Just yesterday, the world lost a huge visionary in the world of tech. No matter what your involvement with technology, Steve Jobs likely touched you in some way. In my world, Steve Jobs and Apple had an immeasurable effect – one that I certainly didn’t expect. It wasn’t always that way, but Apple had a way of making it’s presence known. There are a number of stories out there, I wanted to share my own.

Early on, in my own formative years – I would be exposed to a number of computers. This was the mid eighties and schools were stocking up on PCs like crazy. One of them was the Commodore PET. another computer I managed to snag some quality time with was the Macintosh. This thing looked cool, it had a nifty color screen and let me draw things. Not terribly useful to me, a small kid. I don’t know it would turn out this way – but being exposed to machines such as this whet my appetite for computers. A DOS-based computer was nowhere to be found (at the time).

I fast forward to just starting out in the industry and it’s a PC/DOS/Windows world. Sure, there seemed to be some niche functions Mac would take on (namely graphics), but mainly everything was running on a Microsoft Operating System (that I could see). Years would follow and I would study, and even teach PC subjects leaning heavily on Microsoft software. I remember 1995 and the big Windows 95 launch and was thinking to myself “This is going to keep me very busy”. And it did.

A credit to Steve Jobs, he never gave up. Year after year, Apple would release new products and features that would elipse that of other companies. The iPod/iTunes blows away all media players. The iPhone creates the smartphone market. The iPad creates a tablet market. Apple laptops are some of the most drewl-worthy devices out there fo a reason. Say what you will about the closed construction of apple products, they are designed well. They look great. Heck, right now I’m typing this on a Macbook Pro.

This is what the legacy of Steve Jobs will likely be. You may have written him off, but he kept going. Kept designing. Kept doing what he thought was right. He was here to see the fruits of his efforts too. Witness the 95% market share of the iPad (I’ve owned both of them, and nothing even comes close to the muti-format reading experience it offers). Witness the single-handed domination of digital music purchases by iTunes. These things are no fluke. People are not drawn to Apple’s products by accident.

I have never formally (or informally) communicated with Steve Jobs. I had thought of sending him a message, now that I think of it, I may have. He was known to reply to messages and I may have been been one of those looking for answers too. I have the utmost respect for what he managed to do with the too-short live he was given. We should all be so bold and brave to do the same.

Thank you Steve,
Kevin