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Tim Cook Tweets in Memory of Steve Jobs, Who Passed Away Seven Years Ago Today

WWPD said:
His presentations were the best, he could do a presentation on laundry detergent and keep you captivated.
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That is really true - I think that was SJ's forte. He was the consummate sales person, who could inspire engineers working for him to excel, and consumers to buy the resulting products. The company is still thriving largely on the reputation it acquired under Steve Jobs' direction. The "move on" posts on this topic show that his legacy is now fading. Hopefully the company can reinvent itself sans SJ. That remains to be seen.
 
The Apple II and the Macintosh have served humanity by giving us the choice to not have to use gearhead computers suited only for 4-eyed geeks and code warriors. Without the Macintosh I would have never been interested in computers.
 
curtvaughan said:
You are certainly optimistic regarding how long Apple will be around, at least as primarily being a computer company. Technically all the iOS gadgets are computers, but Apple is still generically categorized by the namesake of this forum - the Mac. That has begun to change over the last few years, as it has really become mostly a mobile phone (and accessories, dongles, etc.) company. Steve Jobs main contributions were with the Macintosh and the iPhone. Ten years ago no one could have fathomed how much the iPhone lay in Apple's future, and I'm guessing no one right now can really guess what Apple will be ten years from now. In 1976 a company called Eastman Kodak encompassed 85% of the markets in photography. It is still around, but only as a phantom of what it once was, after nearly going bankrupt in 2013. I was surprised, upon Googling it, that it still exists. I suspect Apple will go a similar route, but much more quickly due to the accelerated speed of the tech industry. Most of the folks who still admire Jobs were of the Macintosh era of Apple. My guess is that a lot of the people clamoring for "let's move on regarding SJ" are mostly too young to remember the significance of his rise - fall - and resurrection of the company he founded. Cook, and even Ive, are at least old enough to know they wouldn't be where they are now without Steve Jobs. That is where Tim Cook comes from, and what he can't forget. Eventually, the Mac (at least as we know it) will die, the iPhone will change and mutate to something we can't imagine, and the people like Cook who came to prominence under Steve Jobs, will also retire or die. After that, Jobs will be consigned to a footnote in history which most people won't remember. Just a guess ...
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And you're certainly pessimistic...and guessing.

Obviously when the numbers show the change, I'll change, but nothing in the data suggests what you're saying is happening or will happen.

You basically said Apple could be Kodak...which is true, but it's not true with all the data we have. All you're saying is Apple could be Kodak because Kodak was Kodak. But Apple isn't Kodak. Even Kodak took time to fall and it was painfully obvious while it was happening. Apple is so much more powerful.

This is a numbers game at the moment. Apple is still so undervalued, makes so much profit, and has so many customers that the change in consumer behavior would have to be dramatic and fast to change that. Some force would have to cause that and it's not going to be self-inflicted. It's going to be a force like Fuji and the general commoditization of products. Android isn't doing that, so we need to see another player really test Apple.
 
RIP Steve. Thanks for your contributions to technology - pushing us forward.

Sometimes I wonder, what form factor phones would be today without the monumental leap the iPhone made. We went from tiny little incremental changes in cell phone technology year after year, and the iPhone just swept through like a raging storm.
Back then I used the Sony P800 and then the P900 which i thought at the time was a huge deal. Dabbled in Blackberry for a few years.
Cellphone manufacturers were fleecing the crap out of us back in the day. smh.
 
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Cmdrx3 said:
What exactly did he do to serve humanity? I would say nothing at all but he certainly served himself and his company. Much as it may pain many on here, I would argue that Bill Gates has done and is doing more to serve humanity than Steve Jobs ever did.
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Well, Bill Gates is still alive, so his contributions are still an unfinished story. He and SJ were both prime movers in the personal computer industry. They had different styles and different goals, but the PC was their main contribution going into the 21st century. The question, which perhaps can't really be answered, is whether the PC/Mac actually "served" humanity. I'd say that the personal computer was revolutionary in bringing information technology to the masses - at least of the 1st world variety. A philosopher might wonder, these days, whether or not that role has been reversed, and that perhaps humanity is being subservient to technology.
 
mazz0 said:
That sounds like an example of what I'm talking about - what does Visual Voicemail really let you do that you couldn't before? It just makes the experience a little less annoying, which is great, and something Apple fanboys like us love and consider worth paying for* but doesn't substantially alter peoples lives. If Apple hadn't brought out the iPhone we'd still have tiny computers in our pockets that we could go on the internet with, they'd just be less nice to use.

