Forbes.com
Date: October 5, 2012
Apple posted a video tribute to Steve Jobs today, commemorating the one-year anniversary of his death by saying that his legacy of creativity and high standards continues to inspire the company.
“Our values originated from Steve and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple,” CEO Tim Cook said in a “message” that appears at the close of the black-and-white video called “Remembering Steve,” which runs for a minute and 45 seconds on Apple’s website. It features outtakes from Jobs’ presentations over the years in which he talks about the “cool” and “amazing” products Apple ushered to market and his philosophy about technology.
“I’m incredibly proud of the work we are doing, delivering products that our customers love and dreaming up new ones that will delight them down the road,” Cook wrote in his 132-word note. “It’s a wonderful tribute to Steve’s memory and everything he stood for.”
Jobs co-founded Apple in 1976 with Steve Wozniak, helping to popularize the personal computer with the Apple II and then going on to redefine the industry with 1984’s Macintosh computer. He was fired by his handpicked CEO John Sculley and the board in 1985 and started a rival computing company called NeXT, which struggled to win over customers. Apple bought NeXT in December 1996, a move that prompted Jobs’ return to the company, then on the brink of bankruptcy, and led to the greatest turnaround in business history.
Under his second turn as CEO, Jobs oversaw the reinvention of the Mac product line, starting with the candy colored iMac in 1998. He moved Apple beyond personal computers into the digital media device market with the iPod music player in 2001, the smartphone market in 2007 with the iPhone and the tablet market with the iPad in 2010.
To reflect his ambition to transform Apple from a computer maker into a consumer electronics company, Jobs announced a name change from Apple Computer Inc. to simply Apple Inc. in January 2007after introducing the iPhone.
Today, Apple is the world’s most valuable company, with a market value of about $616 billion. No. 2 ranked Exxon Mobile is valued at nearly $428 billion. Google and Microsoft have been trading off for the No. 3 spot, with a market capitalization of about $251 billion each.
“One of the greatest gifts Steve gave to the world is Apple,” Cook wrote. “I hope that today everyone will reflect on his extraordinary life and the many ways he made the world a better place.”
Reflections on Steve
Here are some of those reflections from CEOs and tech executives who offered up their thoughts on what Jobs meant to them and to the industry.
- User experience matters. “He was just so focused. For him, the user experience was the main thing that mattered, the only thing that mattered. I think that there’s a lot every company can learn from that.” – Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, talking about Jobs in an interview with NBC yesterday
- Thing big, think simple and never give up. “Three days in my life stand out, thanks to Steve Jobs. One, that day in third grade I met my first Apple computer and started dreaming big. Two, that day in college I was asked to design a bike radio Steve would love, and learned how difficult simple really is. Three, that day Steve was named CEO of Apple again, and proved relentless perseverance pays off. Think big, think simple and never give up. Thank you, Steve.” – Damon Schechter, CEO of Shipwire
- Like Elvis. “Steve Jobs is the Elvis Presley of the technology industry, he will never die. Even today, his revolutionary ideas are being built upon and he continues to be a business, market and technology disruptor as well as inspiration to the start-up community and Fortune 500 companies alike. Looking back, it’s hard to believe just how much Apple got right in original iPhone and the way it set a new bar for everyone.” – Dave Fraser, CEO of Devicescape
- Assembling an A-Team. “You have to ‘think different’ to enact profound change. Steve had an innate ability to assemble an ‘A-team’ of the best engineering and creative talent in the world — and yet he was able to get them to work collaboratively toward one common goal: a product that redefines the way human beings interact. Steve Jobs will have a lasting legacy of leading and executing launch of a series of products that changed how society interacts with each other — enabling Apple to emerge as one of the most powerful and profitable companies the world has ever seen.” – Greg Peters, CEO of Zilliant
View the original article here: http://www.forbes.com/sites/connieguglielmo/2012/10/05/apple-says-greatest-tribute-to-steve-jobs-is-dreaming-up-new-products-ceos-say-he-taught-them-about-simplicity/