Steve Jobs dies; Apple co-founder was 56

bruno

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/local...dies/2010/09/21/gIQAc14aOL_story.html?hpid=z1

This was truly a unique individual who passed. Steve Jobs was a genius in design, technology, business management. He had a really rare ability to not only foresee the future of Technology, harness that technology, drive the market to his vision and drove his company to fulfill his vision. That's really something.
My first home computer was a MacIntosh in 1985- had to buy it with monthly payments, as it was really expensive compared to the PC's running MSDOS that were competing with them, (about $3000 if I remember right and paid it off over 2 years!). But it was light years ahead of the competitors in terms of ease of use for the average user- you didn't need to learn MSDOS commands - just point and click!
So- RIP Steve Jobs- a one of a kind not seen since Thomas Edison.
 
Jobs was more of a marketing genius than inventor.

Steve Wozniak actually designed the hardware, circuit boards, and programmed the OS for the first Apple computer.

Jobs (and Apple) has been accused (with good reason) of stealing most of their early ideas from Xerox.

(And stealing most of his later ideas from Nokia, Palm, and Kodak).

Jobs should probably be remembered as someone who knew how to take the ideas of others and successfully market them as his own.

Sad to see anyone die so young.
 
Jobs was more of a marketing genius than inventor.

Steve Wozniak actually designed the hardware, circuit boards, and programmed the OS for the first Apple computer.

Jobs (and Apple) has been accused (with good reason) of stealing most of their early ideas from Xerox.

(And stealing most of his later ideas from Nokia, Palm, and Kodak).

Jobs should probably be remembered as someone who knew how to take the ideas of others and successfully market them as his own.

Sad to see anyone die so young.
Remarkable as it is to have an argument over this- you gotta be kidding:eek: Any idiot can have a good idea and many do. What separates the really smart technogeek , the $2-1/2 million distributor or the niche manufacturer from the market giant is the ability to take a technological capability, recognize and foster it's potential and build a team to further develop and refine it, understand what drives the marketplace, and get out of ahead of everyone else. On top of that to have the leadership ability to mold and shape an organization - of tens of thousands- to implement a vision as you would implement it is a phenomenal achievement. As long as Jobs was there the folks in Cupertino were virtually extensions of Job's vision. Don't think so? - What was Apple's performance like when John Sculley was running them for several years? ? And after Jobs returned? By comparison what happened to Apple when Steve Wozniak left the company and Jobs remained? - It's pretty obvious that there was a heck of a lot more to Steve Jobs than "stealing somebody else's ideas and repackaging them". That's the voice of excuses by businesses that were unable to develop, refine and bring to market quality product fast and effectively, and it falls pretty short of an assessment of Job's impact on the American business, computing and technology world.
 
Remarkable as it is to have an argument over this- you gotta be kidding:eek: Any idiot can have a good idea and many do. What separates the really smart technogeek , the $2-1/2 million distributor or the niche manufacturer from the market giant is the ability to take a technological capability, recognize and foster it's potential and build a team to further develop and refine it, understand what drives the marketplace, and get out of ahead of everyone else. On top of that to have the leadership ability to mold and shape an organization - of tens of thousands- to implement a vision as you would implement it is a phenomenal achievement. As long as Jobs was there the folks in Cupertino were virtually extensions of Job's vision. Don't think so? - What was Apple's performance like when John Sculley was running them for several years? ? And after Jobs returned? By comparison what happened to Apple when Steve Wozniak left the company and Jobs remained? - It's pretty obvious that there was a heck of a lot more to Steve Jobs than "stealing somebody else's ideas and repackaging them". That's the voice of excuses by businesses that were unable to develop, refine and bring to market quality product fast and effectively, and it falls pretty short of an assessment of Job's impact on the American business, computing and technology world.

Plus, people like Edison and Ford were similar in that personality and marketing were part of their fame. Ford didn't single-handedly invent the assembly line.

Steve Jobs had a huge ego and wasn't free of controversy. He was also brilliant and rightly deserves to be remembered as an innovator.
 
One of Steve Jobs' notable strengths was his visionary leadership; he recognized great ideas and great talent, and brought out the best of those combined. Bruno makes a very good point about Apple foundering during the time he was away. And while he was away, he took a struggling Pixar and turned it into a multi-billion (with a B!) dollar business. I think there are many good lessons to be learned from his life and experiences.
 
I agree with Bruno.

Wozniak did the morning talk shows and also agrees with Bruno IMPO.

Did you ever think Wozniak was happy not being the face of the company? This is like Bill Gates and Microsoft.

When Wozniak dies nobody is going to belittle his life and the impact he had on our society. They will give him his credit.

Wozniak stated on GMA, that Jobs would listen to opinions, never would do focus groups for products because he believed he inherently knew what society needed/wanted. Yes, you can bring that down to marketing, but bring it down further, he was looking at the technology to bring it to the market successfully.

Wozniak and Jobs agreed Jobs would be the front man. Wozniak left, Jobs stayed. Taking the assumption that JOBS was the face and had no background in the IT world is proving the cliche we all know what ASSUME means. Jobs always had the background, not as deep as Wozniak, but still deep.

Jobs turned Apple from death's door in the early 90's to the powerhouse now because he had the WHOLE package. He was able to talk to the tech geeks on how to create a system for non-tech and ultra-tech buyers.

Kodak, Palm. Nokia's failure is not because of him, even if he stole their ideas. It is because they rested on their laurels and never saw the new generation coming. Jobs because he was a tech geek, saw it, and moved forward. Meanwhile, Nokia, Palm and Kodak had CEO's that were business savvy, but not a clue when it comes to the geek world. Jobs should not be tied to those companies failures even if he did steal their designs. Their failure is because of the structure within the company that hurt intellectual growth.

The guy regardless of his age, got society. He got from a marketing perspective if you make it unique and cool, people will come. He got it that to do this he would need to use technology and break barriers, even if it meant at times they weren't the leader at the moment.

He saw the long term strategic goal.
 
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Remarkable as it is to have an argument over this- you gotta be kidding:eek: Any idiot can have a good idea and many do. What separates the really smart technogeek , the $2-1/2 million distributor or the niche manufacturer from the market giant is the ability to take a technological capability, recognize and foster it's potential and build a team to further develop and refine it, understand what drives the marketplace, and get out of ahead of everyone else. On top of that to have the leadership ability to mold and shape an organization - of tens of thousands- to implement a vision as you would implement it is a phenomenal achievement. As long as Jobs was there the folks in Cupertino were virtually extensions of Job's vision. Don't think so? - What was Apple's performance like when John Sculley was running them for several years? ? And after Jobs returned? By comparison what happened to Apple when Steve Wozniak left the company and Jobs remained? - It's pretty obvious that there was a heck of a lot more to Steve Jobs than "stealing somebody else's ideas and repackaging them". That's the voice of excuses by businesses that were unable to develop, refine and bring to market quality product fast and effectively, and it falls pretty short of an assessment of Job's impact on the American business, computing and technology world.

Those of us who have been in the industry for 30+ years know him for what he was - a very clever person who marketed, purchased, copied, and otherwise took to market the ideas of others and was very successful at doing that.

But as an inventor? Not even close.

Argue with yourself, but your statement about him being an inventor on par with Edison is ludicrous.
 
Those of us who have been in the industry for 30+ years know him for what he was - a very clever person who marketed, purchased, copied, and otherwise took to market the ideas of others and was very successful at doing that.

But as an inventor? Not even close.

Argue with yourself, but your statement about him being an inventor on par with Edison is ludicrous.

He said, "pecksniffedly"
 
One of his greatest strengths that very few people ever talk about is his massive attention to details. He was incredible in that trait and it drove his ability to be not only technology driven but business driven as well.
 
Luigi: Which part of this do you disagree with?

"This was truly a unique individual who passed. Steve Jobs was a genius in design, technology, business management. He had a really rare ability to not only foresee the future of Technology, harness that technology, drive the market to his vision and drove his company to fulfill his vision. That's really something. "
the ability to take a technological capability, recognize and foster it's potential and build a team to further develop and refine it, understand what drives the marketplace, and get out of ahead of everyone else.

Unique:

- existing as the only one or as the sole example; single; solitary in type or characteristics: a unique copy of an ancient manuscript.
-having no like or equal; unparalleled; incomparable: Bach was unique in his handling of counterpoint.
- limited in occurrence to a given class, situation, or area: a species unique to Australia.
- not typical; unusual: She has a very unique smile.

Jobs accomplishments seem pretty unique to me.:rolleyes:
 
http://www.slate.com/articles/techn...mark_zuckerberg_invented_facebook.single.html

"But there's more to this than just a sensational tale. I suspect we're mainly interested in how Facebook got started because we want to know whom to credit for coming up with a brilliant idea. In America, we root for the guy with the great idea over the guy who didn't sleep for a year making it happen. If Zuckerberg really did come up with the idea for a campuswide social network, he deserves all the billions that are coming to him. But if he stole the idea, why should he profit from something that someone else thought up first?

Easy answer: because Zuckerberg did it better. If you look at the early history of Facebook, you'll see that almost nothing about it was a new idea. Even if it's true that the Winklevosses came up with a plan for a Harvard social network first, they were obviously inspired by other sites. Social-networking sites—even ones focused on college students—had existed long before Facebook. The real value of Facebook wasn't that it did something new, but that it did something old better—faster, prettier, more useful, and more addictive. This is a story we've heard before in the likes of the iPod, the iPhone, the iPad, Windows, and Google. None of these were new ideas, but we shouldn't think any less of them because of it. Ideas are overrated. In technology, what really matters is execution."



"If you guys were the inventors of Facebook, you would have invented Facebook."
 
Luigi: Which part of this do you disagree with? :

This part:

bruno said:
...a one of a kind not seen since Thomas Edison.

