Steve Jobs: Rest In Peace

You might have already heard the news.  This may sound like jumping on a bandwagon, but I was sad to hear it.

It's true, I've been vocally critical of Apple, and Steve Jobs.  Part of that is bitterness for having sold their stock ten years ago at $16 a share.  I recently bought a top-of-the-line MacBook Pro and returned it after a week.

That being said, I've always had tremendous respect for Steve Jobs and the companies he created.  His design sense was always an inspiration to me, and I've often quoted his 2001 speech where, describing the brand new Mac OS X, he said "you'll want to lick it."  He was right: software should be a visceral experience; it should touch you on an emotional level.

On top of that, he transformed the industry several times over.  ABC news has comapred him to Thomas Edison, and the comparison is apt.  Jobs transformed the personal electronics industry several times over: first with the personal computer and the Graphical User Interface, later with the first mainstream mp3 player, and most recently with the first mainstream smartphone.  In every case, these products already existed, but Jobs was the one who showed the world what was possible.  He was the one who turned every one of these products into an object of desire.

Above all, Jobs was a showman.  At that same speech in 2001, when he finally gave the audience a tiny glimpse of the new OS - a single button - thousands of people broke into wild applause.  Over a button.  Jobs manufactured and sold a feeling, that personal electronics were accessories that could make you feel hip and cool.  When I think of Apple, I always think of this long-form advertisement from 1994:

It's deliciously 1990's, and there are some wonderful tidbits in there:

• A clip from the original "1984" commercial, still considered the greatest commercial ever made
• Every Mac I owned as a kid, including the Mac Plus, Mac Color Classic, and my college computer, the PowerBook Duo 2300, still the coolest computer I've ever owned.
• A clip of a young & health Steve Jobs delivering the Macworld keynote address
• A 3D rendering of the old new Apple headquarters (which hadn't been built yet)
• Cute slogans like "The world is my desktop," which celebrate the creative spirit that Apple has always supported

That video came on the "multimedia starter CD" that came with the very first Apple CD-ROM I purchased, and I used to watch that video over and over.  (Okay, yeah, I was a huge nerd back then . . . and a huge Apple fanboy.)

My point: That was all Steve Jobs.  He has often been described as a "wizard," and that's in fact what he was: a modern-day wizard who spun wonder and delight out of thin air, and sold us on it.

Can Apple continue the magic without him?  It doesn't matter.  His accomplishment was being him, and for that he will always be celebrated.