Steve Jobs Didn’t Just Make Products, He Made Platforms
As I reflected yesterday on the sad news of Steve Jobs’ passing, I thought about his impact on my life. Oddly enough, my first recollection was that I used to disdain Apple products and their fanatics. Just a few years ago, I was a PC person who rejected what I felt was the superfluousness of Apple’s sleek computer design. I thought, “If a computer can type and email a document, who cares how technically advanced or pretty it is?”
That changed about two years ago, when my younger brother demanded an iPhone. (“Everyone else at Palo Alto High School has one!”) I tried to convince him that the Blackberry was better, but he formed an alliance with other family members and I was 
outvoted. We moved to AT&T and to the iPhone tribe. (If you’re calculating, then yes, I am due for an upgrade; to 4S or not to 4S?)
I lamented over parting with my Blackberry, but within minutes of sliding, swooshing and touching, I had forgotten all about that first mobile love, and found a soulmate in Apple. Now, I have the iPhone, iPad and Macbook Pro at my side every day.
Yet while these metal boxes are neat, Steve Jobs didn’t just pioneer products; computers, the Internet and other phones existed before him. Really, he perfected distribution systems: the iPod with its iTunes store or the iPhone with its apps. Jobs gave us platforms.
It’s not actually the cool stainless steel products that I have a hard time envisioning my life without, but rather the instant connection I get through Apple’s products to the people, information and ideas I love. I carry the lightweight iPad in my purse so that I can stop into a cafe to hop on Skype with my family in California if I want. During dinner, I can open up Safari on the iPhone to find out which celebrity was in that movie about which we were talking. And, I’ve learned and engaged with ideas, either my own or those of others, from harmless fun apps, like launching angry birds at pigs, to practical ones, like the book I’m writing on the Manuscript application.
This immense new personal freedom extends to the democratization of ideas that Jobs helped to unleash in both audio and app forms. Instead of fighting fruitlessly against music industry giants to be heard, independent artists gained an audience that could be monetized. Rather than just consuming content, even kids could create it.
The hundreds of products Jobs patented are thus connection points. They’re conduits for us to share and absorb new skills and information. They help make the progress of ideas to action more efficient; just as a new lightbulb turns on, we can email it, tweet it or code it, transforming the intangible into an instant reality.
The best thing is that platforms can be built upon. I hope, and I think Jobs did too, that more great ideas will be grown from the foundation his great ideas so brilliantly delivered.
The 25 Most Influential People on the Web (images.businessweek.com)
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