[rpray2007]

As an Apple consumer (both work and home), I have come to admire and respect much of their products - for their amazing quality, design and service. I have to believe that a lot of that can be attributed to someone like Steve Jobs who co-founded but also managed the company until recently. Now that he has passed away, I want to commemorate his live by understand how others feel about his contributions to our world.

Some of his greatest accomplishments for me, was how personalized the computing experience. Prior to Apple, computers were simply work horses, Apple turned your computer into a pet that you cared for and loved - you anthropomorphized them to a certain degree. To me, this was his greatest achievement.

What are your?

[Wondergirl]

I liked how he could always bounce back and reinvent himself and his inventions. I love people who positively reframe!

[paraclete]

Very innovative although his early products lacked the concept of real people, I would say the Ipad

[tomder55]

Well this completes a pretty lousy day.

I think he was a throwback to the days when you could be a start up innovator working from a garage . I admire his spirt. He worked to the end.

Here is an Apple ad that could very well be his eulogy.
Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do. - Apple Inc.

[tomder55]

Forgot to add his best product

Macbookpro

[ScottGem]

Let me start by saying I have great respect for Mr Jobs.

There is no denying the impact he has had on the world. For me, however, his genius came with gauging his market and timing things right.

His so-called innovations are not as innovative when one looks behind the scenes. The first Apple for example was simply a kit computer that that was sold assembled. But it hit the market at just the time when people were ready for it. The first Mac was mostly copied from things he learned at visits to Xerox's near legendary Palo Alto Research Center (PARC). Xerox, pioneered much of what we use in computing today and they just gave it away to Jobs. Even the iPhone wasn't the first SmartPhone, Apple just made improvements on the concept.

But that is where his genius comes into play. He understood what people wanted and what would sell.

He will be missed and he will go down in history as one of the most influential people at least in the 20th and 21st centuries.

[cdad]

He was a good man. But his greatest achievement was actually his greatest loss. If it wasn't for him losing in court (apple) then we wouldn't have windows. Strange the trails left behind by actions we do.

[LisaB4657]

I don't own any Apple products and I have no desire to get any. But I also have a lot of respect for Steve Jobs, for what he accomplished. Step back for a sec and just think about how many people received the news of his death via one of his products.

[smoothy]

He was a good man. But his greatest achievement was actually his greatest loss. If it wasnt for him losing in court (apple) then we wouldnt have windows. Strange the trails left behind by actions we do.

Particularly since Xerox invented the mouse and object oriented navigation nearly a decade earlier.

The only Apple product I have is an Ipod. (if you don't count a Hackintoshn where only the OS is Apple).. but being a Degreed electronic Engineer I have been a technology geek for most of my life. And I can appreciate and understand his vision better than many. And the man did have vision. Apple wouldn't be the company it is today had he not returned to it.

[tomder55]

Yeah but he helped make the computer a consumer friendly devise. Lets face it... he was an innovator like Edison . No one said he invented it.

[excon]

He wrote a program that changed the capital E to a lower case e. It's something we can't seem to do here.

[spitvenom]

Steve Jobs greatest accomplishment was fooling everyone into thinking mediocre devices are magical. Brilliant marketing much like PT Barnum. My Nokia N96 from 2006 is better then the Iphone that isn't even out yet.

[tomder55]

Yeah that's it... he fooled everyone into making his brand the most popular in consumer computing products. What a gullible group of people we are !

Dummies walking around with iphones instead of Nokia... with ipods instead of Walkmans with ipads instead of Gateway notebooks .
Here's what he did... he made these products fun. You know why there are lines at the Apple store when new Apple products are introduced ? Obviously because it's an inferior product.

[speechlesstx]

He made everyone else look like followers instead of leaders. I've never owned an Apple product, but I've owned some of imitators. With a Macbook starting at $999 when I can buy a Windows 7 laptop for about $300, or buy an iPhone and a limited plan as opposed to a free Android device and an unlimited plan, the choice is easy for me.

[spitvenom]

In the Iphone the antenna's suck and the batteries. He let you see what he wanted you to see. How come in 2006 I could make video calls on my Nokia? When did the Iphone start to do that?

I had a MP3 player in 1999 called the RIO PMP300. What the Ipod shuffle come out in 2001.

He was a greater marketing no BRILLIANT marketing guy. He knew how to take an existing product and make it seem so revolutionary when really it wasn't anything new.

[ScottGem]

yeah that's it ... he fooled everyone into making his brand the most popular in consumer computing products. What a gullible group of people we are !

Dummies walking around with iphones instead of Nokia... with ipods instead of Walkmans with ipads instead of Gateway notebooks .
Here's what he did .... he made these products fun. You know why there are lines at the Apple store when new Apple products are introduced ? Obviously because it's an inferior product.

Actually, to a certain extent that's true, at least In my opinion. Apple was never about market share. It was about having a boutique product with snob appeal. At least that was true about Apple computers. The thing is, that with iPods, iPhones and iPads, Apples came up with a boutique product that had mass appeal.

[speechlesstx]

[QUOTE=spitvenom;2909010]

He was a greater marketing no BRILLIANT marketing guy. He knew how to take an existing product and make it seem so revolutionary when really it wasn't anything new.

He had his ups and downs in the innovation area, but he really was good at taking a product and making it better. Music players were around for a long time before the iPod, PDAs long before the iPhone, etc. But his products do work and they've developed a loyal following. I call them "Apple bigots" because of the way they tend look down at the rest of us. :D

[spitvenom]

[QUOTE=speechlesstx;2909026]

I call them "Apple bigots" because of the way they tend look down at the rest of us. :D

Let them look down on you. Cause you know they have been suckered. Tal is right the ONLY reason people buy Apple is because of the name. Do you know how pissed these fan boys get when the hot new icrap comes out and it looks just like the last icrap, How oh how will anyone know I have the new expensive one when it looks like the old one.

[tomder55]

There was also brilliant strategery in getting the Apple computer into the school room.
There is a whole millennial generation that is loyal to the brand because that is what they learned on (playing Oregon Trail) . Now they are the consumer class (they are even taking pix of themselves at these anti-capitalist protests with their iphones.)

[tomder55]

This is the commencement address some of them listened to

Text of Steve Jobs' Commencement address (2005)