Steve Jobs

TRIBUTE TO STEVE JOBS

I have heard of tributes coming in from around the world, but particularly China where they seem to see Steve as their liberator - the news was mostly distributed there by iPhone and iPad.

Unlike Microsoft - which sells you what it wants to sell, just sells you a computer. Steve looked for problems and provided imaginative solutions.

I heard an IT guru on radio talk about the brilliance of the iPad. The iPad was predicted to fail as it was neither a notebook PC or an iPhone. And to make it worse, Steve didn't tell people what they could do with it. It had no apparent market.

The result was, the users adapted it for their own needs and interests, and then created their APPs/interfaces. Some used it as a camera. Some a photographic studio. Some used it as a musical instrument, others a music studio. And the uses just kept expanding. Politicians use it to pretend they are computer literate.

Steve claims the best thing that ever happened to him was being fired by Apple, the company he co-founded. But he was playing high-stakes poker at the time, either he went or the CEO went.

He left and co-founded PIXAR, the most brilliant movie animation studio since Walt Disney died and his company floundered. His benchmark movies were TOY STORY 1, 2 and 3. This was so successful that Pixar now owns Disney, and has restored its fortunes.

When Apple was financially on its knees - nearly bankrupt, people implored Steve to return and take over again.

In those few years since, and slowly dying of cancer, he turned the company around and made it bigger than Microsoft.

Many are worried that without Steve at the top, it will lose direction again. But others note that he has instilled a direction for the company at all levels, regardless of them being manager, researcher or developer.