NO BYES, STEVE JOBS!

T he world woke up this morning to the sad news of Steve Jobs death. His battle with cancer had reached a tragic end. Perhaps the shock of his passing was tapered because she knew that he had been plagued by a condition with an almost inevitable outcome. All the same, it was greeted with profound grief.

I once had a conversation with a friend over a Time magazine article on Steve Jobs. It was in 1998. My friend was of the opinion that Steve Jobs was the most ingenious person in the techno-world. I was routing for Bill Gates then. My standpoint was that Microsoft made computing universal and demystified. Through the portal of user-friendly software, Team Bill Gates marketed the binary box to the point that computers indeed became personal. For me then, the tease of computing innovations, which seem like the domain of Team Steve Jobs at the time, was always going to go wild and appealing as the days go.

Since then, the world has been awed over and again as Apple churned out one product after another. What has struck me in all these is the standard of each of these technological innovations. The bar is always so high with Apple’s products that they are the yardstick in the evaluation of similar products. Here in is Steve Jobs’ impact in the world: each of his products becomes a trend by which every other is measured. I dare say that years after his death, his works will live on.

Death is always greeted with grief but in between the sniffs for Steve Jobs, is an adoration of his achievement. The world is a better place because of you, Steve Jobs. No byes.