Word comes that Steve Jobs - Apple's famous former CEO and sitting chairmain of the board - has passed away. We've known that Steve has been ill for some time, culminating in his stepping down from Apple's CEO, but you never really know when to expect the worst. Not a single AnandTech editor went through their childhood without working with an Apple II at least once, and numerous other Apple devices years later; the story of the coming of age of the personal computer and the story of Steve Jobs are often one in the same.
R.I.P. Steve Jobs, 1955-2011
Source: Apple
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KoolAidMan1 - Friday, October 7, 2011 - link
"Every technology has its hayday but the fact that the iPod will never see huge sales again goes to prove that it was evolutionary and not revolutionary."Yes, and Apple knew this. Unlike other companies, they were already looking past the iPod. Any other company would have milked a hit product like that into the ground and into irrelevance. It's happened over and over with many companies, Sony, Samsung, Microsoft, etc etc. Apple kept moving forward.
Look at November 2006, Microsoft comes out with an iPod competitor in the Zune. What happens only six weeks later? The iPhone is revealed. After it is a hit later that summer, suddenly every company is scrambling to put out simple to use touchscreen smartphones, now that is the fastest growing (and one of the most profitable) markets out there.
Your comment isn't really relevant given that Apple themselves know that products are transitory, but unlike most companies they keep moving forward.
rlandess - Sunday, October 9, 2011 - link
BSMonitorFirst.
You confuse popular and good. Popular doesn't imply anything about quality or innovation. Not all people research every product before they purchase something.
I prefer every other mp3 player I've ever owned to either iPod I currently use. If we're going to argue about which is better than there has to be a criteria. I'd use audio quality, usability, feature set, durability, ease of use, (and most of all) price tag.
Because of this I like the Sansa Clip. Good audio quality, adequate feature set very durable and it's very cheap. It fits my life stye and fulfills my only absolute requirement; that it play music. It does that well and can take being run over twice and still work (although it no longer "clips".)
If a person prefers simplicity, design and not making their own decisions then an iPod is great because you don't have to decide how you'll use it.
I think around 2001 I had a Creative Rio,, about the same time the original iPod came out. I can't talk **** about the original because it was a fine piece of hardware. Plus it used a mini hard drive that cost more at retail than the ipod itself. But the flash based Rio was rubberized, ergonomic, had great features, could be used as a flash drive in a pinch and still had a couple hours worth of space for a fraction of the cost. A couple hours is all i cared to listen to at any given point. The Rio still works, I don't think know anyone with an original iPod on it's original hard drive.
*** I suppose the point I want to make is that saying iPods, iMacs, or iPads are better because they sell millions of units is ridiculous. Popular isn't usually an indicator of overall quality. Apple's success is almost always tied to their marketing tallent, not the revolutionary nature of their products.
Let's get this straight. Smartphones were not "text driven" before the iPhone. And people still bought Palm and Blackberry, Nokia, and the various Windows based phones after the iPhone came out. The iPhone was an evolutionary step in smartphone development that, in combination with heavy advertising, made the iPhone dominant in the market. It was not the first, it was not necessarily the best by everyone's standards and it will probably continue to decline against the competition since it's no longer a stylish fetish object.
Truth: I don't hate Apple. I have some respect for the company, its founders and some of their products. What I do hate is the hoard of ignorant fan boys that scream foul when you say something negative about an Apple. I'll give credit where it is due. I won't shove my head up Apples ass and say they've revolutionized technology in the 21st century. They only brought it down to your level.
JonnyDough - Thursday, October 6, 2011 - link
Well said.KoolAidMan1 - Friday, October 7, 2011 - link
"There is not a single area of technology that Apple has revolutionized."Jesus Christ, really?
Every tech company involved with consumers has been influenced by and iterated upon the groundwork that Apple put down in terms of software UI, physical interface, and ease of use. I would call that revolutionizing, very easily. The trick is that they didn't do it once or twice, they did it numerous times over decades.
rlandess - Sunday, October 9, 2011 - link
Ok KoolAidMan1, I'll give you that.In this round people are copying Apple.
Apple has lifted their big ideas from other people in the past.
Everyone copies from everyone. This is especially true in big corporations where there is very little innovation. That's why Microsoft has to swallow up another company to put out a new product.
But this underscores my point. Corporations like Apple or Microsoft have little to do with actual innovation because fat bureaucracies which they have become.
Almost all tech products come to us in an iterative nature. Apple hasn't revolutionized anything for me. If anything, every time they release a product it's a step backwards from where we were before. The iPad is a poor excuse for a tablet. There were more than one functional touchscreen tablets out there before the iPad. They were more or less fully functional PCs.
Personally I think Apple products lack ambition. Apple takes a product already on the market and trims it down to its bare essentials, gives it an esoteric design to set it apart from everyone else, gives it a streamlined OS with no options for the consumer and locks down the platform so no one outside the company can innovate on it.
Apples innovation is in style and hype not in electronics.
But I suppose you can say the same for any successful technology business.
JonnyDough - Thursday, October 6, 2011 - link
In fact, wasn't Jobs quoted for insulting the consumers that bought Apple products? I think their design philosophy was that people are generally stupid so we should dumb down devices and we'll make billions...chillmelt - Thursday, October 6, 2011 - link
No one is without their filth and lies . The fact is companies would kill to be what Apple is now thanks to Steve Jobs and his vision of technology.silverblue - Thursday, October 6, 2011 - link
There was a comment on the radio this morning stating that Steve Jobs knew what people wanted before they realised they wanted it, and I couldn't help but agree with it. So, regardless of what we think of him as a person, or his company, Apple DID make the smartphone cool and that in itself has pushed the development of portable devices along.My thoughts are with his family at such a difficult time.
FunBunny2 - Thursday, October 6, 2011 - link
Not really. Name one product that didn't exist before Apple made one. Not an evolutionary product, Apple made lots of those, but something totally new. Betcha can't.kmmatney - Thursday, October 6, 2011 - link
I'll name a product that didn't exist before. A smartphone that didn't suck as browsing the web.