Apple never have and never will bring anything "new" to the table. But what they do is take stuff already there, put there spin on it and make it huge. So we do have a lot to thank to apple/jobs
I want to agree, but i just can't
Apple II being the first home computer? at the time where computers back then you had to tinker and fiddle to get it to work where the Apple II worked out of the box?
I see where you are coming from though.
There did not come up with the Smart Phone (I had a Nokia N95 before that)
They did not come up with the Tablet (They were around years ago as PDA)
They did not come up with the MP3 player.
They did not come up with downloadable music. (Napster beat him to that)
What they did and what Steve Job did was took what was an average consumer product and somehow make it successful and works and somehow make you want one.
I mean other MP3 players works too, I had an iRiver, but what made the iPod better? it's not technically, there are other better sound quality players, there are cheaper players with drag and drop system (preferred by geeks), there are other more technical advance players. What let them down is design and general UI. Where others put function before form, as do a lot of tech companies. Apple seems to put Form before function. Often using yester-years' technology in a new way, their way. i.e. the Click wheel in the iPod. The Touch screen on the iPhone, the trackpad (great gestures).
Also, the little things matter. Things like Apple Express, music around the house, that is amazing, and link that to your phone as a remote as well! Air play, I can play songs from my iPhone at someone else's HiFi through Airplay without plugging in a thing except having their wifi access.
Apple also got into the mindset of more than technical people, it got into the realm of everyday consumer. It basically makes cool appliances for your house that you want.
Also, their slogan "
It Just Works". Really clever, and although not 100% true (i.e. you do need some administration on the OS), it does give the consumer that they are buying something that just works. At least on the surface, a lot of it does.
What would the world be without Steve Job though. Technically, not much, the technology would pretty much be the same. But instead of Facetime we use can webcam chat or Skype, but then we are glued to out desks. Instead of iPhone, we would be embracing another Smart phone, we would all be using windows or Linux. But you can't take iTunes away from him, after Napster there was a slight gap, studios had the upper hand after shutting Napster down but they also losing a lot of money in online piracy in digital music (still do). iTunes basically legalised digital downloads and made it easy to download a song that you want. It gives the people who has some money, but lack the technical know how of newsgroup and torrents and more over, want to stay on the legal side of things a way to get digital music in the comfort of your own chair.
You also can't take away from him, is his ability to design technologies to be cool. Computers used to be ugly, and most PC boxes still is ugly, industrial looking, something you stick under the desk. Yes, you can argue there are pretty PC cases but those are few and far between and mostly for self built. The majority are just bad, really bad.
Apple just made tech easier for the masses. It may not seem like much for people in this forum, who are pronominally technical minded, but it is a big draw for the average Joe.
