Essay 01 digital revolution steve jobs

Digital Revolution: Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs (1955-2011) “The people who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world are the ones who do.”

– Apple’s “Think Different” commercial, 1997, initiated by Jobs after his return to Apple Computer

Essay 01: Digital Revolution: Person – Steve Jobs March 17, 2015 Shekhar P Bagawde | IXDS5503 Media History and Theory Professor: Jason Occhipinti

Essay 01: Digital Revolution: Person – Steve Jobs

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Steve Paul Jobs was an American entrepreneur, marketer, and an innovator, who was the co-founder, chairman and CEO of Apple Inc. Steve was a creative entrepreneur, whose passion for perfection and ferocious drive revolutionized six industries: personal computers, animated movies, music, phones, tablet computing and digital publishing. He was a pioneer who transformed several products and is known as an ultimate icon of inventiveness and applied imagination. Steve Jobs knew that the best way to create value in the twenty-first century is to connect creativity with technology. He received a number of honors and public recognition for his influence in the technology and music industries.

Steve has been widely referred to as ‘legendary’; a ‘visionary’; a ‘futurist’ and many have described him as being the ‘Father of the Digital Revolution’; and a ‘master of innovation’.

Essay 01: Digital Revolution: Person – Steve Jobs

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Early Life and Steven’s interest in technical tinkering Steven Paul Jobs was born on February 24, 1955 in San Francisco, California, to two university graduate students who gave their unnamed son for adoption. Clara and Paul Jobs adopted Steven as an infant. The family lived in Mountain View, California within the area that would later became known as ‘Silicon Valley’.

Steven and his father Paul would work on electronics in the family garage. Paul would show his son how to take apart and reconstruct electronics, which instilled curiosity and interest in technical tinkering.

Steven with his father Paul

Jobs meets Woznaik, his future business partner

Jobs and Woznaik

In 1971, Steve Jobs was enrolled at Homestead High School in Cupertino, California. Through a friend, Steve Jobs was introduced to Steve Woznaik, who was a computer and electronics whiz kid, who had designed many computers. They both loved electronics and had common interests. After high school, Steve Jobs enrolled at Reed College in Portland, Oregon, but because of lack of direction, he dropped out of college after six months and spent next 18 months dropping in on creative classes at the school. His developed his love for typography later from the one course he had taken on ‘Calligraphy’.

Jobs joined video game manufacturer, Atari as a Technician in 1974. Few months later, he left Atari and traveled to India on his quest for spiritual enlightenment.

After staying for few months, Jobs left India, returned to the US and joined Atari, where he was assigned to develop a game. There was a bonus offered to him, if he used fewer chips than fifty. Jobs made a deal with Woznaik who was a better engineer, to develop this game and split the fee evenly between them.

Jobs and Woznaik were able to complete the job in four days, rather nights. Woznaik used only forty-five chips. The Atari experience helped shape Jobs’s approach to business, design and the user-friendliness of their games, made him a focused product person.

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Apple Computers started in the garage of Jobs’s parents 2066 Crist Drive, Los Altos, CA 94024

Apple Computers - The Journey Begins In 1976, Woznaik single-handedly invented the Apple I computer and showed it to Jobs, who suggested that they sell it. Jobs, Woznaik and Ronald Wayne formed Apple Computer in the garage of Jobs’s parents. Wayne stayed only for a short time, leaving both Jobs and Woznaik as the active co-founders of the company.

Woznaik and Jobs produced only 200 units of Apple I, mainly to hobbyists, but it was a commercial success and the proceeds allowed them to work on Apple II. They also received funding from Mike Makkula, who had retired after working at Fairchild and Intel, where he had made millions on his stock options, when the chip maker went public.

Jobs was convinced at the Personal Computer Festival, that Personal Computers should come in complete package. He felt that Apple I could beat the competition in terms of functionality, but one of the competitors SOL-20 was better looking and came in a sleek metal case, a keyboard, power supply and cables.

Apple I

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Apple II series popularized ‘Personal Computer‘ Woznaik with his engineering skills designed awe-inspiring circuit boards and operating software, while Jobs integrated those circuit boards into user-friendly package, from power supply to the sleek case and was instrumental to the commercial success of the Apple II. The Apple II series really popularized the concept of ‘Personal Computer’ and launched that industry. It was marketed in various models for sixteen years, with close to six million sold.

Apple II - Personal Computer

Woznaik had amazing engineering skills, while Jobs was good at packaging and marketing

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A screen-shot of the Apple Lisa Office System 3.1

Xerox PARC, Apple Lisa and Macintosh - Graphical User Interface In early 1980s, Jobs was among the first to see the commercial potential of Xerox PARC’s mouse-driven, point and click graphical user interface (GUI). Jobs and his engineers significantly improved the graphical user interface ideas they saw at Xerox PARC. For e.g. the Xerox mouse had three buttons, was complicated and didn’t roll around smoothly and cost $300. Jobs went to the local industrial design firm, IDEO and told one of its founders Dean Hovey, that he wanted a simple single-button model that cost $15.

