I think everyone in branding envies Steve Jobs. Some turn it into adulation, others into hate. He was the ultimate spin doctor. From “we burn Pentiums to the ground” to “we love Intel” in the space of a few months. Or “we will never use Adobe Flash” to “OK, we will implement it in everything again”; most politicians would do well to study how he did it.
From the Apple IIe back in the early 80s, to my Macintosh and then the Quadra at University, I must admit I never agreed with the company’s approach to doing business. Because there was only one beneficiary: Steve Jobs! The concept of a sales channel simply didn’t exist in his mind. Up or down his supply chain everyone was milked for everything they had. 5,6 or 8 billion dollars or whatever his net worth was as he died and not a cent given to charity.
And yet the whole planet mourns. If this man was in charge of a country, he would have set his neighboring country off doing space exploration (he would keep the rights and take the credit though), we would all be earning $100 a month and he would be re-elected every time. We would all believe we are living in a golden age of a perfect life as we waited for the next version of his social policies to actually work. He would be president of the United Nations and kick everyone else out of the meetings. We would put up with his laws being practically a dictatorship; and like it too!
We should all breathe a huge sigh of relief at the passing of this genius. Because it wasn’t evil genius. Simply a megalomaniac without a real vision. Selling gadgets for people to play “Angry Birds” on, isn’t a vision. Fighting poverty in Africa, famine or cancer is a vision. Getting rich people to buy shiny hardware doesn’t change the world.
Read here about “The Other Steve Jobs: Censorship, Control and Labor Rights”
