Steve Jobs

[smc]

Originally Posted by ila

The iPod is copy of Sony's MP3 player. iTunes wasn't the first online music file sharing service. Jobs' effort is that he produced the hardware, software, and enduser product in one company instead of several separate companies.

The iPod as a complete product, seamlessly integrating the device, technology, and service, is so advanced compared to the Sony product that it cannot even be compared. If you are judging innovation on the basis of who is first to create something that is narrowly defined, you may be correct. But ascribing innovation in that way would negate some of the world?s greatest advances.

Someone at our university asked me what I thought of Steve Jobs. I replied that ?he made technology fun.? His contribution was as a marketing genius not a technologist. Recall that it was Steve Wozniak who was in fact the ?brains? behind the original Apple computer. From all accounts I?ve ever read, ?Woz? didn?t have a clue what to do with the thing. Jobs said: ?let?s sell it.? The rest is history?

[randolph]

Originally Posted by aw9725

Someone at our university asked me what I thought of Steve Jobs. I replied that ?he made technology fun.? His contribution was as a marketing genius not a technologist. Recall that it was Steve Wozniak who was in fact the ?brains? behind the original Apple computer. From all accounts I?ve ever read, ?Woz? didn?t have a clue what to do with the thing. Jobs said: ?let?s sell it.? The rest is history?

Yes, Apparently Wozniak also "invented" the spreadsheet, one of the most useful aspects of computer technology.

[MayDay]

I think Jobs main contribution was to create 'accessible' technology. That is to say, he tried to make easy interfaces that anticipated the needs of a novice user.

For a more tech heavy person, it's actually a bit of a pain, because it takes more effect to get to the 'guts' of configurations. E.g. I don't want IPhoto to always pop up when I insert a memory card, but it takes a devil of a long time to figure out how to disable this 'feature' on a Mac.

I know a lot of people idolize him - I can't quite get worked up to that level, but to each his or her own opinion. I won't demonize him either.

[ila]

Originally Posted by randolph

I am not a fan of Apple products, but I think you are being rather harsh on Jobs. All innovators base their achievements on the accomplishments of others. Our good friend Bill Gates used the CPM operating system as a basis for the IBM PC operating system.
Even Einstein could not have come up with his revolutionary theories without the knowledge gained from physicists and mathematicians before him. Also, how did your Scottish buddy, Higgs come up with the Higgs boson? He just didn't create it out of thin air.
By the way, you are very well informed on technology, are you in the field?

The adulation for Jobs, since his death, has gone overboard. Some people are crediting him with inventing products that were invented by someone else. I did not say that Jobs was not innovative. All I said was that he didn?t have an original idea. Everything created by Apple was done by somebody else first.

Originally Posted by smc

The iPod as a complete product, seamlessly integrating the device, technology, and service, is so advanced compared to the Sony product that it cannot even be compared. If you are judging innovation on the basis of who is first to create something that is narrowly defined, you may be correct. But ascribing innovation in that way would negate some of the world?s greatest advances.

I did not compare Sony?s product to the iPod. I merely said that Sony was the first company to introduce a portable digital music player. The idea for a portable music player comes from portable cassette players that various electronics manufacturers started introducing in the 1960?s. So the modern MP3 player and iPod roots can be traced back to a previous product that does not look anything like the modern product. So I did not negate innovation with my statement. I just pointed out that the iPod was not first.

Originally Posted by aw9725

Someone at our university asked me what I thought of Steve Jobs. I replied that ?he made technology fun.? His contribution was as a marketing genius not a technologist. Recall that it was Steve Wozniak who was in fact the ?brains? behind the original Apple computer. From all accounts I?ve ever read, ?Woz? didn?t have a clue what to do with the thing. Jobs said: ?let?s sell it.? The rest is history?

Exactly that, he was good at marketing and not at inventing new product

[smc]

Originally Posted by ila

Jobs didn't change a damned thing. He never had an original idea in his life. Everything he produced was copied from a previous product.

Originally Posted by ila

... I did not say that Jobs was not innovative. All I said was that he didn’t have an original idea. Everything created by Apple was done by somebody else first.

I appreciate your clarification, my friend, but as your initial post quoted above indicates, you stated that he "didn't change a damned thing." That is an ?ber-narrow view of what innovation means. The list of Apple products produced under Jobs' leadership that changed the way in which the world views and uses technology is lengthy and impressive. Even people who don't like Apple products cannot deny the influence of things like making the USB a mass-used thing, broadening how GUI is used, etc., etc., etc. -- unless they simply want to pretend that some things just never happened.

[Enoch Root]

Ah the mighty USB. Greatest thing to happen to computers.

[ila]

Originally Posted by smc

I appreciate your clarification, my friend, but as your initial post quoted above indicates, you stated that he "didn't change a damned thing." That is an ?ber-narrow view of what innovation means. The list of Apple products produced under Jobs' leadership that changed the way in which the world views and uses technology is lengthy and impressive. Even people who don't like Apple products cannot deny the influence of things like making the USB a mass-used thing, broadening how GUI is used, etc., etc., etc. -- unless they simply want to pretend that some things just never happened.

Yes, my very first sentence was too harsh.

[bial]

I do not use any of his products but he was an inspiring man, a pure genius of our generation.