There were improvements done to the entire Xerox PARC’s concept. Apple’s engineers transformed the desktop metaphor into virtual reality by allowing users to directly touch, drag, and manipulate things on an interface. Apple’s engineers worked in tandem with its designers. Jobs improved the desktop concept by adding delightful icons and menus.

Apple Lisa was the first personal computer to offer a graphical user interface. The Apple Lisa sold poorly. In 1982 after Jobs was forced out of the Lisa project, he joined the Macintosh project.

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NeXT - A New Hardware and Software Enterprise The next several products from Apple suffered design flaws, resulting in consumer disappointment and recalls. In this period, IBM surpassed Apple in sales. In 1984 Apple released the Macintosh, and marketed the computer as a piece of a counterculture lifestyle, youthful and creative. Disappointing sales affected the working relationships between Jobs and Sculley, the then CEO of Apple. Apple’s board of directors sided with Sculley to remove Jobs from his managerial duties as head of the Macintosh division.

Jobs starts NeXT

In 1985, Jobs left Apple to begin a new hardware and software enterprise called NeXT Inc. Jobs sought venture capital funding from Ross Perot, the founder of Electronic Data Systems (EDS). Jobs marketed NeXT products to the financial, scientific and academic community.

Steve invests in Pixar The following year in 1986, Jobs purchased an animation company from George Lucas, which later became Pixar Studios.

Jobs invested $50 million in Pixar Studios, believing it’s potential. Pixar Studios went on to produce their first film, Toy Story in 1995, with Jobs credited as executive producer. This film brought fame and critical acclaim to Pixar Studios.

Jobs Revolutionizes Animation Industry

The studio merged with Walt Disney in 2006, and Jobs joined the Board of Directors, as the largest individual shareholder.

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Return to Apple In 1996, Apple announced that it would buy NeXT, bringing Jobs back to the company he had co-founded. With the purchase of NeXT, most of the company’s technology found its way into Apple products, most notably, NeXTSTEP OS which evolved into Mac OS X. Under Jobs’s guidance, Apple increased sales significantly with the introduction of the iMac and other products.

Jobs ordered creation of an advertising campaign that reflected the philosophy he thought had to be reinforced within the company he had once co-founded, but which was struggling at the time he came back. ‘Think Different’ was the advertising slogan which was used in television commercials and several print advertisements.

Jony Ive with Steve Jobs and the Sunflower iMac in 2002

NeXTSTEP OS

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Sir Jonathan Ive and Design Principles at Apple Jobs became iCEO in September 1997. He gathered his top management team for a pep talk. Jonathan Ive, known to all as Jony, who at that time was head of the company’s design team, was planning to quit. He was sick of company’s focus on profit maximization, rather than product design. Job’s talk led him to reconsider. Ive and Jobs soon forged a bond that lead to the greatest industrial design collaboration of their era.

Ive was a fan of the German industrial designer Dieter Rams, who worked for Braun. Rams philosophy was ‘Less but better’. Likewise, Jobs and Ive wrestled with each new design to see how much they could simplify it.

Apple’s first brochure proclaimed, “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication”. For Jobs and Ive, Design was not just about what a product looked like on the surface, but it had to reflect the product’s essence.

After Jobs was forced out of Apple, product development was largely engineering-driven, i.e. engineers set forth their specifications and requirements and the designers had to come up with cases and shells. When Jobs returned and forged his bond with Ive, the balance was again tilted toward the designers.

Sir Jonathan Ive is the designer of many of Apple’s products, including the MacBook Pro, iMac, MacBook Air, Mac Mini, iPod, iPod Touch, iPhone, iPad Mini, Apple Watch and iOS 7.

Jobs considered Jony as his spiritual partner at Apple.

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Revolutionary Apple Products that Changed the World

iMac - Personal Computer Apple iMac was introduced in 1998. Its innovative design was directly the result of Job’s return to Apple. Described as ‘cartoonlike’, the first iMac was unlike any personal computer that came before.

Design ideas were intended to create a connection with the user such as the handle and a breathing light effect when the computer went to sleep.

The iMac also featured some technical innovations, such as having USB ports as the only device inputs.

The Mac evolved into two main types of Apple computer; the iMac and MacBook

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iPod The first generation of iPod was released on October, 23, 2001. The introduction of the iPod resulted in Apple become a major player in the music industry.

The major innovation of the iPod was its small size compared to other players at that time.

