Apple Crumble

I was saddened by the death of Steve Jobs.  However I was further saddened and angered, if I am honest, upon learning that his death may have been avoided if he had sought treatment earlier.  Apparently Steve waited some 9-10 months after being diagnosed with his neuro-endocrine tumour before seeking conventional medical treatment.

Steve Jobs was, to say the least, a complex and idiosyncratic man.  His biography is a fascinating read, and while I have only read excerpts (I am hoping for it on Dec 25th..) his adherence to Eastern religions and philosophies, along with his fascination with extreme vegetarian diets was something I would not have thought that he would have been caught up in.  However it seems that these may well have been his downfall.

I am not going to rework the theories and counter theories, these can be seen online with ease, but the fact that there have been 10 year periods recently where no one died of of an NET, and a base percentage survival rate, when treated early, in the high 90s really made me think that perhaps Steve was a victim of the self same doggedness that drove him to greatness.

Form over function
Apple became the most valuable company in the world, not because they produced the best, feature rich products, because they didn't.  I know Apple groupies will argue this point, but 1st generation anything from Apple lacked features that other comparable devices had as standard, just look at the messaging capabilities of the 1st iPhone.  What Apple did was two-fold.

Apple devices became objects of desire.  Success in business, and particularly technology, is littered with companies that take an existing established product, rework it and make it desireable through design.  In most cases the new product may not have been a great advance in the technology. Job's great rival Bill Gates did it with Microsoft Windows, a great looking easy to use graphical user interface based system, that made learning to use a computer easy.  James Dyson did it with the vacuum cleaner.  Steve Jobs did it initially with the personal computer and then the music player and mobile phone.  Creating an object of desire is not easy.  But it would seem that the most important criteria is design.

This is where Steve Jobs hit the jackpot.  A chance meeting with a young Apple designer called Jonathan Ives changed the perception of Apple's products for ever.  Jonathan Ives was the guy who designed the iMac and iBook . Remember those the colourful semi-wedge and clam-shell designed computers and laptops that just worked, straight out of the box?  He was the man that turned the Apple logo around on their laptops and illuminated it, so people opposite you saw it the correct way around, even in the dark.  Steve Jobs found in Jonathan Ives a kindred spirit, with the same attention to detail that he craved.

Clever design and ease of use coupled with great product placement, ensured that Apple's product desireability skyrocketted.

And this brings me to the second reason that Apple's products became so dominant.  They just worked.  They may not have been feature rich, such as messaging on the original iPhone being almost non-existent, but what they did, they did well.  They made the products easy to use.  They made them work straight from the box.  This is what we as consumers love.  Take something out of its box, plug it in, and it configures everything for you and you just start using it.

New products
I will concede that Apple have introduced new products but these have not always been success stories.  Does anyone remember the Apple Newton Message Pad? I do. Sadly a product developed too early.  Re-invented 15 years later as the iPad which this time was an unexpected run away success. So they don't always get it right, however the message pad was pre Jonathan Ives, so this may well have been part of the problem.

The Future
What will happen to Apple now System Jobs has gone?  Will it flounder like it did the last time he wasn't at the helm? Will its new CEO be able to get the best from Ives.  Will Ives want to stay, now his friend and mentor is no longer there? Who knows? Genuinely.  The pundits may well believe it will be business as usual, however I am not so sure.  Tim seems to lack charisma and possibly the vision of Jobs.  Sure he piloted Apple through Steve Jobs' first bout of absence, but you know he would have been speaking to the guy regularly, and also he was safe in the knowledge that he was coming back.  There is no such safety net now.

The next 12-18 months are not the most important for Apple as the product lines for this period will have already been decided while Steve was still with the company.  It is the product line that follows after that, that will determine if Apple stay at the top of the tree.  I for one hope that do stay there, producing great design and innovation.  As through this other companies around them are driven to try and overtake them, and this means that we, as the end users, benefit directly by getting better profits from every one.

Steve Jobs legacy is not just Apple, he is also the reason companies like HTC, Samsung and LG make better phones and tablets.  He is the reason that laptops and consumer electronics are more stylish.

Steve Jobs.  Thank you and RIP.

Cheers

Diggy

Written on a Google Nexus Android phone.