Why Steve Jobs Matters

by Yves Neidlinger on 07/10/11 at 8:50 am

The dust is starting to settle following the news of Steve Jobs’ death. While you most likely have read or heard a number of articles about his life, I wanted to provide some context on why this specific person was so important. Even if you don’t own a single Apple product, are apathetic towards Apple or could care less about technology, Steve Jobs impacted your life. His loss isn’t one to be mourned just by Apple fanboys or young hipsters, his passing is a significant loss to us all.

You may have heard Steve Jobs compared to Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Walt Disney, PT Barnum, and even fictional characters such as Willy Wonka. we could argue any specific characterization, but there is a degree of truth in each of them.

Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, two of the 3 co-founders of Apple, quite literally, invented the personal computer. Yes, there was the Altair, but it was the Apple I and Apple II that began computer revolution that leads directly to the device you are using now; even your Windows PC. He had the entrepreneurial and creative vision to take a hobby in Silicon Valley during the mid 70′s – building computing devices from spare parts and turn it into the personal computer industry. This contribution alone is staggering on its own merits.

Jobs also managed to get access to a stagnant and secretive project within the bowels of Xerox PARC – the computer mouse and graphical user interface and commercialize them by way of the Apple Macintosh, the first computer to feature both. For the skeptics among us, we can’t assume they would have been developed elsewhere or even during the same time period. Those innovations were critical to the modern day computer we are all familiar with and may not have appeared for several years if it hadn’t been for Jobs. By the way, Xerox PARC was notorious for inventions it was never able to take to market.

For any other individual these accomplishments would merit inclusion in the pantheon of great inventors, businessman or Americans, but Jobs was just getting started. Following his ouster from Apple in 1985, Steve founded NeXT Computer and he later purchased Pixar – you know, Toy Story, Finding Nemo, A Bug’s Life and Monsters? It was Steve’s vision and prescience that helped save the fledgling studio and launched the computer animation movie industry (Pixar is widely credited for Disney’s resurgence). Children around the world are grateful.

Steve returned to Apple in 1997 and started what is widely accepted as the biggest corporate turnaround in history. Apple was months away from bankruptcy and he ultimately turned Apple into what it is today, the most valuable company in the world. Jobs terminated most of Apple’s product line focusing on design, user experience and a maniacal attention to detail. Everything mattered, down to the pixel and color gradient of a single letter. But the turnaround wouldn’t happen overnight…

During the late 90′s and early 00′s the music business was dying. CDs were still lucrative, but people were starting to use illegal file sharing sites such as Napster and Kazaa. The record labels were in a tailspin. Jobs saw an opportunity to reinvent an industry in desperate need of change. He convinced the music labels to allow what had never done before and fiercely resisted – selling digital copies of music online. There were MP3 players in 2001, but the iPod changed everything. It wasn’t the device alone which was revolutionary, it was the marriage of device AND having a convenient way to obtaining music (iTunes) that made it successful. When was the last time you bought a CD?

The same scenario played out in 2007 in the mobile phone industry. At the time, no one envisioned Apple getting into the phone business. The mention of it was pure folly. Handset makers were at the mercy of the telecommunication carriers who dictated product attributes, and features were commonly excluded to maximize profits. Customer satisfaction was an afterthought and the vast majority of people hated their phones. Jobs knew this. Apple would control the user experience and product features, not the carriers. Originally, Verizon said no, AT&T said yes. After nearly 100 million iPhones sold in 4 years, Jobs’ impact has been dramatic. Even if you don’t own an iPhone, the phone you currently have and what it can do has been influenced by Steve Jobs.

Following the successful launch of the iPhone, Jobs continued work on another secret project. Bill Gates had originally championed the tablet computer as the next evolution of the PC. You may have seen Windows based tablet laptops with the swivel around screen and stylus. While the concept was intriguing, sales were abysmal. Tablet devices never took off and after a few years they disappeared. Microsoft tried to shoehorn its Windows operating system into a tablet form factor that included keyboards and weighed over 5 lb. It was a failure in concept and execution. When Jobs launched the iPad in 2010, the device, software, entire experience couldn’t have been more different than Microsoft’s earlier attempt. In less than two years, over 20 million iPads have been sold and they are revolutionizing workflow around the world. The FAA has approved them for use in the cockpit, NFL teams are providing them to players, iPads are increasingly being found in classrooms and militaries around the world (including ours) are putting them in the field.

Each successive story reveals a similar formula. Find a broken industry, innovate, create and focus on the user experience. Where do all these accomplishments rank Steve Jobs among other historic figures? I would argue that he is just as worthy of being included among the likes of those mentioned at the beginning of this article. Jobs has dramatically impacted the way we interact with the world. Whether through Apple’s products or those of competitors influenced by his lead, he was one of the most important figures of the 20th century and his impact will be felt for generations to come. Jobs’ entrepreneurial spirit, vision, creative and meticulous attention to detail and keen sense of design, dramatically changed industries and modern culture. By doing what he loved, Steve Jobs exemplified the mantra Apple is most recognized for, “Think Different”.

God rest your soul and thank you for making our lives ‘insanely’ better.