Thank You Steve: The iLegacy of Steve Jobs

When one top CEO of the ever competitive Silicon Valley calls another ‘My Hero’, heads turn and people take notice.  This, when the companies they run are at loggerheads trying to control a segment of the same market space.  However, Eric Schmidt’s (executive chairman of Google from 2001 to 2011) statement did not raise any eyebrows.  He said this for Steve Jobs.  

Steven Paul 'Steve' Jobs (1955–2011) was no ordinary CEO.  He was no ordinary man.  When Jobs breathed his last he held around 300 United States patents in products varying from interface technologies to packaging.  Apple, the company started in his Cupertino garage, is valued more than $ 500 billion today and is the world’s largest publicly traded corporation in the world by market capitalization surpassing oil majors like Exxon Mobil.

But these are mere numbers and do not do justice to Jobs.  There are many other valuable companies and probably other, more prolific innovators too.  What makes Jobs stand out is the way his innovations touched our lives and fundamentally altered the way we approach certain products and ideas.  Bill Gates summed it up beautifully - ‘The world rarely sees someone who has had the profound impact Steve has had, the effects of which will be felt for many generations to come...’.  Our generation remembers him for his iconic - i products, the iPod, iMac, iPad and the iPhone.  

Due to an internal power tussle, Jobs was ousted from Apple in 1985, the company he co-founded in 1976.  The years after that were not very rosy for Apple.  Its sales took a hit and by the end of 1996 it was more or less rudderless, nearing bankruptcy.  On the other hand, Jobs who was on this forced exile, founded NeXT, a platform development company which later started Pixar.co in 1986, an animation studio.  Pixar churned out Toy Story (1995), one the best animation movies ever.  The studio since then has produced hits like Finding Nemo (2003), The Incredibles (2004), Ratatouille (2007), WALL-E (2008), Up (2009) winning seven Academy Awards for Best Animated Feature Film and has given us a lifetime of memories.  Unquestionably, a Midas touch.

So when Jobs returned to Apple in the August of 1997 as 'interim' CEO (famously quipped as iCEO by him), the company was not in the best shape.  It had an operating loss and Microsoft's Windows 95 was selling like hot cakes.  He had a huge task at hand.  A slew of measures followed but nothing was more defining than the entire range of i products as detailed above.  

Though the iMac and Apple’s operating system were the first to be refurbished, the defining product was the iPod which was launched at the start of the new millennium.  A music player, but completely rethought and brought to fore Job’s perfectionist approach to design.  Sales were slow initially because of iPod’s mac only compatibility but till 2006, the iPod had arrived.  It became the definitive music player with the iPod Click Wheel becoming a novel and path breaking way of browsing songs and entering data.  On its design, Jobs once said, ‘We tried to make something much more holistic and simple. When you first start off trying to solve a problem, the first solutions you come up with are very complex, and most people stop there. But if you keep going, and live with the problem and peel more layers of the onion off, you can often times arrive at some very elegant and simple solutions. Most people just don't put in the time or energy to get there. We believe that customers are smart, and want objects which are well thought through.’

However, no product has ever managed to make a dent in the industry like the iPhone which was launched in 2007.  Arthur C Clarke once famously said, ‘any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic’.  When Jobs released the iPhone at the 2007 keynote address, the audience was captivated and partly bewildered.  Their jaws dropped when technologies like pinch to zoom were displayed and one could hear the gasps.  Jobs focus on simplicity and functionality had created a ground-breaking product.  The iPhone became a benchmark and Apple, under Jobs, successfully reinvented the phone.  Till date, the iPhone is the phone to beat.  Apple has sold roughly 500 million units and it is credited with reviving the company. 

The iPad (launched in 2010) was built on the same platform as that of the iPhone and used the previously launched iOS to get things done.  The iPad in many ways shows what Jobs believed in - A lot of times, people don't know what they want until you show it to them.  He virtually created the market for a tablet.  It became a product which till then, no one knew of, but suddenly, everyone wanted.  

The launch of all these products had a major butterfly effect.  The App Store popped up. Suddenly there were young developers who were writing code and produced cutting edge software.  We have an app for almost everything these days.  From simple apps which act as reminders to apps which assist in 3D modelling and even open heart surgeries.  Jobs gave a playing field to these developers and their imagination ran wild.  We now have companies which survive by creating apps for the iOS platform only.

The mobile and computer industry has undergone a marked change as a result of the launch of these products.  Phones with physical controls have vanished.  The laptop which is slowly making the desktop redundant is facing the same challenge from the tablet.  New operating systems, modelled around the iOS, have stormed the market.  Cheaper spin offs of the iPhone have given a smartphone to almost everyone.  Other companies have also build products around these technologies and we now have phones/ tablets which suit everyone’s taste, requirement and budget.

Needless to say, Jobs life and these products also had a fair share of controversies but those were always on the side-lines.  Apple as a company has a loyal (somewhat fanatic) fan following.  The reason for this phenomenon will always be Steve Jobs. 

We lost him to pancreatic cancer on October 5, 2011.  He left behind a legacy which will outlive many generations to come.  He has motivated scores of young entrepreneurs and has shown to the world that dogged persistence, hard work and a creative vision can work wonders.  At the commencement speech delivered by him at Stanford in 2005, he said - Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.  He listened to his inner voice and had the courage to follow his heart.  

Though Steve Jobs is not with us anymore, his celebrated body of work is something we still cherish.  His products continue to make our lives simpler and more interesting.  For all this, and much more – thank you Steve.

(Sarabjeet Singh works as a corporate lawyer with ICICI Bank. He writes on freelance basis and his writing interests include technology, law, internal security and politics)