Steve Jobs will Live On

I woke up this morning to the sad news of the demise of the Apple Founder, Visionary, Icon, Inventor, Entrepreneur, Genius and as some say the Newton of Apple Steve Jobs. I am truly saddened by the loss and know that the void and vacuum left by Jobs can never be filled in this world.

As a child, I had always heard about Apple. At that age, I was a little too young to distinguish between apple the fruit and Apple the Company. My first exposure to Apple Inc. came in late 1998 when my father's friend bought a turquoise green Macintosh. While these computers looked stunning, we all laughed at him because at that time Windows was so prominent in India, that using any other OS was just plain stupidity. More over, these Macs were so expensive and so incompactible that only  a mad person would buy it. Little did I know that in exactly 10 years, I would be laughing at those who din't use a Mac or an Apple product, and though not an Apple Employee, convince people around me to buy one. 

The first Apple Store in India opened in the Forum Mall, Bangalore. At that time, it seemed like a shop displaying pieces of art. We would all go, use their product demos, and come and say, "Wow, amazing but not what we need." My friend had bought the white iMac. When we visited his house we would all want to use his computer cause it was so uncommon. I never knew how to operate one, but the Photobooth Application greatly amazed me. 

I got the iPod very late. While most of my friends had already had one, I managed to get the Black iPod Video as a gift for getting good grades in my 10th standard board exams in April 2006. This marked a new era in my life and my increasing admiration for a man called Steve Jobs. While purchasing the iPod, I happened to explore the Mac, and I fell in love with instantly. I kept asking my father to buy me one, but it was expensive. 

As I started using the iPod, I started getting drawn to Apple. I started reading up more about them, I read a lot about Steve Jobs, downloaded Apple Podcasts, and at that time the D5 conference with Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, a rage then as two competitors were on stage face to face. After watching that video, Steve Jobs had won my confidence. He dethroned Ratan Tata as my inspiration and icon. His vision, creativity, presentation skill, thought process, his foresightedness- he knew that users are not quite sure of what they want, so he created devices with features that made people want them made him by inspiration and motivation. I started reading more on his management skill, his marketing skill and more I read, the more I learnt and the more I admired. 

In 2008, I finally got what I wanted for so long - a Mac. It changed my life. I became more interested in technology, I became more productive and my academics improved. It was the Mac. In 2007, the iPhone was launched. It was the object of desire, but not available in India. As they say 'Good things are worth waiting for', I waited and finally got the iPhone 4. As much as I wanted the devices, I also waited for the keynote just to hear and see Jobs. I used to download them and watch them again and again.  I have never met Steve Jobs, but inside me it was like I knew him. It was like he was listening to what I wanted because his products were so intuitive that it had things you wanted as well things you never thought of but made your life so much simpler. 

Today, I am the proud owner of a MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, iPad 2, iPhone 4, Apple TV 1 & 2, AirPort Extreme, Two iPods. I am more confident, more productive, more creative, more focused, more capable (I say this in a very non-pompous way). And its all because of Steve Jobs, his vision and passion that led him to make such game changing products that the more I used it, the more capable I became. To a large extent, my identity is defined by Apple and Jobs. My friends know me as the Apple Guy. I help people with all their Apple Products queries as well convincing them to buy on. Infact, many times I have helped people in the Apple Reseller Stores much better than the employees there. And I feel proud when I do so. People call me a nerd. I am an Apple Nerd, not Nerd. And its a Mac, not a laptop or desktop, its an iPhone and not just a cell phone. 

Steve Jobs is no more with us today, but he will continue to live on forever. He will be in the hearts of all those people who's lives he touched with his products, he will be in every Apple product we use, every touch on every iPad, iPhone and iTouch, every key on the MacBooks and iMacs, because if not for him, all this would not be there, and the world would be very different.