Calm down people... Personally I spend more time sat on my ass working than anything else, therefore my seating comfort is more important to me - I researched many many chairs including the Aeron (which I nearly purchased) I didnt find it as comfortable as I wanted, I also found the plastic arm ok, but a bit too smooth and kind of slimey. But that is being really picky! Aeron is a great chair (obviously) I went in for the 'teknion' contessa I've had it for 8 years and its around the same price as the Aeron, infact a but more expensive if you go for the leather seat as opposed to mesh. Either way it suited me and I have gotten the most amazing value and comfort from this chair, its an absolute pleasure to sit in every day, I never take it for granted. I also wouldn't swap it for anything else.
https://forums.macrumors.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=322303&stc=1&d=1327963156
http://www.teknion.com/products/sea...§ion=seating&subsection=works&product=al3
Back to what chair did Steve use, what is wrong with asking this? its interesting! the man had inpecable taste and understood design more than most. If a $40 chair works for you then thats super, but don't slag off people just for being interested in chair design. Chair design is product design and goes hand in hand with any Apple product, watch Gary Hustwit's 'Objectified' (2009).
Its a shame people on here are judging others for spending money on a good quality chair for their career of sitting down at a desk to support their back.
An excellent, thoughtful, positive and informative post.
And I agree with your main points. There is nothing wrong with admiring & appreciating good design, nor in seeking it out; most on MR like and admire Apple products, thus one assumes that an appreciation of design aesthetic is something of a given.
Likewise, when sitting at a desk for long periods of time for work, idling or for pleasure, there is nothing wrong with wanting - or needing - a comfortable, ergonomically designed chair; and neither is there anything wrong with noting what the late inestimable Mr Jobs sat on when pondering on how to change the world in the areas he dreamed of doing so.
However, to confuse - or equate - the amount of money spent on something with the possession of a sense of taste or appreciation of quality is to contrive to miss the point completely, except, perhaps, as a vulgar expression of the crassest form of materialism.
Seriously, a good chair is a good chair. Let us enjoy and appreciate well-designed furniture and try to keep issues of how they stand as status symbols aside. Above all, deriding people and expressing contempt for those who make different purchasing choices, - usually for their own very good reasons - is neither nice nor courteous.
As a general observation, however, one of the most depressing things of this aspect of the discussion is how secretaries (usually but not always, female) - often the least well-paid members of an organisation,- are expected to sit glued to their appallingly poorly designed pieces of office furniture and toil away at their desks for long hours, while their bosses, who do not actually need excellent office equipment, enjoy the benefit such by virtue of the position they hold.