Thursday, August 25, 2011

Steve Jobs Resignation from Apple

It says something about a CEO of a company that his/her resignation makes the news all over the world and causes the stock market to shake. 

A young Steve Jobs with the original Apple Mac.
Phote link from thenextweb.com.
The news that Steve Jobs has resigned as Apple CEO is sad news - the implication being that his ongoing health problems are clearly preventing him from doing the job he loves. His recent gaunt appearances over the past year show an ill man. His influence on our day-to-day lives is enormous. In my house we have five iPhones and two iPads. Apple is one of the most valuable companies in the world. iPods, iPhones, iTouchs, and iPads are among the most successful and talked about gadgets in the world with many imitators. I've no doubt that Apple will continue to innovate, be creative, and be successful without him. 

I first used the Apple Mac (pictured right) in Trinity to write up my PhD in 1987. At first there was a small number of them available in a computer lab under the railway arches near Pearse Street - later the Zoology Department (where I was based) acquired two Macs and I had one assigned to me. I thought I was in technology heaven! There was no hard drive - everything was done on 3.5" floppy disks. The windows, icons, mouse, pull-down menus (WIMPs as it was called) were a wonder to someone who had only ever used a mainframe computer with command line input before. I often say that I must have been one of the first postgraduate students in Trinity to submit a PhD thesis written on a Mac. But since then I have never used an Apple computer - always using a PC instead. It is not until the arrival of the iPod and iPhone that I started to use Apple products again.

I do hope that Jobs continues to have influence in Apple, but that he also continues his influence outside of Apple too. Take a look at the YouTube video below of Jobs at a Stanford graduation ceremony in 2005 - he ends with a wise message to young people - "Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish".


1 comment: