apple's products could only be perceived as "hyped up" and "over-rated"...because they are immature in their own way and do not play well with others...which is a MUST in this type of environment...

My two cents regarding the issues at hand would go along these lines:

Everyone has their own setup that works for them, at least to a degree.

For many people, Steve Jobs was the one who provided them with the setup they couldn't find elsewhere. Quite a feat in many respects.

I am not a large enterprise, but rather a small business. Windows deployment or even Linux can definitely be cheaper and easier in a large enterprise, but for one lawyer with five support staff and seven machines plus a server, the Apple system was an is a huge money-saver and productivity-booster for me.

WITH AN IT STAFF the benefits I see are non-issues, but the ability of a small business like mine to have stable, secure and powerful tools without needing an IT person or staff is where Apple really shines.