Note: I wrote this at the time of Steve Jobs passing in 2011, and recently found it again. I continue to use Apple products, and have added at least the following over the years: two HomePods, six HomePod Minis, four iPhones, three Apple Watches, six iPads, three AirPods, five MacBooks (Airs and Pros), and 1 Mac Pro. All have been a great experience.
IBM has used the motto “Think” based on Thomas J. Watson’s (IBM founder), statement “Thought has been the father of every advance since time began”. He wanted that ingrained into the business. Apple has used a different motto: “Think Different”, which is a challenge to view Apple as another choice, and almost opposite path.
I have not been on that path for most of its timeline. I have always been a “PC” user in the IBM/Microsoft camp with an indifference towards Apple. I first played with an Apple II in the late 1970s my brother-in-law had, and then a Macintosh he bought in in 1984, but never really spent any time with another Apple product until 2010 when I bought a MacBook Pro. Even from a distance over all of those years, I heartily acknowledge that Steve Jobs view of technology affected the systems I used in a very profound way. With that in mind, let me review a few of the innovations he provided from which a PC guy like me benefited.
The Apple and Apple II – In the 1970s only corporations and super-geeks had access to computers, with virtually all computing power being owned by corporations, beyond the reach of the individual. The wooden Apple II provided a small, powerful device with a keyboard and monitor, on which the user could type and see an immediate response on the screen. Suddenly gone were lights, switches, paper tape or punch cards. In its place was a a small, accessible, responsive device that was approachable by the masses. Steve later spoke of the Apple II saying “My dream for the Apple II was to sell the first real packed computer.”
The Graphical User Interface, or GUI – The Macintosh made an easy to use, mouse driven interface available to the world, ultimately driving Microsoft’s Windows product line to be much of what it is today used almost universally.
The iPhone – The touch based interface was a giant leap forward in how a small mobile device could be used, and drove the interface of Android and others. Perhaps even more defining, “apps” and the App Store launched a new way to think about how information is accessed, and how software is marketed and sold.
The iPad – my real reason to finally start using Apple products in 2010 was the introduction of the iPad. This product has created an entire industry, and spawned the term “Post PC era”. In many respects it reinvents what the Apple II first created in 1977.
iTunes Store – Steve got an industry stuck in plastic CDs to allow a legitimate business to sell tunes by the song. Now we all enjoy electronic delivery of many products.
There is more. We could think of the iMac which showed that PCs do not have to be beige boxes, the MacBook Air which unleashed light and powerful laptops to us, or the Apple stores, one of the most profitable retail enterprises per square foot in the world.
My use of Apple products has only been in the last 20 months. But Steve changed things all along for me. I may have been on an alternative path, but Steve’s vision affected it. My respect to Steve for all he did, and I type this on a Macbook Pro using Pages as an homage. And now reports have surfaced that he left plans for new products to cover the next 4 years; I am excited to see what that will bring!