STEVEN JOBS-Rest in Peace!

The remarkable outpouring of grief over Steven Jobs’ death should tell you something. Lots of baby boomers talked about changing the world. Steve Jobs really did.  His products did something no other tech company’s did- they made things SIMPLE, so even brain damaged fellow boomers such as myself could use them without learning a private language (e.g. computer-ese).  I literally threw my $2500 IBM PC AT in the trash when I got my first Mac. 

Where Apple’s products stood out were for their flat out elegance-functionality with all the other peripheral crap stripped away.  No “feature and function” bloat.  No “we can do this, so what if you can’t use it” engineering preening.  If he was a dictator, it was a dictatorship of stylish simplicity.  His products- the MacBook Air, iPad and iPhone really stood out here- were jewelry, not just devices. 

The other stroke of genius- realizing that for a new generation of users- technology wasn’t about engineering, it was about sharing- playlists, photos, aps.  His products were platforms, but for communities of users, not just developers.   So he reached not just across product categories, but across generations- Gen Y Apple customers found  new ways to communicate through Apple’s products.  

Many people remember Lee Iaccocca, who saved Chrysler, as a great marketer.  Steven Jobs was the greatest marketer we’ve ever seen.  And his legacy, besides a ton of delighted users, was a company with a $350 billion market capitalization on the day he died, bigger than IBM, Microsoft, Intel, Coca Cola, Wal-Mart…  I’m a proud Apple shareholder and a proud fellow Reedie.   Thank you, Steven Jobs and godspeed!