Shocking in timing and emotional
in the response it produced, the death of Steve Jobs earlier this month left an
apple sized hole in the technology industry.
Jobs, who had been battling
cancer for some time, notably without prescribed medicines over a lengthy
period, died at the premature age of 56. His ingenuity has seen a complete
transformation of the role that technology plays in our daily life and the way
in which most people interact with such inventions.
Even just over a decade ago,
computers were only just becoming a personal item; previous they had been the
reserve of the social elite at science universities and laboratories. Alongside
competition from Bill Gates’ infamous Windows operating system, Apple launched
their own brand of computer and had seen its ‘fruitition’ into one of the most
promising pieces of home computing available to the public.
However, whilst the advent of the
personal computer was heralded as a marvel and a breakthrough, with the benefit
of hindsight, it is easy to reflect that this was an inevitable and not so
shocking development in the spectrum of technology use.
Evidently, such an idea of
progression was not lost on Jobs. Quickly, he started to expand the apple
corporation from this small niche into the most exciting market adventure.
While great swathes of
technologists spend painstaking hours attempting to reinvent current products,
working out kinks that were probably insignificant in the first place, Jobs
took a novel approach to his work. In combining latest ideas and technologies,
Jobs wanted Apple to represent the latest consumer products that had never been
imagined.
Consider for a moment, the idea
of a multifunctional MP3, with large screen and wheel for easy navigation. Back
in 2001, that was not only unique, it was quite unimagined in the testing
infancy of such portable devices. The IPhone, again, was revolutionary in that
it almost pre-empted a consumer fantasy of compact that has now permeated to be
the norm. Who needs to carry two items, when one suffices?
King of the
off-the-wall-come-instantly-appreciated techy gadgets sits the IPad. Upon its
inception, the IPad baffled a number of people. A tablet computer that seemed
to operate as a large model of an IPhone. Where was the market? What was its
purpose? It almost appeared an invention for the sake of invention.
Yet within very little time, it
was soon comprehended that due to excellent battery life, apps, and compatible
features, this device could revolutionise the way business is transacted on one
hand, whilst being able to support student projects and family face time all in
one. A cumbersome Windows laptop needed to boast new Intel processors in order
to revive any competitivity.
The Genius of Jobs then was not
so much his ability to bring out cutting edge products; it was his ability to
conceive devices of which no one had considered the proper functionability.
Nowadays, in any global city, you
can barely walk for chance of accosting someone with an Apple product on their
being: be that the daydreamer plugged into their IPod, or awkward attempts to
sneak a peek at the IPad sat across from you on the daily commute. Apple have
managed to infiltrate social norms by proffering a swifter and more dynamic way
to keep in touch and manage one’s life whilst ‘on-the-go’
In fact, it has been suggested
that if you were to try and get a picture of what drives social evolution in
the 21st century, you could do a lot worse than take time to muse
over Apple’s sudden dominance.
Whilst Jobs understood that the
21st century was about becoming an individual and increasingly
independent in our approach (after all, we are increasingly only in touch
through social networking and emails), this trend is one in which everyone
shares.
Therefore, Jobs has managed to
capture the spirit and essence of two domains: the business and the personal in
all of his products. The range of apps and downloads and styli available for
each variant device is astronomical: there is a personal touch to every Apple
appliance, for each user is unique. This allows them to break away from
corporations that dominated the 1990s.
However, at the same time, Apple
has built itself to be a community: every one shares in their collective
experiences of these contraptions, so as not to become isolated and confused in
a world that is ever so more connected by the internet and computing.
Jobs own spin was to claim that
“It’s not the consumers’ job to know what they want.”
Poignant, the remark goes against
the grain of fundamental capitalism, wherein a company should be able to
provide services in a market designed by a clientele.
Revolutionising not just our
communication pattern then, Jobs altered the way in which a market should respond
to its customers. His apparently random approach actually serves as a lesson to
a great number of inventors and techie-folk: during a period of down-turn, the
items that are to see companies through varying problems are those which
capture, inspire and are totally unpredicted by their public.
Ironically, Steve Jobs understood
public sentiment better than most politicians in this case.
The essence of the IPad is that
it can be anything that you want it to be. Jobs, it seemed, was a visionary who
could imagine anything that we wanted.
Perhaps the greatest testament to
his legacy is that his death was first brought to the public attention on a
device he himself launched.
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