Steve Jobs Would Have Celebrated His 69th Birthday Today

[MacRumors]

Apple co-founder and former CEO Steve Jobs was born on February 24, 1955, so today would have marked his 69th birthday had he not passed away in 2011 at the age of 56.

Jobs and Steve Wozniak founded Apple in 1976 to produce the very first Apple computers, revolutionizing the personal computer and building up to one of the most famous commercial launches in history, the Macintosh, in 1984. He was ousted from the company just a year later, but returned in 1997 as a floundering Apple purchased Jobs' follow-up company NeXT to serve as the future basis of the Mac operating system.

Apple was reinvigorated with Jobs back at the helm and Jony Ive leading a team generating iconic design after iconic design. The duo oversaw not only a rebirth of the Mac but the creation of a number of other revolutionary products and services, most notably including the iPod and of course the iPhone. Under Jobs' leadership from 1997 until his 2011 death from cancer, Apple went from a company on the brink of failure to one of the biggest tech companies in the world.

As he always does, Apple CEO Tim Cook paid tribute to Jobs on Twitter today.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1761420727184499177

Article Link: Steve Jobs Would Have Celebrated His 69th Birthday Today

 

[mediacomposer]

nice

 

[DMG35]

The man, the myth, the legend.

 

[Slash787]

If Steve was still alive I am sure we would have seen better Apple products and he would have never discontinued the iPhone mini!

 

[icemantx]

While I am sure Steve would not have made all the same product decisions that have been made since he passed away, he always said that his greatest creation was Apple itself. He also told Tim not think "What would Steve do" when running the company and to avoid the pitfalls of The Walt Disney Company when Walt died and there was a vacuum of leadership and direction.

Having said that, it is curious to wonder what Apple and its product like would look like today had he not died in 2011.

 

[viktorhun]

oh evry year ? :O

 

[Lostanddamned]

nice

 

[trusso]

Tim Cook: “We’re here to put a dent in people’s wallets. Otherwise, why even be here?”

The, uh, apple, has fallen very far from the tree.

 

[aj_niner]

Nearly 14 years ago Steve Jobs claimed that no one's going to buy a big phone. For a few years prior to that pronouncement Android had big phones.

Apple tried to bring back small phones and failed. Android largely do not have small phones either.

I doubt Steve would have been able to make Apple Inc a more than $3 trillion company.

 

[cableguy84]

It’s hard to predict which direction Jobs would have taken Apple.
Personally i think he would have began putting huge resources into A.I, potentially putting Apple way ahead at this point

 

[dmr727]

I doubt Steve would have been able to make Apple Inc a more than $3 trillion company.

Perhaps, but I wonder if we wouldn't be better off as consumers. A lot of people seem to think we would. You can grow a company *and* make cool stuff. Like anything it's a continuum, and lots of people feel Tim Cook took it too far in one direction.

 

[ksec]

Nearly 14 years ago Steve Jobs claimed that no one's going to buy a big phone.

Apple tried to bring back small phones and failed. Android largely do not have small phones either.

I doubt Steve would have been able to make Apple Inc a more than $3 trillion company.

Uhm..... And he was also the one who approved bigger iPhone, both iPhone 5 and iPhone 6 before he passed away.

 

[WilliApple]

Its hard to wonder what Apple would look like today, or if I would even be an Apple user today.

Would it have been a 3 trillion dollar company like it is today?

Hard to wonder.

But Happy Birthday Steve Jobs.

 

[mrr]

All respect Steve.

 

[Samplasion]

He was an eccentric guy but I'm glad that he ended up following his dreams instead of ...not doing it I guess.

 

[Jim Lahey]

I have a hard time believing that 2024 Jobs would still be CEO of Apple. Far too controversial a personality to survive in today’s ESG-obsessed corporate world.

 

[DeepWebinar]

nice

 

[Lounge vibes 05]

Nearly 14 years ago Steve Jobs claimed that no one's going to buy a big phone.

Apple tried to bring back small phones and failed. Android largely do not have small phones either.

I doubt Steve would have been able to make Apple Inc a more than $3 trillion company.

Steve Jobs in 2004: no one wants video on an iPod.

Steve Jobs says it again: no video iPod

We really don't want to believe him, but in yesterday's press conference for the first anniversary of the iTunes Music Store Steve Jobs insisted that there isn't a video iPod in the works: Mr. Jobs addressed the issue of video on iPods when asked by Mike Wendland of the Detroit Free Press...

www.engadget.com

Steve in 2005: the video iPod.

New iPods - Video Support, TV Episodes, Music Videos

Apple finally did release a new iPod capable of playing videos. (press release). The new iPod supports MPEG4 and h.264 video formats and features a slightly wider screen design to accommodate the video playback. 30GB. $299 60GB.

www.macrumors.com

Steve in 2008 about digital book readers: “It doesn’t matter how good or bad the product is, the fact is that people don’t read anymore,” he said. “Forty percent of the people in the U.S. read one book or less last year. The whole conception is flawed at the top because people don’t read anymore.”

The Passion of Steve Jobs

Apple’s chief executive talks up his company’s latest products and offers some frank thoughts about his competitors.

archive.nytimes.com

Steve in 2010: iBooks

Apple Releases iPad Tablet, New SDK, iBooks and iWork Apps

At today's highly-anticipated media event, Apple announced the iPad tablet device, featuring a 9.7-inch, 1024 x 768 display and 16 GB, 32 GB, and 64 GB capacities. Carrying a custom 1 GHz "Apple A4" chip, the iPad weighs in at 1.5 pounds and is .5-inch thin. The iPad will be priced at $499...

www.macrumors.com

It’s even been said that, despite his public comments against it, Steve was even convinced an iPad mini would be a necessary future product within the last several months of his life.

Eddy Cue Worked to Convince Steve Jobs of Need for 7-Inch iPad in Early 2011

Back in October 2010, Steve Jobs appeared on an Apple earnings conference call to address the Android-based iPad competitors that were just then coming to the market.

www.macrumors.com

Whenever people talk about what Steve Wood and wouldn’t do, they completely ignore the fact that the guy didn’t exist in a vacuum.
While he helped invent several well selling products, he also paid attention to what the market was doing.
The galaxy note launched in 2011, and was a massive success.
The note2 released in 2012, and was an even bigger success.
By 2014, outside of Apple, pretty much every flagship phone had between a 4.7 and a 5.7 inch screen.
To act like Steve wouldn’t have noticed, and would have just stuck his fingers in his ears and pretended that it didn’t exist, is simply laughable.
Especially when there’s literal evidence that Apple was messing around with much larger screen phone prototypes as early as 2010…

 

[The Cockney Rebel]

He was the beginning of it all.

RIP, big fella.

 

[AlexJaye]

That's sad, RIP. I was just discussing how great Apple used to be with him in charge, and how - little by little - the QA and overall "It Just Works" mantra is no longer true by the year.

I'm glad I got to be an Apple customer when things DID just work the way they were supposed to. It feels like Apple is simply skating by on his success, but the more fragmented and buggy they become, the further away they go from the original vision.

Edit: AND got in before the egregious price gouging Apple does these days, especially with essentials like RAM. Still using my 2012 iMac on a regular basis because the RAM was upgradeable and didn't cost $500 to upgrade from the awful base 8gb they still use.

 

[wellander1]

Happy what would be birthday to Steve Jobs we all miss him and the way Apple was back then.

 

[spinedoc77]

RIP, would have loved to see what he came up with today. I miss those incredible moments he was responsible for that I remember with great fondness. Seeing a Macbook Air fit into a manilla envelope, the glass screen and apps of my first iPhone, going from a super chunky, 1 hour battery Windows tablet to an iPad, etc etc. Shame, I haven't had that feeling in a long time.

