Topic: Steve Jobs dies at 56

[idolminds]

Damn
Removed joke, will save it for later. Dude had it rough at the end.

[Quemaqua]

God I hate that picture. They would use that one.

RIP. I never liked the guy on virtually any level, but what happened to him was sad. Nobody deserves to suffer like that.

The question is, will we see a rise or decline in the sales of turtlenecks, or only a temporary spike followed by a collapse of the entire industry?

[gpw11]

Oh wow.  He looked pretty bad, but I didn't think it'd happen quite this soon.

[idolminds]

Best internet reaction so far:

Occupy Cancer! They took our Jobs!

I'm going to hell.

[gpw11]

Best internet reaction so far:

Occupy Cancer! They took our Jobs!

I'm going to hell.

Hahaha.  I laughed. 

[MysterD]

RIP. I never liked the guy on virtually any level, but what happened to him was sad. Nobody deserves to suffer like that.

My thoughts exactly.

[scottws]

How weird.  I was talking to some people at work at lunch today and they didn't even know he was sick.  RIP Steve.

[shock]

Facebook will now be unusable for about 3 days while people post about his death.

[Cobra951]

I was no fan of his; but damn, that sucks.  He was a bit younger than me.  Rest in peace, Steve.

[nickclone]

I was no fan of his; but damn, that sucks.  He was a bit younger than me.  Rest in peace, Steve.

How old are you?

[shock]

RIP

[angrykeebler]

RIP

Good night, Sweet Prince

[Cobra951]

How old are you?

As old as my tongue and a little bit older than my teeth.

[Xessive]

Sad news. Sad way to go.

[K-man]

I won't go so far as to say that the world will be worse off without him, but it is definitely a significant death.

It is likely that Apple's trajectory was decided for at least 2-3 years before Jobs stepped down.  I wonder what happens after that time?  Do they continue to push the design envelope and come up with new products?  Or do they just sort of ride the successes they've had as long as possible?  It's not like Jobs singlehandedly made Apple into what it is today, but their successes would not have happened without him at the helm.

With or without Jobs, the company can't possibly sustain the success it has been having forever.  I think the next 5-6 years will be interesting.

[Quemaqua]

I don't think Jobs was that important in terms of anything the company produced in the last however many years. It's not like he single-handedly designed all this stuff himself. He had one of the biggest companies in the world that employs a boatload of people with talent in very specific arenas for the purposes of designing products. He was a glorified salesman at best. I don't doubt that his death will affect the company, and I certainly don't mean to imply that he had no talent or vision because obviously he did, but I don't think he was a genius or that he left the world a better place or any of the other bullshit going around now that he croaked. The iPhone is a product of a huge company and a lot of development dollars, not one man with an idea.

Regardless, that doesn't answer the question about their continued success. Will people take to this new guy? Will the products suffer under different leadership if design focus shifts? It'll certainly be interesting to see what happens. If nothing else, Steve understood how to sell things to people. I can't see Tim Cook managing it nearly as well.

[K-man]

I really think you're selling his leadership and influence short.  Apple was a large company that employed boatloads of specialized people in the 90's, and they came close to going under.  Did he sit down and physically design every product?  No.  But his willingness to push the envelope and ability to stay focused made the company flourish.  I can maybe buy that he was basically a figurehead in his final years, but he was much more to that company than a "glorified salesman".

And as far as Cook goes, the conference a few days ago proved (along with an uninspiring product announcement) that he lacks the spark that Jobs had in those situations, for sure.

[ren]

You know what other companies have a boatload of capital and talented workers? Pretty much all of them. It takes much more than money and people to release just one successful product. A line-up as diverse as Apples with yearly release dates, tying together multiple products in varying industries is no easy feat.   Steve Jobs was one of the most successful CEOs in history and his practices will probably be studied for a long time. I'm not that into Apple products but the loss of such an accomplished leader will hurt Apple and possibly the technology industry as a whole. 

[Quemaqua]

Agree to disagree. I say they found their niche and sold the same people the same products over and over again. That's a salesman, not an inventor. Not saying he didn't have some good ideas, and clearly that's oversimplifying to the nth degree, but I think more of the success came from the support rather than the design. One begat the other, obviously, but what's truly special about the iOS platform is all the stuff you can do with your iPhone, which isn't really Apple, it's all the developers who love Apple and make awesome stuff for the iPhone. This is sort of ignoring computing stuff, of course, but Macs are really just computers. You either like the OS or you don't, otherwise it's the same shit, just overpriced.

[K-man]

[Pugnate]

hahahahaha Patrick Stewart looks hot there. Good for bald men.

[scottws]

Agree to disagree. I say they found their niche and sold the same people the same products over and over again. That's a salesman, not an inventor. Not saying he didn't have some good ideas, and clearly that's oversimplifying to the nth degree, but I think more of the success came from the support rather than the design. One begat the other, obviously, but what's truly special about the iOS platform is all the stuff you can do with your iPhone, which isn't really Apple, it's all the developers who love Apple and make awesome stuff for the iPhone. This is sort of ignoring computing stuff, of course, but Macs are really just computers. You either like the OS or you don't, otherwise it's the same shit, just overpriced.

I'll agree to disagree, but I disagree vehemently.  Apple wouldn't even be around today if Apple never bought NeXT and brought Jobs back into the fold.  He didn't design anything himself, but he had a vision and really took his employees to task to make that vision happen.

I remember reading a retrospective article about the design of the first iPod.  So there were some designers and Jobs in basically the very first constructive meeting about it to hash out what the device was going to be like.  One of the designers said, "Well, I guess we'll start by saying it has a power button" and Jobs just said "No!  No power button".  He challenged his people to think outside of the box.  And he was never content with past success, he was always looking forward to the next big thing.

[nickclone]

As old as my tongue and a little bit older than my teeth.

Damn! Thats old.

[Pugnate]

As old as my tongue and a little bit older than my teeth.

Is that actually a line from somewhere? Because that's actually quite awesome.

[Cobra951]

I'm not that creative.  It's his entry in his employment card at Macy's.