[LINK] Jobs not all bad

[Ivan Trundle]

On 10/10/2011 09:59 AM, David Boxall quoted:

> For the past four days, the world has seen an outpouring of adoring
> appreciation for a ruthless, caustic, controlling, uncompromising,
> monopoly-seeking, mercantile genius, Steve Jobs.


It's called respect. Some people don't have it. 

Ruthless?  Perhaps - but that's business.

Caustic? In a few instances, yes. It's also documented that Jobs was both humble and meek. So what?

Controlling? Odd: he was a CEO... who would have thought?

Uncompromising? A quality that is often denigrated.

Monopoly-seeking? Nonsense. And ludicrous given the state of the industry in which Apple operated.

Mercantile genius? I see where this is heading: it's only the spin, not the substance. THAT denigrates those who buy Apple products.

I challenge diatribes like this because I find them offensive, and even more so since the person in question is actually only recently dead. I find some people to be remarkably callous, insensitive, and disrespectful, and it saddens me that it even occurs in Link. 

I find it remarkable that for some, Steve Jobs is the equivalent of Saddam Hussein, or Attila the Hun.

> The genius of Jobs and Apple Inc was thus not based on technology but on
> process. Apple is currently the most successful company in the world
> because of its intellectual capital, its brand value and its ability to
> create closed systems which charge consumers high premiums.

I remember when Microsoft was the most successful company and it had intellectual capital, brand value, closed systems - and charged high premiums. How times change...

The genius of Jobs and Apple was bringing technology to people in a way which made it accessible. It built success on redefining how things should be done, and ruffled a few feathers along the way because it was different, and much less complicated than the status quo.

Good on them for doing so. I applaud them, and look forward to the day when technology (including computers) simply work, and without the need to have a support department.

iT