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What exactly did Steve Jobs do?

M

macgeek2005

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jan 31, 2006
1,098
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I'm looking for any articles or documents that explain or interpret exactly what part Steve Jobs played in whatever he did with computers and revolutions and such.

Was he behind everything that got the computer to the way it is today?

Did he single handedly bring the world from CD players to MP3 players?

Did he invent the first music player for a computer that stores all your music in it?

So coming down to the point.... what exactly did he do? What would have happened if he did not do what he did?

Thanks.
 
Steve Jobs represents Apple and therefore gets a lot of the credit for their achievements but also a lot of the flack for their faults. He has made a lot of good decisions in recent history and has in my opinion, led the company extremely well. Having said that, a lot of the credit must also go to his team of engineers, designers and marketers. :)
 
Yeah MJ makes a good point. I doubt that he is solely responsible for anything he has been credited with, however I get the impression that much of his contribution is his vision of what people want/need/will want/need and then being able to bring it all to fruition with the help of many along the way.
 
Peace said:
Steve Jobs has a pretty good knack for knowing what the computer industry wants in a computer..
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I think that sums it up pretty well.

It isn't that he took a screwdriver and some metal and made an iPod. It's that he pushed for the iPod. He pushed the Mac OS. He pushes ideas that people will go for. He recognizes that simple is better. Some agree and some don't, but you can't ignore that he has changed things.
 
GimmeSlack12 said:
It isn't that he took a screwdriver and some metal and made an iPod. It's that he pushed for the iPod. He pushed the Mac OS. He pushes ideas that people will go for. He recognizes that simple is better. Some agree and some don't, but you can't ignore that he has changed things.
Click to expand...

On a similar note, Steve Jobs (and subsequently Apple) took devices that already existed (Computers, Portable music/video players) and made them better. Not only that but Jobs and Apple got these devices to the mass public (IE: The Apple I and II were some of, if not the, first mass-marketed personal computers; the iPod is the "best" mp3 player on the market).

Also, the first version of MS office was originally released on Mac. In fact, 3 out of the first 4 versions of Office were mac versions. :) So I guess you could say that Apple even helped Microsoft a little bit in the beginning.
 
Peace said:
Steve Jobs has a pretty good knack for knowing what the computer industry wants in a computer..
Click to expand...

I think he is great at targeting a particular sector of the market and what that crowd wants and is willing to pay a premium for.

While the successful of these innovations do trickle down to Windows and Windows machines, by that time, the Apple sector expect more again. Steve tends to deliver what we want...imaginative tech in beautiful packages. And yes, I do think that he drives the company to hit those standards.
 
jelloshotsrule said:
i'm not sure one gets banned for making crazy claims about inside information....
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Correct... that's not why he was banned. And his ban is not permanent.
 
i think Steve Jobs was/is mainly a good businessman. From the wikipedia article it seems that Wozniak was the one with real ideas about computing i.e. circuit boards and such. and all steve did was see the potential and ask him co-found a company.
 
I dont give Steve Jobs credit for apples ideas. I highly doute he came up with many if any of them. That another team that does it.

What I do give him credit for is he gave apple direction again and gives them a direction to go. He is a good leader and he leading apple to where they need to go. A good leader does not need to come up with any ideas to be good at it. But they have to be good at giving a group direction to head in and a know how to deliegate task. They shouldnt have there hand in everything or tell everything how it should be done. At least to me. I always veiw a good leader as some one who can see if a path is heading in wrong direction. Lead by giving general direction and let the fine details and finer points be handed by the person who doing them.

He gave apple a general direction to head in. Something it needed becasue it didnt have a vision and that what he help apple form.

As for businessman yeah he good but he has a lot of issues that prevent him from being a great businessman. As bad as it sounds an example of a Great Businessman is Bill Gates. The good businessman will always get one of those lucky breaks but it knowing how to use that lucky break to it full potintion Jobs did that Gates did it as well.
 
Timepass said:
I dont give Steve Jobs credit for apples ideas. I highly doute he came up with many if any of them. That another team that does it.
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There are probably some he comes up with, but that number is probably the vast minority. You are correct about that. However, Apple develops far more products than make it to the market, and they make many prototypes of products before they are released... Steve Jobs is the guy that decides if a product is suited for release or not, and he pushes his teams to always make better products.
 
Chaszmyr said:
There are probably some he comes up with, but that number is probably the vast minority. You are correct about that. However, Apple develops far more products than make it to the market, and they make many prototypes of products before they are released... Steve Jobs is the guy that decides if a product is suited for release or not, and he pushes his teams to always make better products.
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see I dont even thing that. Desiding everything like that is way to hands on and general enough for a head of a company. They handle everything in a general since. If he does stuff like that then it just shows some of his huge flaws os a CEO. He can ax some ideas but I think a lot of the stuff is handled buy underlines. He pushes the company to keep moving and the other teams but apple huge so everything is done in a very general since of the world.

Like an example could be the iPod. Some past on to jobs a good idea would be lets make a hard drive MP3 player. Jobs says ok and from there he doesnt have much play in the iPod delevpoment. He may ok the final design but a lot of the stuff I dont think he makes the final call on it. Other groups do that.
 
Timepass said:
see I dont even thing that. Desiding everything like that is way to hands on and general enough for a head of a company. They handle everything in a general since. If he does stuff like that then it just shows some of his huge flaws os a CEO. He can ax some ideas but I think a lot of the stuff is handled buy underlines. He pushes the company to keep moving and the other teams but apple huge so everything is done in a very general since of the world.
Click to expand...

Different CEOs handle their job differently. I've seen a handful of interviews that suggest Steve does what I said. One that comes to mind was an interview a a few years back, where Ive said he showed Jobs his design for the new G4 iMac that looked like a slimmed down G3 iMac, and Jobs sent him back to the drawing board.

Apple employees are none for having a sort of love-hate relationship with Jobs. He goes around looking at their work, and if he doesn't like it he's not afraid to yell at them. I even had one Apple employee say to me "you always know when Steve is on campus because you can hear the yelling."
 
Steve Jobs writes every line of every Mac OS release. FACT.

Steve Jobs personally designs the circuit boards inside every Mac. FACT.

Steve Jobs handles all the Apple orders over the internet and packs each Mac into its cardboard box. FACT.

Steve Jobs does all the artwork and designs and runs the Apple website. FACT.

Now you know.
 
Steve Jobs is much more in to ideas and making them happen rather than Wozzy who is how it all works.
 
Chaszmyr said:
Different CEOs handle their job differently. I've seen a handful of interviews that suggest Steve does what I said. One that comes to mind was an interview a a few years back, where Ive said he showed Jobs his design for the new G4 iMac that looked like a slimmed down G3 iMac, and Jobs sent him back to the drawing board.

Apple employees are none for having a sort of love-hate relationship with Jobs. He goes around looking at their work, and if he doesn't like it he's not afraid to yell at them. I even had one Apple employee say to me "you always know when Steve is on campus because you can hear the yelling."
Click to expand...


hmm yeah that what I figure and yeah makes me think pretty low of him as a leader in that way. I dont think a good leader should have to go to yelling all the time. I dont think demolizing some one is the way to make them work better. But that does fit with his personallity of having a stick up his rear and his own argents will be his undoing and ultamately his failure. It has costed him heavily in the past. It was the reason apple fired him in the past (something needed to be done other wise he would of killed apple. I beleive even Jobs has stated that).
 
steve jobs decided that a personal computer belonged in the average household when they just belonged to big industry.

and that's the core of apple
 
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