In Memoriam

Steve Jobs (1955-2011)

Last week the world lost a gifted visionary whose creations influenced the way we live our everyday lives in countless ways.

He revolutionized virtually every industry he dabbled in.  His Macintosh computer became the first commercially successful personal computer to use a graphical user interface, rather than a command line, which is what we all use nowadays.  Does it matter that the vast majority of personal computers run Windows operating systems instead of Apple’s (the company Jobs co-founded)?  Not really, because the genius behind the invention remains Jobs’.

He was forced out of Apple but returned later on bringing the innovations that we’re all very familiar with and that have made Apple a powerhouse and one of the most profitable companies in the world.  Jobs created iTunes and the iPod, which revolutionized the way we listen to music and the music industry itself, the iPhone, which revolutionized the phone industry and the way we view and use phones, and the iPad, which once again revolutionized the way we look at portable computers.

His creations have been copied by everyone else and while some products do compare, Apple’s output remains the standard the world over.

During his brief stint away from Apple, Jobs founded Pixar, the animation company that brought us arguably the best animated movies of all time, making Disney’s output look stale and obsolete, and revolutionizing how Hollywood produces animated movies.

Jobs was only 56 years old when he succumbed to the pancreatic cancer that had plagued him for years.  We’ll never know the countless innovations the world has been deprived of with his passing.

He’ll be missed.  R.I.P.