What a sad, sad day. I found out that Steve Jobs had died when I was in the lift on the way to work. I managed to make it to my desk in our office before I started crying. When the tributes started pouring in, I only got sadder. As I stood sobbing outside of the Apple store on my walk home from work, it occurred to me that perhaps it was crazy to be so sad about the death of a man I had never met but he’s influenced my life and the entire world in such an amazing way, how could I not be sad? Heck, I even picked up my husband by showing him my brand new iPhone 3G.
I’m relatively new to Apple fandom (although not as new as most, thank you iPhone). I got my first Apple product in 2005, a second-hand iPod Mini which I bought for $80 off a guy at work who was getting a new one. It wasn’t until 2006 that I got my first Mac computer, an Intel MacBook. I remember the girl at the store telling me that I’d be back soon enough buying more…and she was right. A mere six months later, I got my trusty iMac, I was already hooked. I even did a blog on a reality show about my love for everything Apple (ironically, this was before the iPhone’s release so Apple wasn’t popular and I almost got kicked off the show from that blog!). Everything about this company was amazing, from the stores down to the packaging which was just beautiful. When the iPhone came out, it was the most exciting thing I had ever heard of. I’d literally just gotten a contract to get a Sidekick but I broke it three months in to get myself a brand new iPhone. I suffered being called an “iJerk” but I didn’t care, I knew that I was onto a good thing and sure enough vindication came as one by one those people themselves acquired iPhones.
I tell you all this to explain that for half a decade, I have admired the work of Steve Jobs. I have admired his dedication to always invent new technology, also to ensure to the best of his ability that it is working perfectly before it is in the hands of the end user. It’s hard to explain the culture of being an Apple fan. Windows is, for lack of a better word, soulless. It’s an operating system, it does what it’s meant to do on any computer you either buy or build. Mac OS does what it’s meant to do on a computer designed specifically to use it, all the components are chosen to work together seamlessly in a computer housing that has heart and soul. That housing is designed to be so beautiful and aesthetically pleasing that you can’t help but smile when you use a Mac. I once had the Mac vs. PC argument with a guy at my work just after I’d gotten my MacBook and I said that it was great because “it just works”. He had a go at me for quoting an Apple slogan…I was so new to Apple fandom, that I’d never heard that slogan in my life. I said it because it just worked.
I am sad today. I’m sad because a great man died. I’m sad because I’m worried about the future of my favourite company. A company that I have relied on to be the best. A company that I have relied on to forge new paths in the ultra-competitive technology world. A company that has given me pieces of machinery that I use every day of my life or, in the case of my iPhone, every waking hour. I can only hope and pray that Steve Jobs has taught enough to the people at Apple to keep the company moving forward into the future as the shining star it has become. I’m sad for the decades of future technological advances that have been lost in Steve Jobs’ passing. He was the man who predicted the iPad in the 1980s, what could he have predicted today for the future of technology?
An amazing man has passed away today. My heart goes out to the world as they grieve and especially to his family and loved ones who are no doubt in unimaginable pain right now.
R.I.P. Steve.
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