Steve Jobs, Iconic Entrepreneur

Incredible image snagged from Brain Crumb Trail

I remember my first personal computer. It was a used Apple IIc that then-Staff Sergeant Kathryn Graham coaxed me into buying for a genealogy project she was helping me with after hours. In 1985, we had only one computer in Alpha Company, 3rd Engineers, and the Training NCO and our Admin clerk had to fight over time behind that old IBM PC with MS-DOS 2.0 like it was gold. It printed on pin-fed paper, so we still had an IBM Selectric for typing all formal correspondence. We had a mimeograph machine for making copies. This was before anyone had pagers. I don't remember if I had a tape recorder answering machine yet, or not.

Now, 26 years later, we don't have many Admin clerks in the Army anymore because everyone has a networked PC in their workstation. I am surrounded by all manner of gadgets at work and at home which were un-imagined then, yet indispensable today: a wireless mouse and keyboard; a VOIP phone; data storage devices; routers and transmitters; 32GB hand-held music and video player. My 1.2 GHz Droid 2 Global smartphone is many times faster and much more capable than my dear old 128 KB Apple IIc.

What changed? Well, technology changed. People's willingness to embrace and leverage technology also changed. And one of the key figures in making technology cool and accessible is trendsetter Steve Jobs.

"Steve Jobs stepped down as CEO of Apple yesterday, and one of the reasons we actually care is because he had a hand in so many major products that we use every day. Shan Carter and Alan McLean, for The New York Times, provide a breakdown of all 313 Apple patents that include Jobs in the group of inventors." --Nathan Yau, Flowing Data

Hat tip to Nathan for pointing us to this interactive NYTimes.com feature detailing Steve Jobs’s patents. The fact that Mr Jobs had a hand in 313 patents is a lasting testament to his creative genius.

I also appreciate this interesting (though at the moment, slightly outdated) biography of Jobs in the Jacana Great Lives Series. By the way, Jacana looks like a site I could get lost in. Check it out!

"Computer designer and corporate executive Steven Jobs is cofounder of Apple Computers. With his vision of affordable personal computers, he launched one of the largest industries of the past decades while still in his early twenties and remains one of the most inventive and energetic minds in American technology." --Jacana

Quote of the day, with a hat tip to Prof PTJ, comes from this article: Steve Jobs Reshaped Industries 

"His personality made Apple Apple. That’s why no other company has ever been able to duplicate Apple’s success. Even when Microsoft or Google or Hewlett-Packard tried to mimic Apple’s every move, run its designs through the corporate copying machine, they never succeeded. And that’s because they never had such a single, razor-focused, deeply opinionated, micromanaging, uncompromising, charismatic, persuasive, mind-blowingly visionary leader." --David Pogue, New York Times

Shares of Apple stock (Nasdaq: AAPL) closed yesterday at $376.18 before Steve Jobs announced that he would be stepping aside as CEO. Shares opened $8 lower this morning, but climbed back during the day to  close within $2.46 of yesterday's mark--down about half of one percent. Perhaps the strongest testament to Mr Jobs's visionary leadership is that he has groomed his team for a seamless transition.

That. and 313 patents, is quite an amazing legacy.