It was 1976. My parents were still trying to escape an increasingly totalitarian government in Cuba. I wasn't in the world yet. But two young men with a vision in California founded what was to become my favorite fruit company on April Fool's day that year. Computers were big, heavy and complicated machines occupying large, icy rooms back then. That they could shrink in size and cost so that a regular individual would be able to own one- or even want one- was a rather preposterous thought- especially to IBM.
It was 1985. Apple faced competition from the Commodore 64, the brand new Amiga and the hastily made IBM PC. The Apple II was going strong though, and the Mac was in its second year. There was in-company fighting between the two teams, though. Jobs seemed to revel in the ensuing chaos. There was something rotten at Apple’s core. The company was tearing itself apart. That year Jobs was let go by a man he personally asked to join the company. Jobs was learning a valuable lesson. Meanwhile I was learning my alphabet. The next year Jobs buys the company that is to become Pixar under his leadership.
It was 1994. My parents bought our first computer. Actually, they waited a bit- a new computer from Apple was coming. The first PowerPC-based Mac- the PowerMac 6100/60 became our very first computer. The first thing that surprised me was the "pizza box" design. I was used to seeing the Classic rectangular Macs which resided in my school. It was amazing. The night I figured out how to make it speak, sing and respond to voice commands. I woke my parents up in the middle of the night so they could hear my discoveries. I found John Calhoun’s Glider PRO fun, but I could hardly ever get my paper airplane through a house in one piece. I cut my technological teeth on that machine. I didn't know it then, but Jobs was working on what would eventually become Mac OS X over at NeXT. The Amiga and the Commodore 64 were discontinued that year.
It was 1997. Things weren't going so well at One Infinite Loop for the "beleaguered Apple". But they would soon come full circle. Web browsing options were poor and lacking. I refused to use Microsoft Internet Explorer (or Exploder), but Netscape Communicator was not much better. I used the little German browser iCab for a while. I wanted to get my hands on the Newton eMate 300. I was also eyeing the UMAX SuperMac- an official Macintosh "clone" (licensee, technically) which was quite powerful at the time.
After twelve years, Jobs came back to briefly- Or so thought then CEO Gil Amelio. But Jobs ousted him and adopted the title "iCEO", for intern, then Internet, until finally all pretense was dropped. Jobs was there for the long haul. Among his first actions were killing of the Newton MessagePad platform and the licencees. Apple had to trim the fat and focus- fast. The next year Apple introduced the iMac.
It's 2011. It's been about ten years since the debut of the iPod, and only four short years since the first iPhone- a fact that's easy to forget. The Newton MessagePad may be long gone, but it was only last year that Apple introduced the iPad. The press stopped calling Apple "beleaguered" long ago- Apple has over seventy-five billion is assets. Now it's a status symbol (much to my chagrin sometimes). John Calhoun has just released his latest version of Glider- this time for iOS. And Steve Jobs has died.
I've got to say, I always related more to Woz. But I have to admit that there would have never been an Apple without Jobs. He was the director, producer and editor. Running a company- especially a multi-billion dollar International corporation- isn't easy. Just look at what happened to all those other companies along the way- including the pioneers like Commodore with the 64 and Amiga. It is a testament to Apple's ingenuity that it has not only survived, but thrived against fierce odds- even without being the cheapest or most customer-pandering company out there.
Apple survived and gave us choice- even in a world full of copycats and illegal monopolies. Jobs not only co-founded Apple. He's the man who went back to save it. He lead with passion and resolute vision. That is the delectable fruit of his labor. A fruit from which we have all benefitted. Jobs might not have engineered the hardware or written the innumerable lines of code that go into Apple products- that credit belongs to other awesome people- but he was the only one capable of leading and putting those talents together into what is Apple.
A leader deserves no more praise than the people who make miracles under his leadership, but also no less. Still, some might not see Jobs as a visionary. Yet vision is not just imagining new possibilities, but knowing how to make them happen in the real world. How much darker would the world have been without an Apple, without a Steve Jobs?
To my little nephew, sophisticated portable computing devices with user friendly UIs are just another natural part of the world. He already has an iPod Touch. He knows how to run apps and watch cartoons on it (talk about easy to use!) One day I will tell him the story of Apple- with its characters, including its co-founder and greatest leader, Steve Jobs- and what it means to me.
Rest In Peace, Steve Jobs. You will be missed.
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