Apple Celebrates Steve Jobs’ Legacy

Today marks the tenth anniversary of the untimely passing of Apple’s legendary co-founder and erstwhile CEO, Steve Jobs, and Apple has published a rare commemorative short film on its home page reflecting upon the life of Steve Jobs and three decades of his contributions to Apple.

The 2:48 video, Celebrating Steve, hits many of the highest points of Jobs’ influence on Apple, from the introduction of the original Mac in January 1984 to the day Jobs slid the first ultra-slim MacBook Air out of a manilla envelope almost 14 years later.

More significantly, the film is effectively narrated by Jobs himself, as it’s made up entirely of a collection of inspirational things that he said over the course of his life and tenure at Apple. The video opens with some of Jobs’ words from a private 1994 interview with the Santa Clara Valley Historical Association, spoken over photos of his earliest years at Apple.

When you grow up, you tend to get told that the world is the way it is, and your life is just to live your life inside the world; try not to bash into the walls too much. But life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact, and that is, everything bound you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you. And you can change it. You can influence it. You can build your own things that other people can use.

Steve Jobs, cited from an interview with the Santa Clara Valley Historical Association

Following that, it moves into some of his most famous announcements, including:

• January 30, 1984: “I’m Steve Jobs from Apple Computer.” Jobs unveils the original Macintosh to the Boston Computer Society.
• May 6, 1998: “This is iMac. The whole thing is translucent.” Jobs shows off the first iMac.
• January 5, 2000: “Today I’m going to drop the interim title.” Jobs officially begins his tenure as Apple CEO, following his return to the helm of Apple nearly three years earlier.
• October 23, 2001: “This amazing little device holds a thousand songs.” Jobs announces the original iPod, Apple’s first “breakthrough digital device that’s not a Mac.”
• January 9, 2007: “An iPod, a phone, and an internet communicator.” — “and we are calling it ‘iPhone.’”
  

The specific announcements are also interspersed with additional quotes from Jobs at various points in his career, interspersed with images of the 2002 iMac G4 announcement, and the 2003 unveiling of the 17” and 12” aluminum PowerBook G4 models.

I think you always had to be a little bit different to buy an Apple computer, and I think the people that do buy them, they are the people that are not just out to get a job done — they’re out to change the world.

Steve Jobs at Macworld Expo ’97

What a computer is to me, is it’s the most remarkable tool that we’ve ever come up with, and it’s the equivalent of a bicycle for our minds.

Steve Jobs, Memory and Imagination: New Pathways to the Library of Congress, 1990.

It is to stand at the intersection of technology and humanity and to make something for people that want to bring this into their lives and use it for things that make them more creative, not just make them more productive.

Steve Jobs, Apple Campus Event, circa 2001-2005

The Wall Street Journal (Apple News+) also has a moving tribute by Sir Jony Ive reflecting on the man whom he once called “my closest and my most loyal friend.”

I loved how he saw the world. The way he thought was profoundly beautiful.

He was without doubt the most inquisitive human I have ever met. His insatiable curiosity was not limited or distracted by his knowledge or expertise, nor was it casual or passive. It was ferocious, energetic and restless. His curiosity was practiced with intention and rigor.

Many of us have an innate predisposition to be curious. I believe that after a traditional education, or working in an environment with many people, curiosity is a decision requiring intent and discipline.

In larger groups our conversations gravitate towards the tangible, the measurable. It is more comfortable, far easier and more socially acceptable talking about what is known. Being curious and exploring tentative ideas were far more important to Steve than being socially acceptable.

Our curiosity begs that we learn. And for Steve, wanting to learn was far more important than wanting to be right.
– Sir Jony Ive

We have a chance, if we stay focused and choose wisely, to really continue to impact people’s lives, in some small way, for the better.

Steve Jobs

In addition to the short retrospective on the life of Steve Jobs, Apple’s home page also includes a touching statement from the Jobs family.

There’s an old Wayne Gretzky quote that I love: “I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.” And we’ve always tried to do that at Apple, since the very, very beginning, and we always will. So, thank you very, very much for being a part of this.

Steve Jobs, during the original iPhone unveiling at Macworld 2007