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October 6, 2011
Steve Jobs is dead at 56. That's pancreatic cancer for you--it is fast and aggressive with a low survival rate. Job's death is a world event due to his influence in shaping a digital world (he revolutionized computing, telephony and music) with his innovative and elegantly designed products, whose marriage of hardware and software was elegant, easy to use and playful.
Apple--no longer Apple Computer--- is currently the most successful and influential company on the planet, and Jobs legacy as a transformative capitalist is on par with Edison and Henry Ford, in spite of his many flops.
Although Microsoft won the PC wars I personally switched to Apple's Intel based MacBook just after Microsoft introduced Vista. I've never looked back, going on to invest heavily in Mac computers because they work. Windows Vista was the final straw for me with respect to Microsoft, and the crap shoot of Windows machines designed for a business environment.
Unlike many I, as a creative professional, am still okay with Apple's walled garden, even if I dislike the secrecy and control freakery that goes the innovation as do those who prefer the open-source operating system, like Google’s Android. The dark side of Apple is its ability to play the game of cutthroat capitalism: it keeps labor costs as low as possible while maintaining a stranglehold over exactly how its hundreds of millions of customers interact with both the innards of its gadgets and the wonders of the Internet, and it wields a ruthless intellectual property litigation strategy to ward off competitive threats to market share.
The products (iPods, iMac, MacBook Air, iPad) are often dismissed as extravagant, unnecessary toys (or mediocre products at extravagent prices), and Apple is dismissed as relying on brand image and loyalty. The MacBook Pros and the Mac Pro tower computers are professional workhorses. The iPhone, which is incorporating artificial intelligence in a mobile device with the iPhone 4s, has changed the way we understand and use phones as communications devices.
Apple is at the crossroads of technology and humanities or liberal arts, since Job's emphasis started from the users experience of technology. That meant that technology should above all be user-friendly---the specs of a device aren't as important as what it can actually do, and how easy it is to use. The opposite view is that the role of people is to learn how to use technology---ie., computers are hard, and therefore people must learn about them. Apple's approach-- make technology easier to use--- is the best one as the technology meets people's needs, lets them do the things they want, allows then to get value from them, and to enjoy using them.
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Yeah... Steve Jobs was an American success story. And he brought us many greats gadgets.... but, I've managed to survive without having ANY of them in my household. No doubt he knew how to read the consumer. But it hasn't all been sunshine and apps...
http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/no-talking-just-working-12-hours-a-day-in-ifactory-hell-20100604-xkmx.html
http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/meet-the-workers-dying-to-meet-your-ipad-2-demand-20110509-1ef68.html
I refuse to buy into the fanboi frenzy.