The passing of Steve Jobs

Wow, a young Steve Jobs does look charming!

Hey there, nice day to you. Steve Jobs passed away yesterday, on Wednesday, 5th October 2011. It came as kinda abrupt news to me as while I knew that he stepped down as CEO of Apple due to health concerns and such, I never knew his death was nearing. His passing came as a surprise to me, and sadness, dismay, to many others all over the world.

Yup, I never really did feel anything much towards his passing. To me, it was more like an event, an occurrence, much like any other normal incident. I don't have any Apple product with me. Nor am I dabbling in any Apple-related app programming of some sort. I've taken a look at Objective-C, and I'd say it's even more confusing and baffling than C++. Maybe I'm just not that good a programmer. ;)

I got the news of his death from my friend. And then... he kind of explained why his death was such a big thing. It was particularly because his company, Apple, has been producing cutting-edge, high-end products, that are not only high in demand, but also fetch high prices--the iPod, iPhone, iPad, MacBook, among many... wait, I can't really think of any other products here, but let's just say many others for now.

My friend explained to me that, without Steve Jobs, the following probably wouldn't have happened:

• the advent of smartphones
• the advent of tablets
• the evolution of laptops (ultraportables, anyone?)

It is true, indeed, that Apple has been The One in recent years to constantly pioneer new technologies, new ideas, and new products. Much like a razor wind cutting through uncharted territory, Apple has been stepping into places never explored before, revolutionizing and innovating, and with constant success. I would admit to all of these. However, I'm not too keen on Apple products altogether. Why? For one, I find their products grossly overpriced. I'm still a pathetic student living off his parents, you know! I can't possibly afford the iPhones... that... about a quarter of my classmates have. For another, I find that once Apple produces something good, other companies jump on the bandwagon quickly after and come up with similar products that are reasonably satisfying. On top of that, I can be the unique kid on the block, the one with a different, snazzy, Motorola Flipout. ;)

I've been rambling quite a bit on why I don't really care too much about Apple products. At the end of the day, I recognise that Apple is a great company... much like Microsoft in older times, however constantly staying ahead of the game. Apple has this oomph! that other companies don't have. I also read an article somewhere (I think it was TIMES, they have this cool mobile app for Android; you can go check it out!) about how Apple's success can be largely attributed to its streamlined and consolidated business. I mean, you can't find any other corporation out there who has a store created by themselves, a phone created by themselves, a laptop created by themselves, OSes (be it the Mac OS or iOS) developed entirely by themselves, complementary apps (iTunes, App Store) all by themselves, customer service fully supported by themselves...

Every other IT company isn't like that. I mean, let's take a look at Microsoft. Yes, they develop OSes for computers and mobile phones, but do they make the computers and mobile phones? Nope! How about Samsung? the new kid on the block who's been producing some cool notebooks and netbooks lately. Oh, they do produce great products... television sets, notebooks, audio players, but do they develop OSes? I doubt it. Having said that, I'd admit it's quite a feat to have a company like Apple, because to excel at every aspect of your business, from production to development to support-side to retail to customer service, that, requires some Apple magic in itself.

I've been talking about Apple, Apple, Apple, with no mention of Steve Jobs at all. Why's that so? Well... I guess it's because I don't know him personally. I bet the millions, probably billions, of other people talking and blogging about him don't know him personally either! When we talk about Steve Jobs, we always associate him with Apple. We talk about how his presentations are cool (frankly speaking, I've never really watched his presentations, save for his screwups), his innovation, and how he spearheads the IT industry, but nobody really talks about how's he like as a person.

Perhaps... perhaps, after this incident, there'll be more talk about his personality and character. We'll see. Until then, peace out.