There are so many encomiums and outpourings of praise being aired for Steve Jobs that I feel I don’t need to reiterate his accomplishments, stature, and the sadness felt at his passing. To the warm remembrances and appreciatory discourses like those of Walt Mossberg and Brian Halligan, I say, “Hear, Hear!”
I met Jobs once at a trade show when he was CEO of NeXT. He was handing out business cards and when I approached him he quickly pocketed his cards. He was wary, but when I told him I was a computer industry reporter and could help him reach thousands of the potential customers he was trying to reach, he warmed up and became interested. We spoke briefly and he said he would be in touch, but never did get back to me. I later covered NeXT as an analyst and have followed Apple in various capacities over the years.
I’ve also used Apple products and, like many others, enjoyed using them.
Steve Jobs was a giant and his accomplishments gigantic. His life was intricately intertwined with that of Bill Gates, another industry giant. The two were partners and fierce and bitter rivals who nevertheless came to show appreciation and respect for one another.
In his younger days, Steve Jobs once lambasted Microsoft publicly for having “absolutely no taste.”
Years later, Bill Gates remarked, humorously and seriously, “I’d give a lot to have Steve’s taste. He has intuitive taste both for people and products. How he does things is different and magical.”
The market agreed that Steve Jobs had a sense of elegance and taste in his design.
Onstage together in 2007, Jobs and Gates were asked to recount their relationship. “I think of most things in life as either a Bob Dylan or Beatles song,” said Jobs. He then cited the line, “You and I have memories longer than the road that stretches out ahead” and remarked, “That’s clearly true here.”
Jobs would know that one of the Beatles’ most memorable lines is, “And in the end the love you take is equal to the love you make.”
And as we see, a whole lot of love is coming Steve Jobs’ way…