The saga of Steve Jobs is the Silicon Valley creation myth writ large: launching a startup in his parents’ garage and building it into the world’s most valuable company. He didn’t invent many things outright, but he was a master at putting together ideas, art and technology in ways that invented the future. He designed the Mac after appreciating the power of graphical interphaces in a way that Xerox was unable to do, and he created the iPod after grasping the joy of having a thousand songs in your pocket in a way that Sony, which had all the assets and heritage,never could accomplish. Some leaders push innovations by being good at the big picture. Others do so by mastering details. Jobs did both, relentlessly. As a result he launched a series of products over three decades that transformed whole industries:
- The Apple 11, which took Wozniak’s circuit board and turned it into the first personal computer that was not just for hobbyists.
- The Macintosh, which began the home computer revolution and popularised graphical user interfaces.
- Toy Story and other Pixar blockbusters, which opened up the miracle of digital imagination.
- Apple stores, which reinvented the role of a store in defining a brand.
- The iPod, which changed the way we consume music.
- The iTunes Store, which saved the music industry.
- The iPhone, which turned mobile phones into music, photography, video, email, and web devices.
- The App Store,which spawned a new content-creation industry.
Steve Jobs thus became the greatest business executive of our era, the one most certain to be remembered a century from now.History will place him in the pantheon right next to Edison and Ford.More than anyone else of his time, he mad products that were completely innovative, combining the power of poetry and processors. With a ferocity that could make working with him unsettling as it was inspiring, he also built the world’s most creative company. And he was able to infuse into its DNA the design sensibilities, perfectionism, and imagination that make it likely to be , even decades from now, the company that thrives best at the intersection of artistry and technology.