nicktology "If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses." -Henry Ford

What Steve Jobs meant to me

I watched the story unfold on my Twitter feed from a restaurant in Toronto, as a million thoughts ran through my head. Moments earlier, I was enjoying a fun meal with coworkers when I received a text from my girlfriend saying only "sorry about Steve Jobs". It froze me.

Later that night, I started feeling the same forlornness that was unfolding across the Internet, and my overly-rational reaction was to figure out why I was mourning a man I didn't know personally. So we talked about it.

The timing

Though we react poorly to a tragedy, we can more quickly recover by looking at the positive side of any situation. What Steve Jobs represented was a passion for improving people's lives through technology, and an intense scrutiny of the status quo. I think, in this day and age, we've come to take Apple for granted. Look no further than the tepid reaction to the announcement of the 4S. We have been trained to expect magic from each keynote, when in fact the real magic behind Apple is their ability to make us fall in love with an inanimate object.

I hope that, at the very least, the passing of Steve Jobs helps us to refocus on the man behind the corporation. His intense devotion to technology and entrepreneurship, his passion for improving lives, and his work ethic (right through a tragic illness). You may think this to be a stretch, but each time you use your iDevice to help you find your way or get a restaurant recommendation, that's Steve Jobs behind there, acting as your guardian and your friend.

In that way, I think I knew Steve quite personally.

The magic

I will always admire Steve Jobs for two things:

1. His ability to know what we want and need, even better than we know it ourselves
2. His business prowess and ability to differentiate Apple from its competitors

Consider this: when was the last time that a new Apple product launch wasn't met with at least tempered skepticism?

The iPod debuted at a time when flash memory was the flavor of the day. Disk drives in portable media players were a laughable endeavor. Your mp3 player let you carry around 1, maybe 2, albums worth of songs. All of a sudden, you could carry your entire music collection in your pocket. Paired with iTunes, the iPod was a resounding success.

The iPhone was next to launch to raised eyebrows. You needed an MBA and a pinstripe suit to own a smartphone back then. They weren't made for fun. And they had buttons or a stylus. Just a few years later, iPhone is Apple's biggest revenue generator. The 4S (a phone that listens to, understands, and responds to you!) sold a million preorders, despite it being a consensus flop.

And then there's the iPad-- the product without a market. It transcends our idea of what mobile computing used to be (remember Windows tablets?). It bridged divides between the technology-illiterate and the digital world. It's so unique, that "the establishment" still has trouble defining it (ever try getting 2 TSA agents to agree on whether it's a computer or a media player and, thus, if you have to take it out of your briefcase?). And because it's so many things to so many people, there are numerous applications for its use being developed daily (from cockpits of airplanes to hospital ERs).

I don't think Steve Jobs was a clairvoyant technology CEO, capable of seeing the future of computing. I think he was a mastermind understanding where technology was evolving and how it fits into a marketplace. He was also a marketing genius. Jobs understood that because Apple products were so intuitive, he could focus the message on why we need an iPad instead of what it does.

And then there's the way that Steve Jobs evolved Apple as a company. As of this writing, Apple has been flirting with the #1 spot for market cap in the world. This is no accident or stroke of luck.

The secret is in the way that Apple builds its product ecosystem. I use the word 'ecosystem' for a reason. Each product and service is related, functionally, to every other product in the lineup. Apple doesn't make products that serve a single purpose anymore, at all. I think back to some article I read years ago about how Bill Gates' home, and how he can control music in every room in his house. For about $700, an Apple customer can do the same thing, using an iPhone, Apple TV, and an Airport. And because it all works seamlessly and simply, you don't need Bill Gates' checkbook nor his tech savvy to do it.

This is brilliant for another reason. Consider all the other tablets that various companies have attempted to debut. On their own, they're nice little pieces of technology. The iPad would have debuted with similar limited success if it weren't for the product/service/software ecosystem built around it. Everything from the price point to the form factor of the iPad was, in some way, determined by Apple's previous mobile success. And if you don't understand how brilliant of a tag line "You already know how to use it." is, think about how important a learning curve is to any piece of technology you buy.

The other advantage to building such an ecosystem is how cemented Apple has made its position in the technology space. To borrow a phrase from my industry, they "show customers the pain" of not having Apple products in their life. If you have an iPhone and a Mac, chances are that it's a natural fit to get an iPad when considering tablets. Likewise, if all your Apple products work seamlessly together, you'd be hard-pressed to find a reason to switch to a non-Apple product when time comes to buy a new one. I experienced this first-hand when switching from iPhone to Droid to escape AT&T back in 2009. I must have been Apple's first or second customer to pre-order a Verizon iPhone; and I was one more bad memory away from performing torture tactics on the misfit Droid.

Simply put, Steve Jobs was a business mastermind, and aspiring business leaders (I include myself here) can  learn a lot from him. While the inner workings of Apple are somewhat mysterious, it's no secret what differentiated Apple in the Steve Jobs era: irresistibly simple products that work seamlessly together and enhance lives (and a marketing message that conveys this equally as simply).

Conclusion

Apple's favor among consumers borders on the sort of fanaticism exhibited by professional sports team fan bases. Being an "Apple Person" means constantly gushing about something that jives with you in a way that "just seems right" (Be honest, if you're one of us, you really don't understand non-Apple People and they don't understand you). The very fact that Apple products have descended from the clouds (no pun intended) of confusing technology to become products that people connect with on a personal level is a testament to Steve Jobs and his obsessive control over the entire product experience.

I can say that, without a doubt, Steve Jobs has proven a valuable role model and that if there's any good to come from his passing, it's that we have all been given a chance to reflect on how he has influenced our lives.

Please feel free to leave any thoughts you have about Steve Jobs in the comments below. I look forward to opening a dialogue with you, if that's something you're interested in.

Stay innovative.

-Nick (www.nickselman.com)