Steve did a really amazing thing before he died--he made me love Apple again.
I grew up on a mix of Apple and IBM computers, depending on which school I was attending. (Grade school/middle school used PCs, high school/college used Macs.) I didn't really care either way which one I was on, as long as it got the job done. In college, I majored in music. The music department and all of its labs were very Mac oriented, and I had to do a lot of homework in those labs, because I couldn't afford my own computer. (This was during the first part of the non-Jobs years). I always found Mac OS to be a little bit more wonky and weird, but I would use one if that was what was in front of me. When one of the Macs in the lab ate one of my projects that I had spent a week+ working on, I swore off Macs for good. I'm not sure if I didn't save the project correctly, if something went wrong in the lab to cause the failure, or if the Mac just freaked out, but I blamed Apple and continued to blame Apple up until about a year and a half ago.
After college I swore off Macs, iPods, and any other product they made. I discouraged friends and family from buying them. I berated people who bought them anyway. I looked down on people who used and loved their products. I admit this. They were all sheep. They were all followers. Idiots. People who didn't know any better and were living under Steve Jobs' iron fist.
But looking back, I think my basis for this was that under Jobs' return, the Mac was again becoming the better platform for PCs, and that was threatening my livelihood as an IT/tech support person. What will I do for a living if everyone switches to Mac and I have no broken PCs to fix anymore? What are these iPods doing to my beloved music industry? What device is Apple going to come out with next to completely disrupt my life? As Jobs himself put it, my PC based world was crumbling.
Summer of 2010, I was looking for a smartphone. I was still an Apple detractor at the time, but a few months prior had seen the unveiling of the first iPad. Secretly, I wanted one, but would not admit it to anyone. I started shopping for Android smartphones. This would be my first smartphone purchase, and I wanted to get the perfect one for me. I tried a Droid X, a Droid Incredible, a Motorola Droid, an EVO 4G, and couldn't decide on one. But we were in the AT&T store one day to get something taken care of for my wife's phone, and I picked up an iPhone 4. My decision suddenly became clear, as I was now holding in my hand the most solid, sophisticated piece of phone hardware I had ever seen. Screen swipes were fast and fluid. The display was brilliant. Apps loaded instantly. The phone itself was a piece of art. (none of these were behaviors I had seen on any of the Android phones I tried). Sold. Bought one that day, and waited for the backorder for about a month.
My iPhone had some issues that prompted some exchanges at the beginning. I was well taken care of at the Apple stores, and blown away by their customer care. I had the same incident with my iPad--some cosmetic issues that prompted some exchanges. I have voiced frustration about that on these forums, and it still is frustrating. One thing I hope Apple can eventually fix is being able to give me a mint condition unit out of the box, and these cosmetic problems seem to come from their growing business and massive manufacturing operation. But they have always more or less taken care of me. I have an iPhone 4 and an iPad 2 both of which I am very happy with and use every day.
In the last year and 4 months, I have done a 180 and become one of the biggest Apple evangelists you'll meet. I'm currently lobbying my wife for an iMac--I'm ready to make the full switch. There is only one non-Apple device in our house now, and that is my old Windows tower. I'm on my iPad more than any other device I own, and when that's not handy, I'm on my iPhone. I wait for every Apple launch like a kid at Christmas. I encourage friends and family to get on the train with me. I'm an Apple guy. And it's because Steve Jobs' attention to detail and no compromise attitude. He made the hardware so good that I just had to buy it. And I don't regret it.
I'm in it for the long haul. I still believe in Apple, and I still believe they can carry on in his spirit, because Apple itself is his greatest invention.
