A Loss and a Gain for Apple in the Same Week

Tuesday, October 4, was a great day for Apple. The announcement of the new iPhone 4S occurred on the company campus as well as the gathering of many great Apple Community members and followers.

With the iPhone 4S, a great gain for the company at a time like this, Apple has reinvented the phone – again, saying its the 'the most amazing iPhone yet', not only through the new software it runs, that was released this week for updating iDevices (iOS 5), but also through the new feature called Siri, your own personal assistant, taking Dictation, on command at any time. Triple-click the home button and you can expect a response of “How can I help you?” by what you would think is a person inside your device.  The hardware upgrades inside the phone, such as the dual-core A5 chip that runs your apps amazingly fast as well as the 8 MP camera (that shoots 1080 p video) recently proved to be a big success as Apple reported that they sold over 1 million iPhone devices within 24 hours of the announcement.

iCloud was also highlighted that Tuesday afternoon, showing how your e-mail, photos, contacts, calendar events/appointments and documents on your iDevice sync directly to your Mac (and vice-versa) the minute you upload anything among those applications mentioned.

Additionally, the iOS 5 software update was also recapped, as well as the announcement of it’s release date, this past Wednesday (October 12). With over two-hundred whopping new features and enhancements, Apple says this has been the ‘Best Update Yet”.

With iPhone, iOS 5 and iCloud taking center stage on Tuesday, the big question was “Where’s Steve?”

As it was known that Tim Cook, the new CEO of Apple, was planned to give the presentation on Tuesday, most people were expecting that Steve would join, not by presenting, but just with the simple presence of being in the audience.

On Wednesday, the Apple community was informed, sadly, that Steve Jobs, the co-founder and preceding CEO of Apple, passed away Wednesday afternoon in the presence of his family at a shocking 56-years of age, due to his longtime battle with pancreatic cancer and respiratory arrest.

The following letter, written by Apple’s Board of Directors, was written and placed on Apple’s Public Relations web page:

We are deeply saddened to announce that Steve Jobs passed away today.

Steve’s brilliance, passion and energy were the source of countless innovations that enrich and improve all of our lives. The world is immeasurably better because of Steve.

His greatest love was for his wife, Laurene, and his family. Our hearts go out to them and to all who were touched by his extraordinary gifts.

News stations around the States stopped their current news stories and the report of Steve’s passing cut in as ‘Breaking News’, and it surely was a huge loss for the Apple Community.

Apple Retail Stores around the GLOBE have honored Steve’s passing that next day, Thursday, by turning off the big, glowing Apple logo that is seen at every retail store. Apple geeks and lovers were seen at numerous stores placing flowers, half-bitten apples and sticky-notes with condolence-messages outside Apple’s stores.

The company homepage also recognized his death as well (and still is recognizing his passing, as I am writing this) by showing his obituary picture, but by clicking on his picture, a very nice message appears.

“Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being. … Steve leaves behind a company that only he could have built and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple.” (You can read the full message here.)

With some saying that the company will come to an impacting-end due to the loss, I think that this starts a new age of innovation in the company, creating room for Apple's next big people to impress us with their fresh ideas. Steve even said in his resignation letter that ‘Apple’s brightest and most innovative days are ahead of it’ and by keeping this statement in mind, personally, I see this holding true, as Apple is one of the most valuable companies in the world.

Steve Jobs will never be forgotten in my mind, because every time I boot up my iMac, power on my iPad, or listen to music from the iPod in my pocket, I can think of Steve in such a grateful way that without him, we may not have gotten to the point of technology that we are at today. (Or maybe we would be, but never as simplistic or beautiful as Steve has made it with his remarkable team.)

As I sign off with this blog, I try to remember always this excerpt from Steve’s Commencement Speech at Stanford University in 2005:

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960's, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.

Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

In remembrance of him, to all of you Patchers - Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish.