When I wrote my piece entitled “One More Thing…” in August following the news that Steve Jobs was formally stepping down as CEO of Apple, I knew that sooner or later there would have to be a follow up. Unfortunately, it ended up being sooner.
While the reaction following Jobs’ resignation was powerful, the reaction to his passing has been nothing short of amazing. Former employees, colleagues, celebrities, adversaries — even the President of the United States paid tribute. But once again, the most fascinating group of people showing their support are the ones who did not know Steve Jobs. It’s the everyday people that simply used and loved his products. → Read More
Wow. In the wake of the sad news of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs’ passing, the videos featuring his inspiring speeches and presentations have seen jaw-dropping amount of views. One of Jobs’ most famous and more recent speeches, the commencement speech at Stanford University in 2005 averaged 2,000 daily views in September. Yesterday, the speech saw over 8 million views, according to Visible Measures.
His many product presentations at Apple events averaged 24,000 daily views in September (here’s an early one from 1997). Yesterday, these videos generated over 6.8 million views. His interview alongside Bill Gates at All Things Digital averaged 11,000 daily views in September. Yesterday, these videos generated over 850,000 views. So more than 15 million views overall just in one day. → Read More
The thing about Steve Jobs quotes is that conceptually he never really said anything that Henry David Thoreau (or Emerson or Nietzsche) hadn’t already said about being self-reliant, but he managed to package it up real nicely for modern mainstream consumption. His ingenious way of making something as complex as transcendentalist philosophy accessible to the masses mirrored the way he brought personal computing to the masses, by making it seem accessible to all. → Read More
As the news of Steve Job’s death spread last night, fans held spontaneous vigils at Apple stores around the globe. They came to pay tribute to a man they never met but who profoundly touched and changed their lives. We asked people outside the Apple store in downtown San Francisco to talk about the impact Steve Jobs had on their lives. → Read More
It’s been a hard night and Erick and I thought it would be fitting to reflect a bit on Steve Jobs and his legacy. We’re both understandably crushed by the news but rather than look back we wanted to look forward, forward to what comes next in a world without one of its greatest thinkers.
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We’re going to go into whatever the blog equivalent of a moment of silence is here, because many of us are still staring at our computers shocked by the sad news of Steve Jobs’ death.
In lieu of keeping up with the tech news churn and/or returning to the hamster wheel of funding posts, we’re going to take a little time and let one of the most inspiring men our industry has known (if not the most inspiring) speak for himself, in his own words — about life, death and the love of technology. → Read More
We are deeply saddened to announce that Steve Jobs passed away today.
Steve’s brilliance, passion and energy were the source of countless innovations that enrich and improve all of our lives. The world is immeasurably better because of Steve.
His greatest love was for his wife, Laurene, and his family. Our hearts go out to them and to all who were touched by his extraordinary gifts.
I know that a lot of you have probably already seen this awesome awesome video, but for some reason I missed out on it probably because I’ve been asleep all weekend so I’m reposting it again, in case you guys were also preoccupied with you know, stuff. Here is singer songwriter Stevie Wonder, who happens to be blind from childhood, singing the praises of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs for making the iPhone and the iPad handicap-friendly.
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Today at TechCrunch Disrupt, Michael Arrington sat down with Kleiner Perkins’ partner John Doerr. They kicked off the talk by discussing Doerr’s history. When he started at Kleiner in 1980, the personal computer revolution was just starting. Doerr noted that he dabbled with many of the early PCs, but “the Apple was way more compelling”.
Doerr recalled going to an early meeting of the Homebrew Computer Club on Sand Hill road. He saw a scruffy faced man guy there who showed up and held up a motherboard. It was the motherboard of the Apple I. That man was Steve Jobs. → Read More
One of Steve Jobs’ most devastating talents is in knowing when he is right. By he I mean he and his team of talented designers, engineers, supply chain wranglers, and technologists. Standing pat when the alternative is worse is a difficult move to make, but one Apple under Jobs has made a trademark.
Take the iPhone 4 and its famous dropped calls crisis. Jobs responded by delivering a software patch, comparing the problem to other competitor’s offerings, providing a free case to those who’d already bought the phone, and making a deal with Verizon to fix the real problem: AT&T. You could see the resolve in the strategy. This is what we’ve discovered, this is what we will do, we bet you’ll stick with us. He was right. → Read More
The Gillmor Gang — Doc Searls, Robert Scoble, John Taschek, Kevin Marks, and Steve Gillmor — explored the legacy and impact of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs. @dsearls called him the Beethoven of Business, and we spent the hour and 15 minutes matching that to what I called Jobs’ ability to listen to the future. In recent years, Jobs has turned his focus on perfecting the microcomputing experience toward inventing a mobile platform that will last for decades to come.
