Day 279 –  Steve Jobs – Here’s to the Crazy Ones…..

Posted by Life with Lizzi on October 8, 2011 · Leave a Comment

Thursday 7.30am, 6th October 2011.

I woke up this morning in a hotel room in Dusseldorf, the alarm ringing on my iPhone. I switched on my Macbook, to catch up with the world, and unplugged my charging iPad and packed it into my handbag. I am one of the tribe, I admit it, I LOVE Apple and Steve Jobs.

I came to Apple late in life. Having seen computers introduced in my teens, my early electronic life was focused on the world of windows and corporate PCs. Our first computer at home reflected this, a Dell bought on the internet in 1998. 8 years ago, I bought my first iPod (Generation 3) during a Far East buying trip. I still have it, as heavy and sturdy as it now looks against the newer models, it was a revelation to me, a crazy music fan, who could now hold all her cd’s on one portable electronic gadget. And even more impressively, make playlists. For a number of years we added more Apple iPods to the family, before finally making the Mac step in 2007. Wow! I was blown away, and I now moonlight constantly on my Macbook, iMac and iPad, while still being forced to use a PC in my corporate world. I guess it keeps you young though!

But it’s for many reasons that I, like so many others, love Steve Jobs and Apple. The two are intertwined for most people because of his driving vision and creative design strength that he brought to the company over the 2 very different periods that he was at the helm. For me, as primarily a music fan, visual connieseur and a shopaholic, it was the beautiful easy design of all their products. How you could turn it on, and it did everything you wanted and more. The products surprised you, and easily wove their wicked way into your life, and left you wondering how you ever managed without them before. But it was also the mind blowing way Apple created retail environments, that were just Awesome. At a time when everyone else was selling computers (considered a fuddy duddy necessity) via the internet or large out of town outlets, Steve brought Apple to the High Street. And OMG what temples to retailing they are!!!

…..

….

The Fifth Ave store in NYC is unbelievable, and every time I return to the city, I just have to enter the temple and pray to the Gods of Great Store Design. Apple pioneered lifestyle selling, and true retail experience. Where else can you get tutorials, try stuff out, speak to experts, hang out with your own stuff, oh and actually buy something, in such a cool environment. No wonder it’s also rumoured to be the biggest grossing retail outlet in the world.

So this morning as I drank my cup of tea, and shuffled around my hotel room in a rather stunned state, I like many many others out there, feel the world has lost one of it’s most original, brave and just a little bit crazy people who make this world an incredible place to live. Steve RIP. Long may  live!

……