[Discuss] (OT) Steve Jobs 1955-2011

[Kyle Leslie]

I have to agree with what Rich is saying.  Perhaps you don't like him as a
business man but you have to remember, the business world is cut throat.  It
is unfortunate when smaller people and companies get the shaft but every
business head is similar to Jobs, they want THEIR product to succeed.
Perhaps you remember Jobs because he was pretty good at this and generally
won a lot of the battles he engaged in.  I am sure there are business people
out their who are generally honest but I would venture to guess there are
far less than the "Jobs" type.

He put a lot of pressure on the industry with Apple's products.  In my
opinion if it wasn't for Jobs and Apple, we wouldn't have the competitive
environment today.  M$ would still rule the world and be happy with a crap
product.  Now they are revamping their entire OS.  The iPad and iPhone have
taken over and forced other companies to push a product that isn't awful.

Likeness would say if not for Jobs it would be some other company head that
you would be upset about.  Who knows maybe Tim will be so much worse that
you wish Steve was back running the company.


On Wed, Oct 5, 2011 at 11:16 PM, Rich Braun <richb at pioneer.ci.net> wrote:

> Jobs was certainly a controversial figure, and his business steamrolled a
> lot
> of the smaller companies whose entrepreneurial initiatives could have gone
> farther.  But I think I will remember him for challenging his rivals.  Some
> things that are hard to deny:
>
> * He showed that industrial design (form/fit/appearance) matters as much
> now
> as it did in the age of Metropolis (a film dating to the 1920s).
>
> * The process of getting the bits from the developers' fingertips onto the
> screen of the end user was pretty much consistently /terrible/ on /all/
> other
> platforms until Jobs came along.  Just run it, damnit, and make it /work/.
> Ubuntu was the first rival to really get that message.
>
> * Simplify, strip down, and eliminate cruft--users will show up in droves.
>
> * The retail store isn't dead, if you play the PR right.
>
> * 99% of users really don't give a crap about customizability.  They want
> someone else to make things work. (Heads up to Linux developers:  yes, I do
> want customizability, but if your app is going to drive any kind of
> revenue,
> you need to make it work first and provide customizability as a
> barely-visible
> option.)
>
> A lot of conventional wisdom got turned on its head under Steve Jobs'
> watch,
> especially the return engagement which brought us the iPhone and the
> spinoffs
> which came in rapid-fire since.
>
> I'm still embittered about the loss of my last data-center management job
> which came on the heels of overwhelming demand for and lack of ability to
> support an abrupt increase of Macintosh users at the company.  (In a few
> months we went from about 3 Macs hidden away in a QA lab to over 2 dozen,
> mostly on desks of the $200K/year executive class.  Apple's strategy for
> LAN-wide support was basically to have them walk over to the CambridgeSide
> Galleria's "Genius Bar" to fix whatever settings they hosed.  Executives
> with
> signature authority kept buying Macs without coordinating purchasing with
> IT.
> That's what I endured and really thought sucked, but had absolutely no
> control
> over; I'll wager Apple went from 4% to 8% of the PC industry by doing the
> same
> thing to a gazillion other IT departments just like mine.  Ever tried to
> put a
> few dozen, few hundred, few thousand Apple devices under central
> management?
> ;-)
>
> So yeah, Jobs had an impact on all our lives:  for better or for worse.  I
> think in the end it will be for the better, because of the clear and
> obvious
> point that he made: The User Is Paramount.  Ignore that at your peril.
>
> Footnote:  City Councilor Leland Cheung unveiled a series of "Hollywood
> Stars"
> recognizing Jobs and 6 other engineering leaders in a Walk of Fame here in
> Cambridge just 3 weeks ago.  Coincidentally, he showed up at a neighborhood
> meeting I attended this evening:  I met him for the first time right at the
> same moment Jobs' death was announced.  Like Jobs himself, Cheung is the
> son
> of immigrants from another country, making a new life here in America.  I
> plan
> to go take a look at the Jobs star tomorrow.
>
> -rich
>
>
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