Unrivalled
The FT profile uses a couple of quotes that hit the nail on the head quite nicely for me "Steve's the last of the great builders," said Roger McNamee, a Silicon Valley financier. "What makes him different is that he's creating jobs and economic activity out of thin air while just about every other CEO in America is working out ways to cut costs and lay people off."
But the best was saved to last. This is an excerpt from the autobiography of John Sculley, who booted Jobs out of Apple in 1985: "Apple was supposed to become a wonderful consumer products company. This was a lunatic plan. High-tech could not be designed and sold as a consumer product." But that's exactly what Jobs has done, far better than anyone else.
There are countless studies, articles and debates about how Jobs has achieved this, and not everyone can see what all the fuss is about, but you can't argue with the results. The reason Apple sells so much kit is that it's a mainstream brand in a way no other tech brands are. In fact it's not a tech brand at all, it's a gadget brand.
There's no demographic Apple doesn't appeal to. Grandparents and grandchildren alike are as likely to own an Apple product as any card-carrying geek. And the basic message - that its products just work - rings true with the majority of people who have no interest in getting under the skin of their tech, regardless of how debatable that claim is.
There is one contradiction at the FT, however. Jobs got his accolade primarily due to the introduction of the iPad, which once more illustrated his unique ability to create and define a product category. Microsoft tried to do this with tablets for a decade and failed.
But in its ‘best gadgets of the year' feature, the FT dismisses the iPad, saying "A lighter version, with cameras and more apps that exploit this tablet's potential could make this the best gadget of 2011, but its first iteration is not compelling enough." Having said that, it still selected an Apple product - the MacBook Air, as its number one gadget.
I have to say I've felt no compulsion to buy an iPad, and have only found myself mildly curious when given the opportunity to play with one. But I seem to be in a minority, not just in the broader market but within HEXUS (*cough - David and Tarinder - cough*). And that, to me, is the genius of Steve Jobs. He makes desirable products out of the same clay as everyone else makes run-of-the-mill ones.
This unique talent was more apparent this year than ever, with the launch of the iPad, and that's why I agree that he has been more influential than Zuckerberg or Assange.
