By Chris Alexander
The world has lost a tech visionary and a true geek god with the death of Steve Jobs yesterday. But what does this change to Apple really mean to us as a society; and to the core Apple fanboys? Most interestingly, what does it mean to Apple?
Steve Jobs was one of the most important people to the creation of the current age we live
in, the computer age. He was one of the bringers of technology that made its way out of Silicon Valley and into our home. He is responsible for a great deal
of the hardware, software, graphic user interfaces and entertainment that we find indispensable. Watch a Pixar movie recently? Steve had a hand in it. Buy a song online? Watch a ridiculous over the top Super Bowl commercial? Enjoyed a
seamless and easy computing experience? All these were possibly in part because
of Steve Jobs. Used an app that you bought from a dedicated and easy to use
store? Used your widescreen HD touchscreen phone that only has like three buttons
and yet runs your life? Then Steve is your best friend.
Apple is
currently the world's most profitable company. With Jobs just having turned
control of the company over to Tim Cook, people are admittedly shaken about
what is going to happen to a company that is imbedded in their everyday lives.
Jobs didn't really create new tech: he tweaked it. Windows had tablet
touchscreen computers out in 2001. They had voice and handwriting support,
removable keyboards, fully functional operating systems and a host of other
bells and whistles. Yet, they didn't take over the world.
By the time
that the iPad dropped, most of the normies (people who are not tech savvy) had
even forgotten what a tab was and thought Apple had invented the idea (silly
normies). And boy, what a shock it was to us when they came out: no keyboard,
all screen, app driven and sexy. The fact that it was so simple and good led to
it taking over the relatively wide-open tablet/pda market.
Let’s take
the example of the former Lucas Arts - owned Pixar that was originally tasked
to create imaging and graphical hardware for the government. Apple bought them
and took their 3d imaging tech. This move led them down the road to original
IPs like Toy Story, The Incredibles, Tangled, Finding Nemo, Cars and so on.
Every movie Pixar has ever made has made it to the top 50 of best grossing
animated movies of all time; three of their movies made it to the top 50 of all
time moneymakers. By comparison, the top grossing anime movie of all time,
Pokemon: The First Movie made it to number 64 on the animated list only. Due to
Disney buying Pixar, Jobs was the single largest Disney stockholder; more than
four times as much as former CEO Michael Eisner.
This past summer, when we were taking hits
from debt and bailouts, Apple, for a brief time, had more cash on hand then the
entire US Government. Marinate on that for a second.
I think
that illustrates my next point pretty clearly: Apple isn’t going anywhere. They
are so massively huge, influential and involved in so many things it is virtually
impossible to believe that Apple won't
still be around by the time you or I are too ancient to play the newest version
of Street Fighter 20.. They may change form, merge, split or go even further internationally
but for all intents and purposes, I think they're here to stay. They can
probably just keep making new versions of the products they already have (the
iPhone, iPad, AppleTV, MacBook...) and get along just fine.
But they
won't be the same. Steve was like Tony Stark (sans alcoholism and Pepper) in
that he lived a couple of minutes ahead of the rest of us. He didn't see a spot
that was open that needed to be filled; He anticipated the vacancy before it
even happened. No one knew you needed to talk and web browse at the same time
until Steve told you you did. And what’s the big deal with an oversized,
overpriced iPhone you can't fit in your pocket anyway? It’s a pretty huge deal
if you ever watched Geordi interface and diagnose the engineering bay computer
using his PADD on Star Trek: The Next Generation..
What Apple
and the world really lost was a man that gave us some truly innovative and life-changing
hardware and software. I'd like to point out that I actually do not like Apple
at all. I dislike their overprotection of their products from hardware and
software modification. I am disgusted by their current tactics to block other
manufactures from trying to make products that are similar to Apple products
with litigation.
And yet I
still miss my stolen iPod touch. My first computer was a Mac. My wife owns an
iPhone which I routinely commandeer to download and play IOS only apps. The
innovations Steve brought to the table changed how the whole consumer
electronics and computer industries worked. If you need proof, look at the
restructuring (stupid-proofing) of Windows 7, the design and the dashboard of
the Nintendo Wii or the Samsung Galaxy(Tab) or how the music industry is
embracing selling digital downloads. .
But now,
there is no one to steal from; no nigh supernatural wellspring of innovation to
tap. Apple's competitors will probably scramble to produce the next big thing
that will oust the iDevices. Also, its not entirely clear if after the next few
years Apple will be guaranteed to have answers. We will get an iPhone 5 and an
iPad 3 but after that its anyone's guess. But I wouldn't bet against the Mac.
R.I.P Steve Jobs
Febuary 24, 1955 – October 5,
2011
0 comments:
Post a Comment