Steve Jobs (1955-2011)

Steve Jobs, late founder of Apple, Inc. (Apple.com) FAIR USE: This image is not being included because I want to make money, I'm only including this image for educational purposes only, for he is the subject of this blog post.

Steve Jobs went from a teenager growing up in Silicon Valley with an interest in technology to being the most influential technology executive the world has ever seen because of his vision in the power of technology. He gave Steve Wozniack the idea to sell the original Apple I, recruited Ronald Wayne and Mike Markkula for business expertise for the fledging Apple Computer, Inc., and the rest is history.

Steven Paul Jobs passed away on Wednesday at 56 years of age. He had stepped down from being Apple's CEO in August 2011, a red flag to many of those in the technology world and Jobs fans alike that his health was still an issue, even though he had largely been quiet about it.

You can read obituaries written about him here, here, and here. However, I want to make this blog post about the most important legacy that Jobs left behind -- despite the fact that he will be remembered mainly as an incredible product pitchman and for getting Xerox to lend their computer graphic interface technology to Apple which would lead to creation of the Macintosh in the early 1980s, Jobs never wavered on his philosophy on what technology should truly be about -- to engage the user and to make lives easier. That's why the Mac OS are generally regarded as more user friendly than Windows. It's why the iPod, the iPhone, and the iPad are widely revered examples of popularizing the mobility of your personal life. That's why you have a wide array of fonts to express yourself. That's why you have color graphics on your computer to enrich the time that you spend on the computer.

Granted, he was not at the genesis of a lot of these ideas -- the personal computer, an advanced computer graphical user interface, and portable computing devices were already in well matured development by the time Jobs became a Silicon Valley superstar in the mid 1980s. However, what can be attested to Jobs is that he had an uncanny vision to see what would work and what would not. He saw the Macintosh project as a more marketable advanced personal computer than the Lisa project. He saw the need for Apple to back to its visionary, avant-garde roots when he regained control of the company in 1997. His mercurial, demanding nature for perfection which would give developers fits is a clear reason why so many of Apple's products that they have released so far in the 21st century has been met with widespread praise.

In addition, what drove Jobs's popularity (especially amongst the Apple brand's most rabid supporters) is him being seen as the good guy in the technology world; a knowledgeable corporate executive that looked to be more than just a figurehead and furthermore, an antithesis to everything that is wrong about corporate America. His managerial style and his popular presence made it okay to like (and amongst others, adore) Steve Jobs. It's why you could probably look across the blogosphere and the social networking web and see a lot of people down and mourning Steve Jobs as if he personally knew him -- because he was a down to earth, visionary executive that all in all, was of the common man.