Those of us who were using 8010's and 6085's back in the very early 80's at a certain Govt agency in MD (under the name Xerox Star) and being personally familiar with the work of Don Massaro, Dave Liddle, and other real computer-inventing geniuses at PARC would vehemently disagree about Jobs inventing anything.

Apple (and Jobs) were not alone in taking from Zerox - GEM, Bitron, Elixir, and other early GUI deployments were just as guilty.

You can put him on whatever pedestal you wish - he was a marketing genius, no disagreements - but a comparison of Thomas Edison and Steve Jobs is like Chesty Puller to Gomer Pyle.
 
So bringing this thread back home- RIP Steve Jobs- 95% of the world recognizes him as a truly remarkable man who managed to be the driving force behind a vision and a company that revolutionized some significant parts of how we do business, and how we view entertainment and communication. He harnessed and focused the creative genius of thousands of employees in a company that he built from the ground level, brought hundreds of new and game changing products to the market place in a manner unseen since in American business since Henry Ford (also not an inventor) or Thomas Edison (who while an inventor happened to be an entrepreneur in the same vein who founded among other companies- General Electric and Con Edison to endure that his products got to market and actually were remembered). Steve Jobs may not have been the most sensitive, caring guy on the planet but he sure as heck made a difference- far more than the legion of detractors who often try to downplay the accomplishments of the great ones. So farewell to a unique man that we've been privileged to watch and benefit from.
 
It's sad he died for his family. I'm on a Mac right now. Beyond the obvious contributions he's made to the technology world (and Toy Story), I won't lose much more sleep about this. Yes, he made a big difference, and I can think of many who have done the same that we will never honor (because they're bad).

Not sure why there's a need to defend Jobs, or attack him. His company changed lives, and the way we do things. He died.

There, I summed it up. :rolleyes:
 
Oh never mind. Kind of sad that people can't appreciate the remarkable accomplishments and people who so rarely come along. But - whatever.
 
Oh never mind. Kind of sad that people can't appreciate the remarkable accomplishments and people who so rarely come along. But - whatever.

I'm certain that almost everyone feels exactly the same way -
 
WHAT DO YOU WANT BRUNO!?!? Do you want people to erect a statue in each of our yards, and pray to Steve Jobs? Sure, he changed the way people do things. FINE! There you go. He's dead, and frankly there are people I care about more than Steve Jobs. I don't know what your need for everyone to get to their knees and praise Jobs, but he's had plenty of that over his life, and the $$ to back it up. I'm sorry I'm not crying about it. Actually, I'm not sorry.

I more than appreciate his contribution to society as I type this on my Mac Book Pro, and I got the news on my iPhone 4....but I could have typed this on a Dell, and I could have heard about it on an Android.
 
2 Macs., 8 different iPods, 2 iPhones and a iPad all prove the most fattening thing in my house is an Apple! I am trying to decide if i want to upgrade my phone to 4s.....yep, we drank the Kool-aid. We love these products! Why? I dunno.
I have great ideas all the time. Some are actually really good. Guess what? I have no idea how to make them happen. Or how to get others excited about them. Many times in my life the As seen on Tv ( Ron Propeil comes to mind) spot aires with the " 19.99 But that Is Not All, There's More" pitch, and I think hey, I had that idea!
So why all the Apple products in our household of six? Was it status? maybe. What makes Apple so cool? ITunes seemed too good to be true! But I love my music library. Price point? A little high, maybe made us want it more. The black turtleneck and jeans? Cool smart guy, I guess. But we do love these products and I can only imagine what he would have had me purchase over the next 40 years. After yesterday's news story about defective metal on metal hip replacements I joked Apple and Honda should take that over. And of course include wifi. And I really thought an Icar would be awesome!
He was special in what he did.
 
WHAT DO YOU WANT BRUNO!?!? Do you want people to erect a statue in each of our yards, and pray to Steve Jobs? Sure, he changed the way people do things. FINE! There you go. He's dead, and frankly there are people I care about more than Steve Jobs. I don't know what your need for everyone to get to their knees and praise Jobs, but he's had plenty of that over his life, and the $$ to back it up. I'm sorry I'm not crying about it. Actually, I'm not sorry.

I more than appreciate his contribution to society as I type this on my Mac Book Pro, and I got the news on my iPhone 4....but I could have typed this on a Dell, and I could have heard about it on an Android.

Whatever. I don't particularly have any need to do anything for Mr Jobs but I do have the ability to see phenomenal accomplishments for what they are - even when I don't particularly like the person who is so accomplished. And I frankly can't understand someone who has the bad grace to decide that he alone has the ability to decide that somebody is unworthy of recognition just because. So while others can guess what I really want at this point I will politely say- goodnight LITS.
 
As my high school teacher told me in my freshman Introduction to Engineering Design class: The best engineers steal others ideas, and improve them.

It's called Innovation, and it's something that Jobs was good at.

Wozniak had a greater understanding of electronics and created the Apple I and Apple II, but he never desired to lead the company. He loved engineering, and didn't want to be forced into the business side of things.

It's all in Wozniak's biography IWoz. Good book. You guys should check it out if you get the chance.
 
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