Well this has been a big week in the digital world. First it was the mammoth-size move and giant leap of Google buying Motorola. And just yesterday, another mammoth, having survived and even thrived through the short computer millennium, resigned. The charismatic Steve Jobs has stepped down as CEO of Apple.
The tech community’s reaction is overwhelmingly sweet. It is interesting to compare this to an eventual departure of Bill gates from Microsoft. I don’t think he would be missed by many, even though he has managed to influence the lives of a far greater number of earthlings than Jobs ever could have. But Microsoft has become part of our lives more like an unavoidable curse than a gift. The Windows Operating System is like the rain. We’ve gotten used to it, but it still often ruins the day.
Apple’s products – and I am not even a Mac owner myself – were the result of an amazing recovery, and they shone by their quality and polished personality, something that, in an age of fierce digital competition, cheap manufacturing and cut-throat industrial spying, has become an exception.
As Tech Crunch’s John Biggs wrote:
“He’s leaving, now, the victim of something gnawing at his health like sea spray whittles a wooden pier. […]
Godspeed, Mr. Jobs. We’ll miss you on stage.”