*well, actually I don't have visual voicemail right now as my current provider doesn't support it and I don't think it's worth paying for a more expensive provider to get it, because I almost never use phone calls any more, but you know what I mean - in general the nicer interface Apple provides is worth paying for, to me.
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Visual Voicemail allowed people to randomly access their voicemails instead of sequentially. This was a major advance that evoked the rise of random access databases over sequential access. You may not remember that, but for all of us in computer science back in the days prior to the Mac, that was a big deal. Likewise, random access voicemail was a major advance and a major relief especially to business customers. Since people were also able to get the message metadata at a glance they could make their own judgement about what they felt was a priority to listen to, delete, or file away for when they had casual time. Overall it was a giant advance in how voicemail was handled. Apple drove AT&T to implement the system that was developed by Apple, and it has now spread across every carrier, to every smart platform.

My point with the devices and software was the incremental advances they've provided as well as the major improvements. Underlying all of this is that he drove computer sales to the point where these things are ubiquitous. Computers were very present in 2001, but now, they're absolutely part of peoples' lives. And all of those incremental little non-annoyances really add up. Going back to my Snow Leopard laptop - an OS I swore I'd never leave behind - shows me just how much we have advanced since then. Going back to my Apple II - even one of my IIGS systems - shows me how far things have come. And if I really want to have my mind blown, I can look at an old plug in board from a bus style computer of the mid-70s - its the size of a notebook and ridiculously simply. That machine probably took months to build, and many more months to program. And it did nothing except basic math, couldn't plug into a TV, and had no sound output.

My real aim with what I said to you was not just the devices themselves - which have performed fantastically for all the purposes I've outlined, but for the wealth created around them. Increasing wealth is the first factor in raising the standard of living. Its probably number one. More millionaires have been created in the Jobs ecosystem than in any other, I believe. At first it was with hardware add-ons and game programs for the Apple II, but later on with Pixar and then the Apple under Jobs 2.0. The App Store has created millionaires wholly out of peoples' ideas. That can't be denied.
 
Grew up in the Cupertino / Saratoga area of Silicon Valley, & actually saw Steve Jobs once, @ the Good Earth restaurant close to AAPL's "orig" corp location (directly behind where Whole Foods now is).

Many Engineers of my generation would NOT consider working for AAPL because of Jobs' horrible reputation !

It was ONLY later in life that Jobs improved as a Man.

Jobs had positive Qualities, but also some extremely negative ones !

NO ONE should ever forget that ! ... including Cook when he tries to spin his legacy !
 
Cmdrx3 said:
What exactly did he do to serve humanity? I would say nothing at all but he certainly served himself and his company. Much as it may pain many on here, I would argue that Bill Gates has done and is doing more to serve humanity than Steve Jobs ever did.
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The computer itself routinely contributes to the preserverance and advancement of humans (a.k.a. humanity). It is not necessarily an intentional or charitable act.

Both Gates and Jobs had similar roles in democratizing computers so that anyone—not just computer scientists and institutions—could have access to a computer’s abilities. Gates catered to enterprise primarily, whereas Jobs earned a following among creatives and educators.
 
Nice memo!

Unfortunately, I have to side with the grumpy ones. Since Steve‘s demise, Apple has been taken over by bean counters. Profits are soaring, yet innovation is lackluster. Tim is a great CEO, but he is not a product guy. They need to find someone with vision and laser-focus on the products to find the next big thing.
 
Beeplance said:
Steve - the man who created the best products for his own company, who explained the rationale behind Apple's product decisions, who was convincing on stage, who actually made Apple Keynotes interesting.
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He certainly had a kool aid effect on you, he didn't create anything, wasn't a software or hardware engineer.. as was put to him in the film "What is it exactly that you do?" .. I'll tell you, he employed geniius folk and took major credit for their actions , oh and was a b@stard to his daughter.. have I missed anything. God judged him!! That's why he left this earth the way he did!!
 
