So, indulge me for a moment, as I take a second to reflect on a man I once idolized, still respect, but also questioned in his final years at Apple...
Steve was always a character, I don't think anyone can deny that. Why else would the internet have exploded over the news of his death? One thing that was never in question is that Steve Jobs had an almost unhuman charisma to him, able to take mere objects, admittiedly great objects, but objects nonetheless, and make them transcend themselves, to become life changing, revolutionary, in his words "magical." There was good reason he had been cited for having a reality distortion field, whenever Jobs took the stage and pitched the newest, slightly tweaked iDevice, he still somehow made it seem like a total revolution. The best thing since...well...the last thing he talked about.
And I think this is where a lot of the criticisms for Jobs popped up. He really was, essentially, a master of making a spectacle out of nothing. New iPods, twice the storage, would somehow genereate massive waves of interest across all forms of media. New iMacs, now made of aluminum. Shocking. New iPod touch, now with a speaker and volume rocker. Game changing. iPhone 3G, plastic back and a better radio. Awe inspiring. Other companies made announcements like this all the time, because it's business as usual. But usually just with a quick press release and a site update. No one rented out a stage, set up a camera crew, and treated their new products like celebrities. Jobs knew how to play to a crowd, and forged an empire doing so.
But despite the rather hilarity of it all, there were of course there were also times when this hysteria was well deserved. Who could forget seeing the iPhone for the first time? It made every other phone up to that point look like absolute shit in comparison (and this is coming from an Android user). A point Jobs was not shy about pointing out, putting his newest baby right next to the now competing "smartphones," embarrassing multiple companies simultaneously. It literally was a magical, game changing device, totally reshaping the mobile landscape and carving out a whole new industry for mobile applications and internet connected mobile devices that otherwise may not have occurred for years, if at all. The same thing could be said for the iPad, while not nearly as stunning, it did forge a whole new product category that's taking the world by storm.
And it's here that my personal opinion on Jobs gets shaky. I had used Apple products since 2005. My first computer was an eMac all in one, at the time the best value Apple offered. I loved that machine, and by extension loved Apple. The just... pure win of blatantly announcing on your site that all of "our machines use dedicated graphics cards, unlike those weak budget PCs and integrated graphics." I found Jobs' every word captivating as he announced product after product that I gobbled up. However, as time went on, I realized that Apple's eventual financial success with the mainstream changed their course of direction from catering to artists and power users, to the average person (I wrote an article detailing this a couple years back here). All of a sudden Apple was using Intel processors with integrated graphics, glossy screens were on everything cuz people liked the shininess. The iPad was a computer stripped of all of its computing abilities, and became nothing more than a web browser and iTunes consumption device, leaving 3rd part developers to fill in the gaps. I understand that most people don't create comic books and 3D animations in their spare time, but the fact that Apple was making devices that catered to these endeavors was what drew me to them in the first place in '05, and I saw that direction shifting in slow motion.
It's 2011 now, and I'm posting this on an HP Elitebook 2730p, my main laptop is a ThinkPad x220i, and my workstation is a custom built AMD rig from Newegg, and I'm rocking an Android phone. Apple and I have parted ways. Our visions for what computing should be is no longer aligned. Part of me is saddened by that, because, as a designer, I still love the aesthetics of Apple products, I love the typography, the graphics, the streamlined precision. My desktop is a bulky mess of cables, my ThinkPad is full of vents and a bulging battery. Far from the sexy sleekness of an iMac + MacBook Pro combo. But alas, I use my computers to get stuff done, not look pretty, and PCs now do this far better, far cheaper.
But hey, this article isn't about the 2011 Apple lineup. It's about Jobs. A true visionary. A man who knew what people would want, and exactly how to pitch it to them. He may have lost my business near the end, but he never lost my respect.
Rest in Peace Steve, I'd say your legacy will live on, but I don't have to. Your legacy speaks for itself.