 

[aj_niner]

Steve Jobs in 2004: no one wants video on an iPod.

Steve Jobs says it again: no video iPod

We really don't want to believe him, but in yesterday's press conference for the first anniversary of the iTunes Music Store Steve Jobs insisted that there isn't a video iPod in the works: Mr. Jobs addressed the issue of video on iPods when asked by Mike Wendland of the Detroit Free Press...

www.engadget.com

Steve in 2005: the video iPod.

New iPods - Video Support, TV Episodes, Music Videos

Apple finally did release a new iPod capable of playing videos. (press release). The new iPod supports MPEG4 and h.264 video formats and features a slightly wider screen design to accommodate the video playback. 30GB. $299 60GB.

www.macrumors.com

Steve in 2008 about digital book readers: “It doesn’t matter how good or bad the product is, the fact is that people don’t read anymore,” he said. “Forty percent of the people in the U.S. read one book or less last year. The whole conception is flawed at the top because people don’t read anymore.”

The Passion of Steve Jobs

Apple’s chief executive talks up his company’s latest products and offers some frank thoughts about his competitors.

archive.nytimes.com

Steve in 2010: iBooks

Apple Releases iPad Tablet, New SDK, iBooks and iWork Apps

At today's highly-anticipated media event, Apple announced the iPad tablet device, featuring a 9.7-inch, 1024 x 768 display and 16 GB, 32 GB, and 64 GB capacities. Carrying a custom 1 GHz "Apple A4" chip, the iPad weighs in at 1.5 pounds and is .5-inch thin. The iPad will be priced at $499...

www.macrumors.com

It’s even been said that, despite his public comments against it, Steve was even convinced an iPad mini would be a necessary future product within the last several months of his life.

Eddy Cue Worked to Convince Steve Jobs of Need for 7-Inch iPad in Early 2011

Back in October 2010, Steve Jobs appeared on an Apple earnings conference call to address the Android-based iPad competitors that were just then coming to the market.

www.macrumors.com

Whenever people talk about what Steve Wood and wouldn’t do, they completely ignore the fact that the guy didn’t exist in a vacuum.
While he helped invent several well selling products, he also paid attention to what the market was doing.
The galaxy note launched in 2011, and was a massive success.
The note2 released in 2012, and was an even bigger success.
By 2014, outside of Apple, pretty much every flagship phone had between a 4.7 and a 5.7 inch screen.
To act like Steve wouldn’t have noticed, and would have just stuck his fingers in his ears and pretended that it didn’t exist, is simply laughable.
Especially when there’s literal evidence that Apple was messing around with much larger screen phone prototypes as early as 2010…

In the links you provided look at the years of Steve's declarations. The display tech were not publicly released yet.

In 2004, before the 2007 iPhone 2G came out, the iPod video's screen was smaller than any iPhones. So rightfully "no one wants video on an iPod".

In 2010 big phones were a reality before 14 years ago. The last released pre-iPhone mini small phone was the 2012 iPhone 5.

What made the iPhone a stellar success was the realizing of post-Steve Jobs Apple Inc that nearly 7 billion users want a big phone because only nearly 1.5 billion of them will ever use a desktop or laptop.

Small phone advocates have small hands, small pockets or bigger screened desktop/laptop.

Billions others only had 1 smartphone that they likely keep beyond the last Android update or before the last iOS security update.

 

[aj_niner]

Uhm..... And he was also the one who approved bigger iPhone, both iPhone 5 and iPhone 6 before he passed away.

2012 iPhone 5 is a taller phone. It did not get wider.

2014 iPhone 6 did not get final approval from Steve Jobs.

 

[Lounge vibes 05]

In 2004, before the 2007 iPhone 2G came out, the iPod video's screen was smaller than any iPhones. So rightfully "no one wants video on an iPod".

that’s easy to say in hindsight, at the time the video iPods were very popular despite their tiny screens.
Steve was wrong, the market was right, and he admitted it…by releasing a video iPod in 2005.