For those of us who saw the tech revolution as a child of the space program and the music of the ’60s, living in the time of Steve Jobs has been the same kind of rare gift, swimming in real time with the giants of our history books. It’s hard to predict what will come next, for Apple or any of us, but something tells us Jobs will be there in spirit as we build on his vision. Imagine…
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I sat down last night to write about Steve Jobs’ resignation as Apple CEO and something funny happened: I had nothing to say. This is not normal for me. I don’t get writer’s block. I often write thousands of words about what many would consider the minutia of tech. And yet, when it came to writing about one of the biggest stories we’re ever likely to see in this space, a story that far transcends tech, I was quite literally at a loss for words.
So instead I read what everyone else had to say. Some articles were excellent, many were very good, others read far too much like obituaries. More came today. I kept reading. Slowly, two things struck me. First, I’ve never seen anything quite like the outpouring of emotion that people are showing in response to this news. Second, what we’re witnessing right now is Jobs’ final masterstroke. → Read More
Steve Jobs has resigned as CEO of Apple. This, of course, means that the company has had its spirit broken, its intellect blunted, its worth gutted. Except it doesn’t, quite. The Steve didn’t nurture this company from near-collapse to global powerhouse with snap decisions and daily briefings. No, he and his immensely capable team did it with design, forethought, and consistently staying a step or two ahead of the other guy. That’s not something that changes overnight.
He may be leaving the office, but he’s not leaving the company. Apple still belongs to Jobs — and we’ll know it when that’s no longer the case. And while he may be turning over the operational reins to his protégé, I have the feeling he’ll be making it clear who the Don is. → Read More
Steve Jobs is a man who lives in the minutiae of details. He, with his loyal staff, perfects what others would pass off as perfect. He has 313 patents to his name, which range from the Apple III to the iPod’s acrylic packaging. Almost all of them are notable but only a few are iconic. → Read More
Tim Cook, new Apple CEO, has sent out the following memo to Apple staff, according to a source at Ars Technica. Cook says he shares “Steve’s optimism for Apple’s bright future,” and that Apple will continue to be “the magical place that it is.”
Whew!
Full text of the letter is below. → Read More
The most amazing thing about Steve Jobs and the revival of Apple he engineered over the last 15 years is so improbable it is. Most of the digital innovations that have transformed our lives have been logical outgrowth of increasing power and decreasing cost of semiconductors. Someone was going to invent personal computers, cell phones, the Internet, even search engines.
But there was nothing the slightest bit inevitable about a company whose digital products are perceived as so distinctive they attract dominant market shares despite premium prices. As recently as 2002, personal computers were seen as such a commodity business—dominated by high volume and low costs—that Hewlett Packard paid $25 billion to buy Compaq and vault past Dell to be the No. 1 in the market. Last week, HP, still the leader, said it is considering abandoning PCs altogether, at least partially a concession that Apple was taking an increasing share of the market and most of the profits.
I haven’t been a Mac user since I sold my first generation model—with 128K of memory and one floppy drive. But I recently walked into an Apple store and fondled the latest MacBook Air. I was blown away by how the use of multi-touch gestures and a few other innovations transformed the experience of this very mature category of products. Again. → Read More
We all know the broad strokes: a boy is born to a graduate student and her Syrian boyfriend. She places the boy for adoption. He comes to live with Paul and Clara. Paul is a machinist who moved to San Francisco after WWII. He grows up in Santa Clara county. It’s flat, lots of one story buildings, mostly middle/upper middle class, outside of the bad parts. Parts of it are pretty, parts aren’t. He wasn’t coddled. His biological mother makes his adoptive parents promise to send him to college. In fourth grade he has a great teacher and, presumably, another and another.
His parents scrape to send him to Reed. → Read More
Title says it all. More to come. For now, the letter from Steve Jobs himself:
To the Apple Board of Directors and the Apple Community:
I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come.
A bit of non-Motorola news comes in the form of a change in the B&N listing for the Steve Jobs biography (Steve Jobs). Originally slated for March 2012, the book will be available on November 21, 2011, just in time for Thanksgiving. → Read More
Apple’s ninja-like lawyers quickly “took care of” the last figurine made in Steve’s likeness. Maybe this one will fare a bit different. At least with a reported $160 price tag, this 1/6 model will likely be a more limited run and might run under Apple’s radar. Or not thanks to the multiple miniature Apple products that probably infringe on several copyrights. No word on where you’ll be able to buy mini Steve and his New Balance 992 sneakers, but ToyHaven is stating that it will carry a $160 price tag — if it makes it to product before the legal bad boys have their way. [via Technabob] → Read More
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