I thought it would be appropriate to do a blog post about the death of the Apple mastermind, Steve Jobs, as I don’t know anyone that hasn’t been affected or influenced by this man at some point in their lives.
I also think it’s important to know a bit of background on Steve, to understand what a truly remarkable man he was. Born in San Francisco and adopted into an Armenian family, Steve went through High School and then attended college for only 1 semester before dropping out. He took a job as a technician at Atari with the aim to saving enough money to travel to India on a spiritual retreat. He came back a Buddist and 2 years later founded Apple in his garage with Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne. Through Steve’s role at Apple, in 1978 he introduced the Macintosh computer to the world, changing the face of the computer and technological industry forever. In 1985 Jobs’ was sacked from Apple due to ‘an internal power struggle and disappointing sales’ making way for Steve to go on to create another company, NeXT Computer – This company went on to be a success, resulting in the creation of NeXTSTEP/Intel. During this time Steve also bought The Graphics Group, later to be known worldwide as Pixar – This resulted in Pixar collaborating with Disney to produce some of the most famous and well known films of our time, films such as Toy Story, Monsters Inc, Finding Nemo and Wall-E. In 1996 Apple announced it would buy NeXT for $429 million, hence welcoming Jobs back into the Apple family. It was here the iPod, iPad and iPhone were created, giving Jobs worldwide admiration and notoriety. After being appointed CEO of Apple in 1998, Jobs resigned in August 2011 following a well documented battle with his health and suffering from pancreatic cancer. He died yesterday, aged 56, 6 weeks after his resignation.
Steve changed the face of technology in our time forever. I understand that he didn’t change the world necessarily for the greater good, such as a world renowned surgeon or a Florence Nightingale figure. He didn’t cure diseases, help the poor or do much charity work. The only enhancement to our lives Steve’s work created was purely superficial, but it has changed the way many people live. If you talk to someone about owning an iPhone, how many people have said “I don’t know how I lived without it?” – In a really shallow way, Steve made people’s lives better.
When you look at the life span of Steve Jobs, he fitted a lot in, but I think it’s also awfully sad just how short his life was. He was only 56 when he died. He experienced immense success in his professional life, he was married and was lucky enough to have children. You would be right in saying his life was successful and privileged because of it. Regardless of all this, he suffered with cancer and it was ultimately what killed him. It just goes to show that no amount of knowledge or wealth can stop the inevitable.
Although Steve was highly regarded in the world of technology, I think it’s a shame that only now, preceding his death, is he being fully celebrated for the genius he was, but that’s always the way. Such as the big news coverage surrounding Amy Winehouse’s death, they had their fans but it’s only the early demise of these talented individuals that made their names the words on everyone’s lips.
If it wasn’t for Steve Jobs, you lot would not be reading this. I put my twitter ‘career’ (used in the loosest possible terms) down to the simple fact I can tweet from my iPhone. I have had some of the greatest experiences of my life at gigs, and the only reason I have been there is because I have initially had access to iTunes to download albums by these bands and listen to their music. I have made friends, and even gained employment thanks to the work that when whittled down, all leads back to this man, and his vision and creativity he shared with the world. It sounds majorly dramatic, but it’s only when written like that you realise just how much of an impact this man’s ideas had on everyday life.
So all that’s left to say is RIP Steve. You did good.
I might not have agreed with the way that apple appear to have taken over the world etc, but steve seemed like a nice guy and your blog was a refreshing change to the either die hard of hater fanbase of apple.
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