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On Apple products

 

August 26 2011

First and foremost, now that Steve Jobs is leaving Apple, my prayers are with him. Talking to someone familiar with various forms of cancer, they told me that the type of cancer Steve Jobs had is one that usually comes back in another form. Most likely, Steve Jobs' days are numbered.

That in mind, my prayers are with him and his family.

Steve Jobs has been a pioneer in bringing significant advances in computer technology in a form appealing to the masses. Affordable home computers have been around since the Altair; Steve Jobs' Apple II was the first home computer marketed for non-hobbyists and which didn't need a soldering iron to build; it was hands-down the most successful 8-bit computer until the low-cost Commodore 64 came out a few years later.

Steve Jobs was able to move beyond the Apple II with the Apple Lisa, which was far too expensive and was not a commercial success. Jobs did not let failure stop him; he took the good ideas from the Lisa and came out with the enormously successful Macintosh.

Steve Jobs has had a lot of other successes, for the same reason: He did not let failure stop him and revised his designs until they were successful. The NeXT Cube had limited success, but its derivative Mac OS X is--barring Windows--the most successful desktop OS. Apple had little success with the Newton tablet--but instead of writing off tablet because of the Newton's failure, Jobs gave us the iPad, which has been an overwhelming success.

While I am not a user of Steve Jobs' products, and while I do not like how the iPad ended the netbook fad of 2009 and early 2010, I recognize that he is an incredible visionary and corporate leader who has revolutionized the computer industry for nearly four decades.

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