Fast Company’s Steve Jobs Post is the Best I’ve Read so Far
It discusses Jobs’ particular genius:
“Steve Jobs may not be the greatest technologist or engineer of his generation. But he is perhaps the greatest user of technology to ever live, and it was Apple’s great fortune that he also happened to be the company’s founder.”
Using the example of the first imac,Fast Company’s Cliff Kuang explains that Jobs’ focus extended beyond the perfectionism that is often commented upon.
He saw something that was simply better than what had preceded it, and he was willing to gamble based on that instinct. That required an ability to think first and foremost as someone who lives with technology rather than produces it.
Kuang looks down the road finds notes that the company is going to have a hard time finding someone with Jobs’ unique insights, that does not mean Apple is being left high and dry.
Moreover, he has taught his entire organization to play in the span of product generations rather than just product introductions: Apple designers say that now, each design they create has to be presented alongside a mock-up of how that design might evolve in the second or third generation. That should ensure Apple’s continued success for as long as a decade. But it’s not totally clear that anyone else could hope possess his same talent for being able to look at Apple’s product’s from the outside view of a user.
BTW Jason, congrats on your company’s selection as one of Del.’s best. 🙂
Merci!
Jobs certainly redeemed Apple from the terrible seventh grade marketing mistake they made back in the 80s. Compared to Microsoft the Apple platform was the better product, still is. But Apple followed the footsteps of Sony (Betamax) and would not allow other companies to manufacture computers with their operating system. You had to buy an Apple. Gates let anybody build and sell a PC for Microsoft, and outsold Apple enough in the early days such that all the programmers wanted to write Microsoft based software. By the time Apple figured it out, it was too late. They have it locked with the iPhone because part of the gig with phones is locking in contracts with the big telecoms.
“would not allow other companies to manufacture computers with their operating system. ”
That is why Apple computers worked pretty much problem-free: they didn’t have to design their operating system to contend with all the different hardware. It is a basic difference in design philosophy – open vs. closed platform; general-purpose computer vs. dedicated hardware. It is also why Macs were more expensive. If they had opened it up to other hardware they would have lost their reputation for trouble-free operation.
Geeks were willing to contend with figuring out the idiosyncracies of Windows or Unix and didn’t need to pay for Apple’s consumer-level conveniences.
I’m not a Windows fan either; today I use Linux.