I wish I would have known him personally to be able to judge better

He certainly did great things I can only admire

the rest I can only guess
 
Schnegg said:
They need to find someone with vision and laser-focus on the products to find the next big thing.
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I used to think the same thing until I realized that giant companies like Apple are seldom motivated to disrupt their existing cash cows. Besides, revoluntionary ideas or products take a long time to go mainstream (if at all). Apple’s customer base is mostly Joe Average and his family. Apple only needs incremental enhancements to keep Joe satisfied.

Instead of Apple finding another Steve Jobs, you and I should be searching for him.
 
I agree. He may Have been a Tech Creationist, did His bit for Mankind...but come on...He treated His subordinates like crap...and took credit where credit was not due. Everyone has their faults...and His were spectacularly displayed.Lets move on.
 
I think Steve would be sick at the direction his company has gone, from building wonderful computers, to being a consumer electronics company, with aging, overpriced hardware on the shelves. Tim Cook, you never were and never will be the visionary Steve Jobs was.
 
Did cook say "serve humanity"? BWAHAHAHA.
Jobs served himself and no one else... ever. Just like Cook.
His brilliance was only rivaled by his narcissism.
 
Tim Cook excelled and still does in organizing the supply chain to produce hardware.

Since becoming CEO, he tries the same approach with the buyers of his products, which he interprets as in perfecting the financial stream originating from them. That is what he does, very successfully. But he doesn´t focus on the products themselves, the vision Steve Jobs carried first and foremost. Profits where important for Steve Jobs, too, but came a distinct second for him in terms of focus on the product and its execution. He believed and trusted strongly that the perfection he cared for would drive the profits in itself. And it did while he was there.

It still does, somehow. But the products of Apple today focus on revenue/profit generation and now their vision and performance comes in a distinct second. It´s a small, but significant shift which Tim Cook brought in with his style and knwoledge of managing when he took over as CEO.

Apples products carry themselves at the moment, because of the hundred of millions of customers they generated over the last 10 years. But this fountain will run dry sooner or later, when their products no longer focus on solving problems first. A vision doesn´t work, when it´s implemented and proven wrong in practice. That´s what more and more people experience with the degrading quality of products and services from Apple and their financial performance increases. It´s a subtle development.
 
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tgwaste said:
Did cook say "serve humanity"? BWAHAHAHA.
Jobs served himself and no one else... ever. Just like Cook.
His brilliance was only rivaled by his narcissism.
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I fear he indeed was a narcissist, and if this was the case I feel sorry for him and for his next to kind

It is no joy to be one, read Sam Vaknin if you want to learn more

I know not because I am a narcissist but because I am a victim of one

a lifetime of suffering for both of them

nothing to joke about

so please do not

edit: Mr. Cook does not seem to be a narcissist to me from what I perceived so far
 
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ChrisChaval said:
I fear he indeed was a narcissist, and if this was the case I feel sorry for him and for his next to kind

It is no joy to be one, read Sam Vaknin if you want to learn more

I know not because I am a narcissist but because I am a victim of one

a lifetime of suffering for both of them

nothing to joke about

so please do not

edit: Mr. Cook does not seems to be a narcissist to me from what I perceived so far
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I think your confusing narcissist with something else.
 
Steve was not very good to Lisa. He was abrupt and harsh to his employees. He had a vision very early that is now fully adopted. Look for the approx 1986 video for office based information device you can talk to. iPhone.

He was stupid enough to forsake pancreatic cancer surgery(s). Homeopathic killed him.

He is both good and evil, but he is an inspiration to many millions and shepherded products that now dominate the world both directly and with known clones.

He was fired. Forstall, his apprentice was fired. Both were unwise as compared to putting them in a secret lab somewhere, where they can't bother manglement very much.
 
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Makes you wonder why Cook is constantly doing things that make Steve roll over in his grave. RIP Steve Jobs, Apple will never be the same (in a negative way) without you. It's all about the $ now. Forget the products, design, and the loyal customers.
 
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