The world is now obviously aware that one of the greatest men of our time, Steve Jobs, has sadly passed away at a relatively young age of 56. It has saddened thousands of people across the world (including myself) and it is encouraging to see so many good things being said about him today!
Without Steve Jobs a lot of things wouldn’t have happened in the world , we wouldn’t have one of my favourite companies of all time (Pixar), we wouldn’t have the strongest Disney seen in a long time (Steve was the biggest shareholder thanks to the purchase from Disney of Pixar) and we wouldn’t have fantastic products like the iPod, iPad and Mac. Steve has done a lot for the world but perhaps the biggest of changes we have seen have been in business!
The PC Revolution
Apple really helped to shape the way that an office works today and although you see a lot of offices focused around windows machines we wouldn’t be celebrating the great businesses of today without the help of Apple.
The Apple II
This is where Apple was first put on the map and after making money from the very first Apple machine, the cash was put into the second design which was shown off at the Californian computer fair back in 1977. It wasn’t cheap to make something like this and Jobs used his persuasive techniques to gain a $250,000 loan with Mike Markkula. Together with Wozniak the company was formed!
The great thing for people buying computers at the time was the fact that it worked straight out of the box. Many machines at this time had to be put together before you could even turn them on!
The Apple II went on to sell over six million before the production ceased in 1993 and this included many businesses, all over the world!
This wasn’t it for Apple and in 1984 the very first Macintosh was released. We all know that Jobs left Apple to found NeXt Computer then returned to Apple years late when Apple purchased the company, so let’s skip that section.
During the time up until the next product release it is incredibly important to remember that Apple products were having a huge impact on business.
iPod
The next big step was of course the iPod and whilst not sounding like much good for the business, do not forget it came around at a time long before Spotify. Not only could people download cheap music but they could listen to it (in better quality than MP3 players at the time) on the move and when they were hard at work in the office!
iPhone
The iPhone came next in 2007 and really changed the way that offices worked. The iPhone was effectively a small computer in a phone and the app store really came in to help out the business. You could set reminders on calls, meetings and new additions of the iPhone have even allowed people to have face to face video meetings! Once again Steve Jobs along with a fantastic team at Apple had revolutionised the way that many businesses worked!
iPad
Sadly the last in a long string of inventions for the business from Jobs, the iPad was what every successful businessman and woman were looking for, a computer on the go that wasn’t a pain to take everywhere like the traditional laptop and macbook! The iPad meant that not only could you look really professional when turning up to meetings but had access to a wonderful new app store that had business apps just for the iPad!
The charging process was exactly the same as the iPod which meant that you had no bulky plug and power adapter to take with you!
Steve Jobs will be remembered along with the great geniuses of all time including Albert Einstein and Isaac Newton, he revolutionised the way that businesses worked several time.
RIP Steve Jobs.
Thank you Ryan for this nice post. Steve’s death created a big void that cannot be filled. And what an awesome fighter steve was. He fought pancreatic cancer for 7 long years. Salutes to the insanely great innovator of our time.
October 7, 2011 at 9:12 pm Enter your name