I read this news just as I was getting out of bed. I felt so sad as if someone I knew very well like a close friend or relative passed away. So I started thinking - why am I feeling so sad for someone who I actually know very little of and whom I have not met even once in my life? How can someone influence my life so much? Was it just because I liked Apple's products? But I own only 1 Apple product - iPod Touch 4G. So why am I SO sad after hearing this news?
It was in mid-2005 when I was in college and we were killing time in parking lot during 1 off-lecture when a friend came with his shiny new toy - Nokia 7710. My jaw dropped after seeing the 3.5" screen which was HUGE compared to my 6600's 2.1" screen. At that time I always wondered why there were no phones with bigger screens and bigger memory capacity so that I can carry my movies with me and maybe some day technology will advance so much that we can browse on phones the same way we do on desktops. And looking at 7710, I thought Nokia has finally started in the right direction and soon we will get such killer devices. But at that time I didn't know that its Nokia! how can I expect it to be so sane!
Fast forward to 2007, Apple comes with the holy grail of mobile devices - iPhone. I saw the photos and videos on the net (had to wait for hours to stream the videos via my Dial Up) and I was like :O is that even possible?? How can it be so cool? That was the first time I saw Steve's keynote. He was so charismatic and captivating and he did not use any fancy words or wasn't 'dressed' for the occasion
It was just him connecting with his audience and selling his product. Still he made it feel special as if it was specifically designed for me.
I wanted to buy iPhone but it was not available in India and was very expensive for a student. But I thought hey, Nokia had a similar device 2 years ago...so maybe they will also come up with equally good device. At the end of the day, Nokia has been in this business longer than Apple. So I thought I should wait for Nokia's response - and I am still waiting :lol:
If it weren't for iPhone and iOS, there would not be 4, 4.3, 5.3(!) inch touch screen monsters, there would not be android the way it is right now and Nokia's 2011 flagship would have been 4th successor of N95 - the N98 16GB (S60v3 with FP5) :lol:
So how can something so obvious was not done by any other company but Apple? And it's not just about the idea, more importantly the execution matters. And this is where other companies fail. There were portable music players before iPod, there were mobile phones before iPhone and there were touch screen tablets before iPad..but none of those matter now. Just having a great idea and executing it halfheartedly does not give you success. It was Steve's passion, attention to detail, perfect execution and excellent marketing skills that differentiated him from the lot.
One thing that he had on his side was supreme control over the resources at Apple - almost dictator
ish But that is required if you want to come up with creative technology products. Because in any company, there is always struggle between arts and commerce. And most of the time, commerce wins for seemingly obvious reasons. To have a balance of both, you should have someone sitting at the top who has all the authority.
btw, Steve is such a marketing genius, I personally rank him above David Ogilvy. He explains some of the toughest brand and marketing ideas in such simple words that you cannot help but salute his genius. Here is an old video which I like very much
Now that I think about it, he has influenced my life in MANY ways...
RIP Steve 