The iPod’s success prepared the way for the iTunes music store and the iPhone.

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iTunes In April 2003, just as the third-generation iPod was released, Apple launched its online music store iTunes with 200,000 songs.

Before iTunes, music executives had failed to be convinced about the success of an online music market. But coupled with Apple’s hugely-successful iPod - launched just two years earlier - Steve Jobs proved it was a market worth exploring.

The product was an immediate success selling one million songs in its first week and by December it had sold 25 million songs. In 2010 iTune song downloads hit 10 billion.

There have been several updates of iTunes, the most significant being the introduction of film purchase and rentals in 2008

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iPhone On January 9, 2007, Steve Jobs announced the iPhone, that combined three products—a revolutionary mobile phone, a widescreen iPod with touch controls, and a breakthrough Internet communications device with desktop-class email, web browsing, searching and maps—into one small and lightweight handheld device. iPhone introduced an entirely new user interface based on a large multitouch display and pioneering new software, letting users control iPhone with just their fingers.

During this period regular smartphones were not really smart and they usually combined phone, email and internet capabilities. These phones had the fixed plastic typical QWERTY keyboards and the UI was usually not easy to use. Apple introduced a leapfrog product that was way smarter than any other phones and was easy to use. iPhone had a revolutionary UI, which was a result of years of research and development and interplay of hardware and software. Apple reinvented the phone with iPhone.

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iPad The first generation iPad was announced on January 27, 2010, by Steve Jobs at an Apple press conference and was released on April 3, 2010.

During 2010, majority of users had a smartphone and a laptop. And Apple touted the iPad as a third category of device positioned between a smartphone and a laptop making it easier to browse through email, photos, music, videos, reading ebooks and playing videos.

The iPad featured touch screen controls, an onscreen keyboard The iPad’s touchscreen display was a 1,024 by 768 pixel, 7.75×5.82 in liquid-crystal display with fingerprint- and scratch-resistant glass.

Essay 01: Digital Revolution: Person – Steve Jobs

A picture of Steve Jobs on a iPad is seen as people leave flower , apples and ipods on a bench outside Apple headquarters in Cupertino, California, U.S., on Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2011.

Photographer: Tony Avelar/Bloomberg

October 5, 2011, Palo Alto, CA Steve Jobs, Died

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References Steve Jobs, Book by Walter Isaacson - Published: October 24, 2011 Seeff, Norman (October 6, 2011). “Behind the Cover: Steve Jobs”. TIME (Time).

Retrieved October 20, 2011.

Steven with his father Paul Image Source: http://pixshark.com/steve-jobs-as-a-child.htm The garage in Los Altos, California, where Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak founded Apple Inc. in 1976. (Credit: Mathieu Thouvenin/Wikimedia Commons) - http://www.history.com/news/great-american-garage-entrepreneurs Steve Jobs and Steve Woznaik Image Source: http://www.extremetech.com/computing/93914-the-technology-legacy-of-steve-jobs-former-ceo-of-apple/2 http://www.marcianophone.com/archives/52627#prettyPhoto/3/ Image Source: http://www.quertime.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/apple_was_founded.jpg A screenshot of the Apple Lisa Office System 3.1 Image Source: Manual screenshot, using emulation by LisaEm (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Apple_Lisa_Office_System_3.1.png) Steve Jobs begins a new hardware and software enterprise called NeXT Inc. Image Source: http://www.quertime.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/steve_jobs_founded_next_computer.jpg http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/1d/NeXTSTEP_desktop.png Jobs invests in Pixar Studios Image Source: http://www.quertime.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/steve_jobs_founded_pixar.jpg Think Different campaign http://www.jasonarcher.net/2011/08/ Jony Ive with Steve Jobs and the Sunflower iMac in 2002 (Image Source: http://theredlist.com/media/database/design-categorie/here-and-now/minimalism/jonathan-ive/010-jonathan-ive-theredlist.jpg) Steve Jobs with iMad G3 (Image Source: https://9to5mac.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/steve-jobs-with-imac-g3-blue.jpeg) Steve Jobs with iPod Source: Cult of Mac - http://cdn.cultofmac.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/stevevid.jpg Apple reinvents the phone with iPhone Source: http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2007/01/09Apple-Reinvents-the-Phone-with-iPhone.html http://netdna.walyou.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/iphone-3g-s.jpg Apple announces iPad Tablet Source: http://www.macworld.com/article/1145938/tabletannouncement1.html https://d3nevzfk7ii3be.cloudfront.net/igi/TweUPb16tUnBZTXu iTunes http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/business/2010/07/itunes_jobs.jpg Revolutionary Apple Products that changed the world http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/steve-jobs/8810237/Steve-Jobs-the-five-Apple-products-that-changed-the-world. html